RAISING THE TONE Stringing Along
in the first of a series on strings and their influence on tone, editor Jamie meets blues-rock heavyweight Philip sayce
“People don’t talk about injuries very much… Not everybody has hands as strong as Stevie Ray Vaughan, right?”
If you’ve ever seen Philip Sayce perform live, you’ll know just how ferociously he attacks the instrument, leaning into giant bends and setting off avalanches of cascading licks during his virtuosic solos. So who better to kick off a series of articles on strings and tone than Sayce – who must surely be one of the world’s most demanding players when it comes to tone, durability and feel? Sayce is best known as a Strat player, so we kick things off by asking what his go-to choice of strings is…
“I use D’Addario strings and I pivot between 11s and 10s; 0.011 to 0.054 or 0.010 to 0.054,” he explains.“And really that just depends on how many shows we’re doing, depending on how things feel. If you play five or six shows in a row, and you’ve been playing hard, by that sixth show you might be feeling like, ‘Man, I’m getting a little tired,’ and that’s just reality. And I think listening to your body is really important.
“One of the things I’ve noticed is that people don’t talk about injuries in guitar playing very much. But it’s a real thing, man. Especially if you’re following in the footsteps of somebody who’s a heavy blues player with a lot of bending, a lot of vibrato – and you’re in that world, getting things like bigger frets and figuring out what is the right fit for your body makeup. Not everybody has hands as strong as Stevie Ray Vaughan, right?” says Sayce.
Like many seasoned guitarists who are interested in the finer points of tone, Sayce also draws attention to the fact there are a few legendary players who achieve huge tone with light strings.“I mean Billy Gibbons, as we know, uses a light gauge and has the biggest sound on the planet. So does Brian May… It goes on and on. So it’s not about trying to brag to your friends,like,‘Hey,I’m using 13s,’you know? Because do you want to play for the next 40, 50 years of your life? Or do you want to play for five years and then perhaps have to stop because you’ve fucked yourself up?”he asks. It’s a point worth considering for anyone suffering from string-gauge machismo, especially if you happen to gig a lot. Sayce also recommends players do as athletes do, preparing properly for a performance.
“If you feel good playing 13s and your hands are like a bricklayer’s then do it,” Sayce says. “But something I think is very important is conditioning your hands properly, taking care of them, warming up, cooling down. If it’s wintertime and then you jump in and you just play with your hands cold, you could really hurt yourself.Anyway, for me, it’s always D’Addario strings, and I change based on how I’m feeling, between 10s and 11s. But 11s and up, always, on a National [resonator], you know? Also, with a Gibson, maybe you can get away with a slightly heavier gauge because [of the looser feel].”
GaugingThereaction
This brings us to another curious aspect of strings. Sometimes the quirks of individual guitars mean that you’ll have to use a whole different set of strings to what you might normally use on that model in order for it to give its best.
“I have guitars where I’ll put a different gauge on because it just happens to suit that particular guitar, or tune the whole thing lower. One of my guitars I tune down to D, because that’s where it sounds crazy: it just feels amazing. By comparison, I have an Eric Johnson [Strat] with a quarter-sawn neck that always feels a little tighter to play than my other Strats. I’ve read that because of that quarter-sawn aspect it can feel a little tighter, maybe. I don’t dislike that, but I think maybe there is a little difference there.”
Sayce also points out that your string choice influences not just how your guitar feels and sounds, but also how other parts of your rig perform further down the signal chain. “I really feel like certain pedals react differently to a change in the gauge of your strings,”adds Sayce.“It sounds weird,but a set of 11s or 12s can sound a little darker almost, or a little warmer – they have a different patina to them. I remember putting a set of nines on a guitar, and with fuzz I was like,‘Fuck yes, that sounds good.’Not better, just different, you know?”
However, he also adds a note of caution on getting too wrapped up in the nuances, especially when it comes to playing live.“Last night I watched Kenny Wayne Shepherd and he was probably playing on 10s or 11s. But if you can tell that standing in the audience then you’re a fucking genius, you know what I mean? Can you really tell? I mean, he’s probably using heavy strings, but I don’t know. I wouldn’t know if Brian May used eights or 12s, when it comes down to it: his sound is so good, it’s like it doesn’t matter.”