Q&A: Strings

Q:  brader! need ur advice on strings..

 A: The short answer would be whatever works for you.

Sejak aku memula main gitar dulu, memacam jenis tali aku dah try. Gibson, Fender, Dean Markley, GHS, D’Addario, Ernie Ball dan macam-macam cap tali aku try.

And seinggat aku, dulu-dulu aku suke pakai tali yang high E dia 0.08 punya. Now I prefer 0.09.

Until now, I personally like this particular one.

Ernie Ball Super Slinky. Yang ni tali dia yang kedua paling halus. Yang paling halus (0.08) is called Extra Slinky. Aku ade gak beli Hybrid Slinky, tapi tak try lagi. Hybrid Slinky first three strings dia sama ngan super slinky, but the other 3 tebal sket. They have many different combinations.

So, my advice would be, try as many strings as you can. Find what works best for you. Tali yang aku pakai ni maybe is not the one that gives me the best tone. But I’m comfortable with it. Tangan aku bukan kuat pon.

And kalo ko dok kat Malaysia, aku tak sure tali ape yang bagus, yang durable. The thing is humidity hurts your strings. Mase aku kat Malaysia dulu kalo tak main beberapa hari jek dah karat. Here in California, I can keep the same set of strings for a long time sebab udara sini kering. Kalau tak main bertaun-taun pon tahan. Many times aku tuka sebab dah tak sedap, not because they break. So, you may want to consider durability gak. In fact, for you guys tali gitar ni quite expensive I think. So you don’t want something that doesn’t last very long. And aku rasa because of the humidity, you have to clean the strings often with rubbing alcohol once in a while.

 

Lagi satu yang berkaitan ngan string yang aku nak sentuh is kalo gitar tu punya bridge jenis Floyd Rose, kalo ko tukar guage tali tu, you have to readjust the springs at the back of the guitar. Because the tension of the strings will be different, so the springs have to be adjusted to balance it to keep it floating properly. Even kalau temolo biasa pon, you may need to adjust the spring to keep it seating. But kalo Floyd Rose, you definitely have to do it.

And one last thing, bile baru lepas tukar tali, make sure you stretch the strings. Stretch bukan setakat main cam biasa jek. You have to really stretch it, tapi jangan sampai putus la kan. The reason is tali baru memang tak boleh maintain tuning. That’s why bile aku sebut pasal string last time aku cakap aku nak give it a few days before aku sure yang strings aku boleh maintain tuning. Even dah stretch pon it will still take some time for it to maintain the tuning well enough for me to be confident in it.

Cara nak stretch tali tu, first, tune to the correct tuning. Pastu stretch tali tu. Pastu check tuning balik. You’ll see the the tuning will be way off. Retune it. Stretch again, check the tuning again. It will still be off, but most likely not as bad as before. Keep doing it until the tuning converge.

Oh, sorry, that’s not the last thing. Satu lagi, kalau ko punya gitar Floyd Rose bridge, tengok video ni cammana nak tune Floyd Rose dengan mudah. I’m telling you, I’ve had my Floyd Rose bridge for a long time. And I’m a mechanical engineer, I can explain many things about guitar from physics point of view. But I didn’t know about that method until recently. And IT WORKS,  I’m not sure how, but it works.