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Joe Bonamassa Forum → Joe's Guitars, Amps and Gear → Is Your Guitar "G" Heavy?
Guitar World interviewed Roger Mayer about the secrets of Jimi Hendrix's guitar setup. In the interview Roger talks about putting on a lower guage G-string on Jimi's guitar. It has something to do with balancing the sound. Check it out:
http://www.guitarworld.com/interview-ro … itar-setup
Has anyone taken the time to try this at home? If so, what were the results?
I think they did a lot of drugs in the 60's too. The only benifit I could see is blues guys bending that g string a lot would make it slightly eaiser on the finger doing the bending.
It could simply be a string tension thing, or just talk between a wound G (like on an acoustic) or a plain unwrapped G string???
will have to read the artcile 
I think this is similar to what Joe does with the nylon saddles on his unwound strings - take away some of the tinniness of the sound.
Apparently Jimi also cut a notch on the 15th fret of his guitar under the G string so he could get that scratchy sound at the intro of 'Foxy Lady'... sounds like Jimi did a lot of funky things to his guitars and amps...
After reading this article, it is complete arbitrary nonsense. Too many questions and not enough answers.
1. So why did Meyer or Hendrix feel they needed to go to a plain .15?
2. What is Meyer talking about when he says the sound of the guitar is very G heavy if a .17 is used?
3. If "SRV" used 13's he must have been VERY G Heavy... still what does that mean? It worked for him.
"You should always remember that, because many, many times people use a set of strings that are completely imbalanced and they just don't sound that good. Most people would say a .010 to .013 is the correct jump. And the .015 is much better for the G than a .017. An .015 squares out at .225 and .017 is 289. So you're going to get 28 percent more output just with a two-pound different in string size.”
4. Why is Meyer talking about "string output”? Needs more clarification. Louder? Longer lasting notes? We have zero idea.
5. What does “imbalanced and they just don’t sound that good” mean... like they go too dull or bright or what is it?
6. Mayer says an important part of Hendrix's sound was due to his use of carefully selected string gauges, which evened out the guitar's response from string to string. "Evened out the response" in what way?
The answer? Voodoo.
You know somebody on here who just read this is going to try it..
You know somebody on here who just read this is going to try it..
the lemmings are out there.
Why listen to this guy? He's not Jimi!
I wonder if he believes his own BS.
Jimi he ain't...
moral of the article? STAY AWAY FROM RED SPOTLIGHTS! Man there is a lot of garbage out there. From the saturation in discussions of "how to get so and so's tone" to "this is a 'new' take on the tubescreamer"... but this article has got to have more silly statements and overhyping of one person's contribution (mayer himself) to the hendrix sound, and so many blanket statements, that it really takes the cake. Worst, article, ever... should be a criminal thing to publish those (I know i know freedom of speech, so it is ok).
I'd love for anyone to find facts in this rubbish article.
DO you think they just went ahead and published it simply because they think anything this guy says is pure gold?
I'd love for anyone to find facts in this rubbish article.
DO you think they just went ahead and published it simply because they think anything this guy says is pure gold?
yep. i think you nailed it.
DO you think they just went ahead and published it simply because they think anything this guy says is pure gold?
They published it because the guy's semi-famous, and because Guitar World ain't Popular Mechanics (where you're required to, you know, prove stuff)...
To be honest, it sounds to me like the kind of thing a salesperson says when they don't have what you're asking for but are trying to sell you something "even better." Frankly, if Mr. Mayer knew this "secret" all this time and is only telling us about it NOW, someone should go kick his secret-keepin' English behind... 
Never heard of him till now, I'll look out for his English behind. You never know where it's been. Don't want to either...
I'm curious no more!
As someone who was around a lot of big BOOM-BOOMS in the Marine Corp I have lost considerable hearing in my left ear and some in my right (rock n roll had nothing whatsoever to do with the loss) and I have tinnitus as well. My audiologist once told me that certain people have the ability to hear certain frequencies better than others and that may explain why they hear the G-string as more pronounced and therefore, try to find ways to reduce the frequency.
Take the shrill of a nagging wife, does that frequency stand out above the play-by-play announcer of a baseball game? Rhetorical question, no need to answer.
Take the shrill of a nagging wife, does that frequency stand out above the play-by-play announcer of a baseball game? Rhetorical question, no need to answer.
Yeah, that little disclaimer isn't going to save you from the "nagging wife's" wrath if she sees this...
I, for one, would LOVE to have a wife with a nice pronounced (even heavy?) G-String.
sorry, can't help but love g-string humor 
I thought smaller was better for the wives g string. Why leave imagination on the table?
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