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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on June 28, 2015 at 12:44pm

I prefer a low action on a fretted guitar, so in order to slide it takes a bit of tension... I generally use "medium:" gauge strings on a 25" scale... .045, .035, .026 is what I'm using now... Before I was using .042, .030, .022, as listed by CBGitty in the knowledge article:  http://www.cigarboxguitar.com/knowledge-base/open-g-gdg-tuning-on-y...

I always played my regular acoustic guitar with lights strings...  but I like the heavier gauge strings on my CBG's...  Neither are bad!  Just different...

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on June 28, 2015 at 1:33pm

Harrison Withers did a pretty good blog on this a couple of years ago Tom,you might search for it here or at hcw guitars

http://hcw3.com/

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on June 29, 2015 at 8:35am

It...depends.

Scale length, string diameter, tuning, personal preference, stylistic considerations, all play a part.

There is no single answer, only opinions, variables and calculations.

1/4" steel cable strung over 30-50 feet gives a nice deep tone...

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Permalink Reply by Bad Finger (Eric) on June 29, 2015 at 9:29am

I find that I choose one of slidy, spanky, slappy or bendy.  I think I'm on my 4th set of strings on my Sawzall box resonator.  Originally I was open G with Ernie Ball Power Slinky strings, but then I bumped up to John Pearse medium Resonators (59-16) and they will make your left hand scream in pain and produce the nicest calluses on your finger tips.  They sound great with a brass slide.  You have to be a machine to play them and forget bending too much without forceful intent.   I'm working my way back down now.  I think I have an 11 on the high D string, a 16 for the B and an 18 for the G.  The low G and D strings are still 59 and I think 46, but I plan on taking them down to maybe 42 and 36.

So yeah.  Guess I didn't give you much of an answer.

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Permalink Reply by Scott W on June 30, 2015 at 1:20am

I am not much of a player -- I play around. But I prefer lighter tension and have settled on the Fender 3/4 scale (22.5" I think) and love the Martin extra light strings. They are as smooth as silk and allow for very nimble fretting

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on July 1, 2015 at 12:44am

Thank to all for the responses. I would have responded more promptly except I had the strangest experience. For the past two days, ever time I tried to pull up CBN on my browser (or any browser) I got a "browser timed out" error. Tried multiple computers and devices from home, got the same thing. Went to a public Wifi point and go in fine on my laptop. It was like my provider had blocked the site or something. Never had this problem before. Spent a hour on Chat with the provider and they provided no resolution. Then, magically, it's all okay this morning..............Strange.

Glad to be back.

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