Tips for Choosing Guitar Strings

Currently a member of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, Christopher, Chris, C. Babcock, MD works as an oral and maxillofacial surgeon for Louisville Oral Surgery. Dr. Christopher C. Babcock also keeps bees and plays guitar.

Picking out which style and gauge of guitar strings can be a very personal choice for a guitar player. Although seemingly unimportant, the guitar strings have a big impact on tone. The gauge of the string is measured by the diameter of the string in thousandth of an inch. Although the exact tuning of each string can vary by player and tuning, the range of gauge across the strings can make the same guitar sound very different. Lighter gauges are generally easier to play, and larger gauges take more force.

Another big factor in guitar strings is the material used. The material generally ranges from type of guitar. Acoustic guitars use silk and steel, phosphor bronze, and bronze. Usually preferred by jazz or folk players, silk and steel are called such because they have a core of steel but are wound in silver or copper plated silk. Bronze are the brightest sounding strings, but also the most prone to losing their iconic sound. Therefore, phosphor bronze strings add phosphor to keep the strings from wearing out so quickly, but this addition causes the strings to have a less bright tone.