https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/ Guitar Noise Discussion Board en-US Thu, 04 Jun 2026 07:14:59 +0000 wpForo 60 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/#post-73375 Thu, 21 Oct 2004 23:33:17 +0000 Guitar Players Discussion RollnROCK89 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/#post-73375 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/#post-73346 Thu, 21 Oct 2004 19:25:46 +0000
My $0.01...

-Laz]]> Guitar Players Discussion Dan Lasley https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/#post-73346 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/#post-73336 Thu, 21 Oct 2004 18:42:52 +0000 Guitar Players Discussion Ricochet https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/#post-73336 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/#post-73323 Thu, 21 Oct 2004 16:51:37 +0000
I had the same thought that if I made the acoustic tougher to play it would make the electric easier. So I put 13's on it and made the necessary adjustments (nut and truss rod). Initially it made the electric "feel" easier to play but two things happened.

1) I started having trouble fretting the acoustic around the first and second fret and especially with barr chords. By the way, the height at the nut was good.

2) I started playing the electric too hard and actually caused it to go out of tune pretty quickly plus it did not sound good. Kind of like doing constant bends.

So, what I did was went from 9's to 10's on the electric and back to 12's on the acoustic and both sound good. I did lower the action on the acoustic also but just to the point where I was not loosing sound level and intonation which means it is still pretty high compared to the electric. By the way, the 13's impacted the intonation a good bit on the acoustic also which is not easy to adjust.

I just found a reasonable compromise between the two so transition does not take too long.]]> Guitar Players Discussion Nils https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/#post-73323 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/#post-73322 Thu, 21 Oct 2004 15:58:33 +0000
BTW, medium electric gauge is not the same as medium acoustic gauge.

As far as the difficulty of playing goes, one's hands do get stronger. So unless the guitar/string combo is a real cheese slicer, one usually gets used to playing it, especially if it has a great timbre. The other thing newer players often don't realize is that a different feeling guitar will often inspire one to play differently. This is one reason I have a small collection of different types of electrics. Each one works best for certain playing styles. Same is true for acoustics.

Boring, but on-point story: When I first started playing, one of my friends (also new player) had his acoustic strung with lights. We thought it was a great guitar -- easy to play; nice and clear for fingerpicking. We played in the church folk group (mostly to meet girls), and the guy who led it was a 35-year-old singer/songwriter type with a strong booming acoustic style and a voice to match. When he heard my friend's guitar, he couldn't stop himself from telling us how weak and thin it sounded. And he was right. We were more concerned with ease of playing than the actual sound of the guitar. Of course, I now realize the choir leader was playing a Gibson Hummingbird -- it was tough for my pal's lesser guitar to complete with that.

-Greg]]> Guitar Players Discussion gnease https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/#post-73322 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/#post-73294 Thu, 21 Oct 2004 11:40:32 +0000
If I were you I would rethink this. I remember reading an article (I think on the Rolling Stones Keith Richards) and his one tip for budding guitarists was "use lighter guage strings!".

My worry is that by putting heavier strings on, you will not get the most out of your acoustic and will therefore defeat the object of the exercise.

Why not start on lights, and try a slightly heavier guage once you've been playing it a while?

Also worth remembering that some acoustics do not like a big change in guage.

Cheers

Matt]]> Guitar Players Discussion mattguitar https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/#post-73294 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/#post-73278 Thu, 21 Oct 2004 06:23:17 +0000 Guitar Players Discussion RollnROCK89 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/#post-73278 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/#post-73274 Thu, 21 Oct 2004 04:59:14 +0000
D'Angelico sells a .014-.060" set, and for dropped tunings heavier ones are commonly used. I have .016-.056" Martin Bluegrass Resonator Guitar strings on my Tricone, which is normally tuned in Open D, Open G or some variant thereof. I've tuned those strings up to standard tuning, Open E and Open C without breaking anything, but it scares the willies out of me to do it. That guitar's got a really beefy neck, though!]]> Guitar Players Discussion Ricochet https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/#post-73274 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/#post-73272 Thu, 21 Oct 2004 04:47:12 +0000 Guitar Players Discussion RollnROCK89 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/#post-73272 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/#post-73271 Thu, 21 Oct 2004 04:30:31 +0000
Of course, if it comes set up for lighter strings, it may well need a truss rod adjustment. That's no big deal.]]> Guitar Players Discussion Ricochet https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/putting-13s-on-an-acoustic/#post-73271