Strings for 3/4 guitar

[Mave]

OK, might be a daft question- I'm hopefully picking up a mini squier Strat tomorrow for my son's birthday. It's used, so I'm expecting to give it a tidy up- but what strings to use? Do 3/4 guitars use the same strings as regular - 9s or 10s - or should I get something different?

[Sheetmaself]

Possibly the least qualified here to post but here goes.

My Martin acoustic which is a 3/4 guitar came with a spare set of strings and they just seem like normal ones, no markings saying for a travel guitar or 3/4 size. So from this i would presume that it doesnt matter.

[Mave]

Thanks, can you remember what gauge they were? If they were 12s or 13s then I guess that means they're the same as full size...

[V8FGO]

I have a Taylor BBT, the reccomended gauge are 12's
I would probably go with 9's in you case.

[Sheetmaself]

Mave said:

Thanks, can you remember what gauge they were? If they were 12s or 13s then I guess that means they're the same as full size...

Sorry i cant, the guitar is in Japan at the moment and i am in th UK, if you can wait a week or so i will find out, if not i can ask my mate to nip into the house and take a look.

[UncleDave]

Yep just normal strings for a 3/4 will be fine, the smaller size just means you'll have to snip a bit more off the end... Gauge wise, 10s are probably the standard but if he's just started learning 9s might not be a bad idea as the slightly thinner strings are usually a bit easier to learn with and easier for smaller fingers.

If the guitar has been recently set up by the previous owner it may be worth sticking to the gauge that's on there at the minute, keep things in check and means you're less likely to need it setting up for a good while.

[Mave]

Thanks guys. If the strings are a bit manky I guess I'll just put on a regular set of 9s then as I've got a few sets in the house and no music shops nearby ;-)

[singlecoil]

If it was a full scale guitar then I would recommend 8-38 for a beginner, but in this case 9 to 42 will be fine. As the scale is shorter the tension and therefore the effort to fret the notes will be lower.

[Mave]

Well, ended up buying it, sounds surprisingly good! One of the machine heads is broken so it's an excuse to put on some fender jobbies, it's candy apple red and son #2's favourite colour is green so I might need to strip off the paint and respray it in cellulose surf green. Is it wrong to put some spare hot rails in it? :-)

[singlecoil]

Mave said:

Well, ended up buying it, sounds surprisingly good! One of the machine heads is broken so it's an excuse to put on some fender jobbies, it's candy apple red and son #2's favourite colour is green so I might need to strip off the paint and respray it in cellulose surf green. Is it wrong to put some spare hot rails in it? :-)

You are going to need some pretty vicious stripper for that.

Much better to key the existing surface and paint over it.

[Mave]

singlecoil said:

Mave said:

Well, ended up buying it, sounds surprisingly good! One of the machine heads is broken so it's an excuse to put on some fender jobbies, it's candy apple red and son #2's favourite colour is green so I might need to strip off the paint and respray it in cellulose surf green. Is it wrong to put some spare hot rails in it? :-)

You are going to need some pretty vicious stripper for that.

Much better to key the existing surface and paint over it.

Can't I just use a hot air stripper? It worked on a telecaster I resprayed, I assumed the paint system would be the same? I was amazed how much paint came off the Tele (over 1mm thick in places!) and how much nicer it sounded acoustically afterwards :-)

[singlecoil]

Mave said:

singlecoil said:

Mave said:

Well, ended up buying it, sounds surprisingly good! One of the machine heads is broken so it's an excuse to put on some fender jobbies, it's candy apple red and son #2's favourite colour is green so I might need to strip off the paint and respray it in cellulose surf green. Is it wrong to put some spare hot rails in it? :-)

You are going to need some pretty vicious stripper for that.

Much better to key the existing surface and paint over it.

Can't I just use a hot air stripper? It worked on a telecaster I resprayed, I assumed the paint system would be the same? I was amazed how much paint came off the Tele (over 1mm thick in places!) and how much nicer it sounded acoustically afterwards :-)

It depends on what it was painted with originally. but normally guitars are painted with chemically setting two pack paints, quite often polyester, these days more likely polyurethane.

Personally I don't interest myself with how solid electric guitars sound acoustically. If anything, a lively acoustic sound from an electric is indicative of a guitar with poor sustain.

[Mave]

singlecoil said:

It depends on what it was painted with originally. but normally guitars are painted with chemically setting two pack paints, quite often polyester, these days more likely polyurethane.

Personally I don't interest myself with how solid electric guitars sound acoustically. If anything, a lively acoustic sound from an electric is indicative of a guitar with poor sustain.

Guess it depends on why a guitar doesn't sound lively - if it's because all the energy is staying in the wood and contributing to sustain, great. If it's all going into this big thick layer of damping then I suspect it'll have a poor tone and poor sustain. Anyhow, thanks for the feedback, I might try an area under the scratchplate first to see whether it's easy to get the paint off. If not, as you suggest, I'll blow over the top of it. ;-)

[singlecoil]

Mave said:

singlecoil said:

It depends on what it was painted with originally. but normally guitars are painted with chemically setting two pack paints, quite often polyester, these days more likely polyurethane.

Personally I don't interest myself with how solid electric guitars sound acoustically. If anything, a lively acoustic sound from an electric is indicative of a guitar with poor sustain.

Guess it depends on why a guitar doesn't sound lively - if it's because all the energy is staying in the wood and contributing to sustain, great. If it's all going into this big thick layer of damping then I suspect it'll have a poor tone and poor sustain. Anyhow, thanks for the feedback, I might try an area under the scratchplate first to see whether it's easy to get the paint off. If not, as you suggest, I'll blow over the top of it. ;-)

Jimi Hendrix always seemed to get good tone and sustain, and his guitars would have been finished in Fullerplast and polyester of sufficient thickness to get the glass smooth finish that Fender guitars of that era exhibited.

[Mave]

singlecoil said:

Jimi Hendrix always seemed to get good tone and sustain, and his guitars would have been finished in Fullerplast and polyester of sufficient thickness to get the glass smooth finish that Fender guitars of that era exhibited.

I suspect Jimi Hendrix would have got good tone and sustain out of a scaffolding plank! ;-)

[singlecoil]

Mave said:

singlecoil said:

Jimi Hendrix always seemed to get good tone and sustain, and his guitars would have been finished in Fullerplast and polyester of sufficient thickness to get the glass smooth finish that Fender guitars of that era exhibited.

I suspect Jimi Hendrix would have got good tone and sustain out of a scaffolding plank! ;-)

Maybe so, but I really can't see how a rigid paint system could possibly be damping the string vibrations. I accept though that if you feel it does, then AFAYAC it does.