String gauge for my Martin

[Bipolarsmile]

Hello everyone,

I recently purchased a Martin DRS 2 and while playing i noticed its extremely Hard to press on the strings,playing bridge chords or really just playing above 20 min is just plain painful as if i just started playing all over again.
I work a lot so i kind of neglected my hobby of playing the guitar,so i thought i Just lost shape.
And then i found out that my martin has 0.13 strings,i usually playing my Electric gibson with 0.10 and i used to play on 0.11 at most on my old acoustic Which broke,and i thought that those strings were hard to play(the 0.11).
So now i wondered if i even can change the strings to 0.11 or at least 0.12 Without it requiring a setup?

Thanks ahead,
And sorry for my English,hopefully you got my meaning with this story/question.

[Wade Hampton]

Going from electric guitar strings to an acoustic guitar strung with mediums is generally going to be challenging at first, regardless, but it sounds as though your Martin guitar needs a proper set up, as well. Are there any experienced guitar repair techs in your area who can get the guitar playing its best for you?


Wade Hampton Miller

[DenverSteve]

Welcome to the forum. You can certainly change your string gauge. I would probably go with SP4200 12's but you can certainly try 11's if that works for you. Once you decide on your strings, take it to your guitar dude and have it set up for the new strings if necessary.

[Yamaha Man]

I just put a set on Martin Life Span Phosphorus Bronze Custom Lights (.011 Gauge) on my martin D-35....that's what I'm buying from now on.

[Bipolarsmile]

First of all thanks for the responses.
And i just wanted to make sure,i can change the strings to any from 0.11-0.13 without Requiring a setup for my guitar to do so or risk damaging my guitar in anyway by Changing the strings?

Originally Posted by Bipolarsmile

First of all thanks for the responses.
And i just wanted to make sure,i can change the strings to any from 0.11-0.13 without Requiring a setup for my guitar to do so or risk damaging my guitar in anyway by Changing the strings?

No damage will result, but it's possible that you might need to slightly adjust the truss rod, since the lighter strings won't be putting as much tension on the neck, causing it to perhaps slightly flatten out. Check and measure the relief with the original strings on before you change them, then measure afterwards. I'm guessing that there will be little discernible difference, but it's worth a look.

Tutorial: http://www.fretnotguitarrepair.com/r.../truss-rod.php

[saxonblue]

You are not going to damage your guitar in any way, shape or form particularly if going to a lighter gauge, if anything the decreased tension on the neck will lower the action somewhat, by how much....who knows?

As was suggested whatever tension you like get the guitar set up for it. If the area of difficulty is on the frets closest to the nut then it is probably nut height not string tension giving you grief.

Edit: oops, willie beat me to it.

[Wade Hampton]

Bi, you can certainly string the guitar with lighter gauge strings, but bear in mind that on an acoustic guitar the tone is generated mechanically by the tension of the strings, nothing else. You might find that you don't like the sound of the Martin as much when you put .011's on it - in fact, it's almost certainly not going to sound as rich and full.

My recommendation is that you experiment with string gauge: try playing the mediums for a while, then after a week or a few days go to lights, with a .012 high E. Then try extra lights with a .011 high E. Try to keep a mental image of how the tone is with each different string gauge.

Once you've figured out which strings sound best on the guitar, THEN get it set up and dialed in by a guitar repair tech. In other words, don't base your string gauge choice on how easy the guitar is to play, but by how it sounds. Once you figure that out, a good guitar tech can make even heavier gauge strings play quite easily.

Short version: figure out which gauge strings sounds best to your ear for the music you play, THEN get the guitar optimized for those strings. That will give you the best of both worlds for both tone and playability.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Bipolarsmile]

Thanks a lot of the replies guys.
After checking with the local guitar shop it seems that i need a setup nonetheless.
The guitar shop owner said that my guitar is over humidified and showed me that the guitar neck got curved,and i noticed strange bulges on the top and especially the back of the guitar.
Which is really upsetting since its a new guitar and this kinda breaks my heart.
The guitar shop owner said that there is nothing to be done about the bulges,but that it is merely aesthetic.
He suggested i will keep the guitar on my stand away from the window and in a dry place for a week,which is what got the the guitar over humidified in my opinion,since its raining and i noticed there was some mold on the wall behind the stand.
And he said that after a week when the guitar is all dry i should bring it in for a setup and i could play the guitar for many more years with no issues.
I could barely afford this guitar so i am really hopeful that the guitar didn't get permanently damaged.
Sorry for the long post.
I just wanted to know from your experience with these kind of issues if there's a chance for the guitar to be playable with no issues or is the guitar "dead"?
Would really appreciate your feedback.

[Kip Carter]

Listen... most new guitars could use a setup just to get it zoned into the player... letting the tech know you're coming from the electric world to acoustic will give them additional info to help the set it up 'for you'.

It's been mentioned but when you take it to get setup get some good quality lights put on it and you will be amazed at what comes back to you.

Remember that owning a guitar is kind of like owning a car, there's going to be some maintenance and care involved. Now that you know about humidity issues you can get the guitar back in proper shape. You should also think about learning to do your own setup. Some people are scared to do it themselves but really, if you're at all handy with your... well, hands, you can do it. Read up on it at frets.com, that place has all the information you need to do everything yourself. I never take my guitars to luthiers, that gets expensive, and they don't always get it right either. You can adjust the truss-rod yourself, no one should ever have to pay someone to do that, it's so easy to do. It sounds like you don't have a lot of money to be tossing around so think about learning to do all the care for it yourself. It's also very rewarding to be able to fend for yourself.

My advice on the strings: Get the 11s. Strings are fairly cheap. Most guitars have recommended gauges and you'll notice that almost all come out of the factory with 12s and occasionally 11s. People use 13s when they have developed the strength to use 13s, or they want a deeper sound. But I'll tell you that the difference isn't that great and really, it depends on the guitar too because 13s may sound great on one model and not so great on another. I have a guitar (SWD) that sounds worse as you go up from 11s. My other one, the J-45 sounds thinner with 11s and I keep 12s on it. If you go from 13s to 11s you may indeed need to tweak the truss-rod to keep the guitar sounding correct, but remember, that's really easy. Read up on how to do it first. It's the measurement you need to learn how to do, adjusting the truss-rod is as simple as turning a screw, you have to know how to check the results is all. Basically you capo the first fret, hold down the E string at the 13th or 14th fret and measure the distance from the fret to the bottom of the low-E string at the 7th fret. You want just a tiny bit of clearance, as little as you can get away with.