would changing to a heavier gauge damage my guitar?

trebor · Post by **trebor** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 11:42 am

hello everyone
i have a d16 gt and ive been playing extra lights on it since i got it, (a little less than a year ago). when i first got it, it had martin mediums on though... now i think i want to switch back to medium gauge strings coz i keep breaking the fucking extra lights ( i think its my saddle), so do you think that after using extra lights for months, the neck of my guitar may get damaged or somehting if i switch back to mediums?????

thanks

infoghost · Post by **infoghost** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 11:47 am

No, it's shouldn't hurt anything. Most Martins are made for medium and below. You *may* have to adjust the truss rod, since the tension on the neck will be a little tighter. If you never had the guitar specifically set up for lights, you should be fine.

trebor · Post by **trebor** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 12:13 pm

yupp i never had the guitar set up for lights,, the action on it is pretty high and it originally came with mediums...
what is a truss rod adjustment, and how would i know if i need one?

Locarius · Post by **Locarius** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 12:50 pm

Just to be careful, you could go up one guage at a time... Next time switch to lights, then to med's.

gravesRR7 · Post by **gravesRR7** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 4:06 pm

and if you use heavier gauges, change the string more often, for a precaution, i learned the hard way

busted stuff · Post by **busted stuff** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 4:34 pm

why do you need to change the strings more often....
?

gravesRR7 · Post by **gravesRR7** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 7:38 pm

because as strings get old they lose thier tone, and you have to tighten them up. thats why you have to periodically tune your guitar, especially if you have oily dirty hands. and the more you tighten the string, the more tention you put on the neck of the guitar. so if you are using a heavier gauge string, then when you tighten it up as the strings wear out, you are putting even more amounts of tention that you possibly could with a light gauge.
the heavier the gauge string, the more tention there is, and when they get old, there is even more tention. so by changing them frequently you minimize the tention needed to produce good tone, and put less stress on the neck

DT · Post by DT » Fri Jan 23, 2004 9:06 pm

maybe youre right, but im pretty sure that unless the string is thinning significantly over the course of its life, the tension required to keep it vibrating at a certain frequency is constant... if your strings go flat its because they lost tension from stretching out or slipping, and retuning them shoudl just bring them back to the right tension- if im way off on this someone correct me, but i dont see how that would be wrong.

DT · Post by DT » Fri Jan 23, 2004 9:16 pm

ok nevermind i guess if the strings lost elasticity you would have to compensate for it with higher tension... but i still dont see how strings could lose so much elasticity that the increase in tension to stay in pitch could damage a guitar... what happened to yours graves?

led_zep123 · Post by **led_zep123** » Sat Jan 24, 2004 12:17 am

if the string stretches, which is what happens, it gets a little flat in tone...because it is no longer tight. so if you tune it up to the origonal tuning, it will be the same tension.

switching strings wont hurt yot guitar...just dont go and play heavy metal riffs on an acoustic...

SgtM · Post by **SgtM** » Sat Jan 24, 2004 10:28 pm

I just switched to mediums on my Yamaha FG-340.. as a precaution, I tuned the strings down a full step, and just use the capo more often

led_zep123 · Post by **led_zep123** » Sat Jan 24, 2004 11:09 pm

that is not a bad idea....i do that when i have to tune down steps

Locarius · Post by **Locarius** » Sun Jan 25, 2004 10:08 pm

Yamaha necks are crazy stiff and durable... I have played heavy strings on mine with no adverse effects.

gravesRR7 · Post by **gravesRR7** » Sun Jan 25, 2004 11:07 pm

okay, maybe i'm wrong. thats what the guy at the guitar shop told me. my guitar started to buzz very bad at the 12th fret, and he told me that it was because of what i stated above. if it gets to the point where your bridge is coming up at the bottom (to the point where you can slip a thick piece of paper under it), then your guitar is damadged pretty badly, and it is very hard to fix a warped body on a guitar. but mine was also bady dry, so maybe that contributed also.

busted stuff · Post by **busted stuff** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 8:28 pm

I'm with dreaming tree on this one.... The buzzing could be from a number of things..... The only way you would put more stress on the neck is if the stings were actually losing mass, which is not really the case.