G string....why why why do you not want to play nice?

[Mike R.]

Why does the G string sound so crappy compared to the others?

Why does it not ring as nice, sustain as long, and generally not give a crap about how it performs?

It is just the bad boy of guitar strings?

Specifics?

I just had a new bone nut (and some other work) done on my R7.

New strings and...E good, A good, D good, G ???, B good, E good...

What causes this phenomena?

 

[Birddog]

My G strings are cantankerous because they take the bulk of my bending abuse. Very resentful of the E's and B's who rarely get a full note bend, and then only gently so.

I can't blame the little guys, really.

 

[BurstMeUp]

It is my VERY unprofessional opinion that the extreme angle from the nut to the G string's tuning post is the ROOT of the "G-String Curse", and all Les Paul tuning headaches!!

I have purchased over a dozen new Historics over the past 4 years, and NOT ONE of them had a properly cut nut!! ... NOT ONE! The G-string never stayed in tune - ping, ting, ping.

"O suffer the children of LesPaulis! ... May they flourish in the land of eternal tuned e-strings!" (LesterPaulis 2560 b.c.) :wah

 

[Black58]

The guitar in general and it's "standard" tuning were designed with a WOUND G string. :jim

 

[j45]

I move some of my voicings to try and play as much as I can with the root of my solos on the G string. In other words, rather than play pentatonics in C on the 8th fret, I'll move it all down to the C on the G string at the 5th so I can work from the G string. I just prefer the timbre of the G string above the others. I guess we're all different.

 

[sidekick]

Yes, it is the string we have to 'compensate' for more... On another level, 'G' strings on various well-figured ladies appeal to some guys though, but they are not always guitar players ... ;-)

More seriously though, I tend to intonate the fretted G string slightly sharp of the harmonic and then, (via the machine-head) adjust so to get the fretted 12th fret in tune... (effectively flattening the G string)... YMMV, but works for me.

 

[Mike M.]

The guitar in general and it's "standard" tuning were designed with a WOUND G string. :jim

It's funny you should mention that. If you'll allow me....I have a problem with the G string on both of my LP's: a 2004 swamp ash Studio and a 2006 Standard, both of which are with a tech. The problem I've experienced is whenever I play the G string by itself either open or fretted (with NO other strings being played) I get this God-awful waver along with the note. The way I describe it is, "it sounds like it's out of tune to itself".

One day I bought strings, didn't have my glasses on and upon getting home I realized I bought a set that had a WOUND G string. (!*#!?@**!!). Put the wound G string on......and that waver was 100% GONE!! Not a trace of it anywhere! So it turns out that the slots for the G strings on both of my LP's are in fact cut to accomidate a wound G. Basically, those particular slots are cut too big and the plain G's that I've been using must be vibrating against the sides on the slot's which is what's causing that waver I've been hearing. At least, I think that's the problem.

So has Gibson been cutting the nut slots for the G strings wrong in the recent years?

 

[58junior]

Funny, I thought it was just me and my G. What I did was bump the G string gauge up a notch or two (e.g. 17 on a 9 gauge set or 18 on a 10 gauge set).
and that seemed to help a lot. You can buy a multi-pack of single gauge strings in 17's or 18's and see if that helps your G string problems.

 

[codyfarmer]

I wish I knew how to fix said issue, I have the same issue with my B-string.

 

[JJC]

The guitar in general and it's "standard" tuning were designed with a WOUND G string. :jim

Bingo. And wasn't it Clapton who first used an unwound string by winding a banjo string on the G to help with string bends?

 

[Desertdawg]

Er, no....it probably wasn't James Burton either but he certainly was using a non-wound "B" string on 'Hello Mary Lou" in 1961.

There are reams of articles about this string in books and on the WEB. The plain string just cannot get enough tension to play properly intonated or in tune unless it's super heavy...does anybody make 0.26 plains?

The wound string is the answer. The closest modern string to a plain G is the Snake Oil 18W. Performs outstandingl;y and really adds to the evenly balanced and intonated sounds of any guitar.

You can TRY a tape wound Thomastik as a G. It has a "rubbery" (fine) core so will bend easily and feel like a plain string. I personally prefer the sound of the wound Snake Oil, but you may be different.

:wail

 

[Wilko]

there are a couple of issues:

Nut slots have a hard angle and are harder to cut right. (plus, all nut slots need to be angled down away from the string path in order to seat properly at the nut leading edge. Width is not as important)

The "G" string is the third note of many chords and as such will have beats while in a chord as the third. There's no way around the physics of that.

If you are getting wavering on a solo G string note, make sure the nut slot angles down away from the neck, and that the string is properly stretched in. A kink in the string will cause wavering.

Definetly try intonating it a bit flat.

 

[Mike M.]

I'll keep you fellow's posted once I get my LP's back from the tech. I'm rather anxious to see how well a new nut with properly cut slot's sounds. Yep, got the rotten sounding G string on both of my LP's.

Man, I sure hope that cures it. Can't stress enough how bad it sounds.

 

[JJC]

Er, no....it probably wasn't James Burton either but he certainly was using a non-wound "B" string on 'Hello Mary Lou" in 1961.

Okay, it was written in "The Guitar Handbook" by Ralph Denyer that there were no unwound G strings at that time and he improvised with a banjo string - I knew I got that from somewhere. But you're correct he wasn't the first - I made an incorrect assumption. GP magazine suggests it *could* have been T-Bone Walker:

http://www.guitarplayer.com/article/10-things-you/sep-07/31074

 

[Belman]

Er, no....it probably wasn't James Burton either but he certainly was using a non-wound "B" string on 'Hello Mary Lou" in 1961.

There are reams of articles about this string in books and on the WEB. The plain string just cannot get enough tension to play properly intonated or in tune unless it's super heavy...does anybody make 0.26 plains?

The wound string is the answer. The closest modern string to a plain G is the Snake Oil 18W. Performs outstandingl;y and really adds to the evenly balanced and intonated sounds of any guitar.

You can TRY a tape wound Thomastik as a G. It has a "rubbery" (fine) core so will bend easily and feel like a plain string. I personally prefer the sound of the wound Snake Oil, but you may be different.

:wail

hmm . . shit thing is they're 11s and a wound G wears out REAL fast

 

[sidekick]

Okay, it was written in "The Guitar Handbook" by Ralph Denyer that there were no unwound G strings at that time and he improvised with a banjo string - I knew I got that from somewhere. But you're correct he wasn't the first - I made an incorrect assumption. GP magazine suggests it *could* have been T-Bone Walker:

http://www.guitarplayer.com/article/10-things-you/sep-07/31074

Interesting article... In the UK, I recall that before his untimely death in 1960, Eddie Cochran was known for using an unwound G string and late 50's/early 60's UK singer/guitarist/musician Joe Brown did likewise. Perhaps it was a thing shared on the circuit amongst hard-working players who wanted/needed more flexibility in being able to bend more easily.

 

[demundo]

try adjusting the polepeice for the g string and also lower the b string pole. worked for me. none of my historics came with slots cut right,

 

[zombiwoof]

What a lot of those players did was use a regular medium set of strings, toss the .056 or so 6th strings, move the other strings over and put a banjo string (which was a .009 or so) on for the first string. That way, they ended up with a .016 unwound for the third. That's where the "banjo" string thing came from. There weren't many "rock" gauged string sets till the sixties. James Burton was one of the guys who went with the banjo first string in the fifties.

Pete Townsend used to use a 12-56 Gibson set, and put another .016 on for the third, he had a .016 on the second AND third string! 12-16-16-34-44-56.

Dicky Betts used the same Gibson set, except he used the "toss the 6th string" idea and put a .010 on for the first. 10-12-16-28-34-44.

This is how the modern rock gauges came about. Ernie Ball set the standard for the gauges we use now with the "Slinky's" in the late sixties, the other string manufacturers eventually adopted the gauges EB came out with. Before that, string gauges were all over the place with different brands.

Al

 

[Desertdawg]

Eddie Cochran and Joe Brown certainly toured the UK together and Cochran would have toured with Rick Nelson and James Burton or at least appeared on shows like American Bandstand together. The first "plain3rd" sets I saw in 1964 were certainly a "regular" set moved over and a very fine E string added...maybe a banjo? I don't know.

Funny thing is, I couldn't stand the sound of the things then and 40+ years later I still can't!

 

[Skoorbdooh]

The unwound G string is more than likely the biggest mistake that has been made in the electric guitars history (IMO, YMMV). From the standpoint of string technology - it does not have enough tension to perform properly intonation or tuning -wise. If you really listen to a G string as you play it, you will hear how radically it overshoots the tuned note and then settles back down to a lower pitch. The more advanced ears out there will hear that the string is producing overtones that are not in tune with its´ fundamental. The G string usually has about the same tension on it as the E (1st) but the E string is usually slightly more than half of the diameter of the G. If you want to see how this really effects the whole deal, try tuning your G string up to A, or even B for that matter. The added tension will help the string have a purer sound, less overshoot/fluctuation in pitch and will also control some of the added volume that comes when a string is tuned below optimum pitch for its´ diameter.
Yes, a wound G will fix this, but it won´t last as well as an unwound G. It will intonate TONS better. It does, however, have less ouptut than an unwound G (this is why the original Fender Strat pickups have a G string magnet that is higher - to compensate for the lower output).