Strings on Cliff's Gibson J-200

[Bojan]

What strings were fitted on Cliff's Gibson J-200 in the early days and did Bruce record The Savage on the Gibson?

Bojan

[abstamaria]

Those are good questions, Bojan. I would like to know, too.

I have assumed Bruce had heavy strings - probably thicker than 12-52 - on the J200 then. I can't recall now what we have on ours. I also always assumed that was a J200 on "Savage." Very good exercise for the rhythm guitarist, that tune.

Andy

[Phil88]

Hey there long time no post...
Not sure what he used in the early days, but i know now he uses pretty light gauge... Elixer 10-47s i think.
They probably used whatever they could get hold of in the early days... hehe.
It does indeed sound like a j-200 on The Savage either that or a j-45 they used them around that time aswell i think... might need someone to back me up on that one. lol

Regards

Phil

[cockroach]

Every photo I've ever seen of players using J200 acoustics back in the '50's and '60's seems to show very heavy gauge strings fitted. probably about 13-56 I would guess.

It's such a large bodied guitar that it would need heavy strings to make the natural acoustic sound project to its full potential and to give the wonderful sound that these models produce which can be heard on so many records from that era (mainly Country,blues, rockabilly, Shads, and early Everly Brothers etc).

There were no piezo pickups and inbuilt pre-amps in acoustic guitars back then.

Mind you, close study of the pictures also seems to show that the guitars had a fairly lowish action which would have made them bearable to play, unlike a lot of archtop F hole acoustics played acoustically (1920s- 1950s) without amplification, which not only had very heavy strings, but also high action, to push out the sound when used acoustically in bands which featured loud horns, drums etc.

[GoldenStreet]

It's such a large bodied guitar that it would need heavy strings to make the natural acoustic sound project to its full potential and to give the wonderful sound that these models produce which can be heard on so many records from that era (mainly Country,blues, rockabilly, Shads, and early Everly Brothers etc).

I've read that before the Everlys started using their customised models based on the J200 (with the double pickguards and star inlays), one of their favoured Gibson models was the Southern Jumbo, effectively a more expensive version of the J45 (with the split parallelogram inlays), bought for them by their father, Ike, in the mid-1950s, and which they often used for recording purposes.

Bill

[Bojan]

I thought I read somewhere or heard in one of Bruce's interviews that he now uses "top heavy" Ernie Ball Strings . . . I could be wrong though . . . It seems logical now, in these days of electric acoustics, that such heavy strings are no longer necessary because you do not need such a strong sound projection from an acoustic, so it seems quite sensible to use lighter gauge strings, which are most definitely easier and more comfortable to play . . . or are they ? I can imagine playing such a furious galloping rhythm with a very soft pick would actually be easier on nice hard and tight heavy gauge strings, which because they are stiffer offer greater resistance to the pick and therefore make the strumming easier. Does this make any sense?