4. Electric Guitar Strings

There are an overwhelming amount of options when buying strings. You can pick different gauges (thickness), materials, types of winding, cores, coatings, brands, etc. WTF is even slinky? Or regular? Or "cobalt"? Nickel or steel? What string should I buy for my Djent shovel ? Hopefully these articles shed some light.

Electric Guitar String Buying Guide A great intro to string choices with informative pictures. Covers string construction, materials, coatings, and a little bit about string gauges.

Best Electric Guitar Strings Recommendations on which strings to buy from which brands, and a little more depth on what to expect sonically with different string choices.

String gauges for different styles of music. Is there a preferred string gauge for different styles of music? Well?

Pros and cons of roundwound vs flatwound strings? Bright, skinny, and and squeaky VS mellow, fat, and smooth.

Djent Guitar Informations One .220 Gauge string for maximal impact, next-level Djent in 2016.

Normal Everyday Strings Tho?

Did you read a couple of those and think, "Too many options, homie. I just do the normal stuff, what are the most common strings?"

If so, you probably want a set of roundwound, "regular" 10 - 46 (.010 - .046 gauge) nickel strings.

Regular 10 - 46 strings can be hard to bend if you're trying to nail those Jimi solos and don't have major finger strength yet. So it's worth trying a couple other gauges of roundwound, nickel strings:

Alternate Tunings

Tuning to EADGBE (from the largest string to the smallest) is standard tuning, and anything else is an "alternate tuning". If you've ever listened to Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Rage Against the Machine, you've heard alternate tunings. Here are a couple articles to help you experiment with alternate tunings.

Chart: The Most Popular Alternate Tunings A good reference with many tunings you will come across. Now you know where to look when someone tells you, "yo, I tune to open D."

The Top Alternative Tunings For Guitar Common alternate tunings and who uses them for which songs. Includes videos of most tunings.

How To Pick A Tuning For Your Guitar Don't ask this dude "Wat tunning 4 djent?" unless you want to get off his lawn. While ranty, this post has good information if you're a metalhead into heavier dropped tunings.

String tension

You've discovered the beauty of Drop C or another low tuning, but now the strings slap the fretboard when you get into it. If thats the case, you should look into different string gauges. Alternate tunings and the string gauge you choose are intimately related because of string tension.

D'Addario String Tension 101 This article has a beautiful chart to help you pick the right strings for your guitar / tuning combo.

Next: Pickups

On to the meat; learn all about pickups in part 5 →