Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for musicians, students, and enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I know bending technique is problematic with nylon strings. One has to pull them far to achieve the desired pitch change.
Is it the same with "super light" electric guitar strings which have tension rating similar to the nylon ones? E.g. D'Addario EXL130 or EXL120? Or do they work pretty much the same as the normal tension steel strings in this regard?
The only changes I've seen in electric guitar bending by string guage are the obvious one that it's harder to bend thicker strings (and easier to bend thinner ones), and the not-so-obvious one that if you switch to a wound G string from an unwound G string, you'll find the wound G string doesn't change in pitch as much with same amount of bending displacement. Basically you can't bend a wound G string as well.
That last point becomes a factor when you move up to string sets that have .012 guage high E strings and thicker. There are definitely 12s that are available with either wound or unwound G strings.
For lighter guage strings (8s are as light as I've gone - EXL 130 are 8s), I haven't found they don't change pitch as much. Definitely 9s (EXL 120) bend just like 10s, 11s, and 12s only with less force required.
