For some reason the changing of the new year has the unique ability to create a time paradox within one's mind where one simultaneously tries to review the past year (and beyond) to decide if it was actually a good thing and worth getting out of bed for, and to also try and get a glimpse of the future and see if we're getting any closer to the life we know we so richly deserve.

     Using the "Hindsight is 20/20" theory, it's easy to see why things turn out the way they do. It's no longer hard to distinguish between good ideas and bad ones. The former resembles a brilliant diamond that you can't pull your eyes from, the latter a dangling lemon rotting on the vine. It's the same thing with newborn babies. At first they all look like they came from the same mold, then as time progresses you find out if they are going to make their parents proud or pro-choice.

     All this reflection/re-evaluation process has applications to guitar playing musicians as well. In mentally reviewing many of the changes I've made in my guitar setup over the years, I have found that some of the changes, while appearing to be quite beneficial on the surface, can actually cost you dearly in other ways. In this case I'm speaking of string gauges.

     When I first started playing, the popular thing to do was to remove the heavier gauge strings that the guitar came with and slap on a set of light gauge strings. This could transform you into Hercules of the fingerboard and allow you to perform full step bends in a single bound. Each string becomes a little easier to control, more willing to do what you want, a little more respectful of your musicianship, and of course your fingers don't hurt as much. At this stage of my musical education I was too busy trying to learn how to coax music out of the guitar strings to realize that they had a direct affect on my overall tone.

     Enter Stevie Ray Vaughan. The huge, fat, awesome tone that he had grabbed my attention like a well placed punch in the face. Nobody sounded like this. If ever a guitar player had succeeded in creating a wall of sound, this man had done it, and I wanted to find out how. It didn't take me too long to learn at least part of the secret of his big tone - big strings.

     He commonly used bridge cable sized strings gauged .013 to .058 and tuned down a half-step. These heavier strings had more mass, created more tension, and had a stronger output that produced that beautiful, thick sound. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. If you reduce your guitar down to it's most basic function, it is merely an apparatus to allow a string to vibrate. If anything is going to have an affect on the tone of that vibrating string, it would be the string itself, be it the size of the string, type of material, or type of construction. Vary any of these elements and you will vary your tone for better or worse.

     I tried restringing one of my weaker sounding Strats with heavier strings and noticed right away that it had a fatter, rounder sound. No, I didn't try using the monster gauge strings that Stevie Ray did. I'll have to develop more self-loathing first, but I found an improvement by moving up just one gauge. It did take a few days to get used to the increased tension of the guitar which required more effort on my part to fret and bend strings. And I also found it necessary to adjust the truss rod and action. But after playing this way for a short time, I found that I actually preferred the feel of the larger strings. In fact when I play guitars with light strings now, I can hardly feel the them. They seem so insubstantial it makes the guitar feel more like a toy than an instrument.

     So what am I suggesting? Well, if you're adventurous and searching for ways to improve your tone in the new year, consider changing your strings. There is definitely more tone available by doing this. Remember, even if you've got all the fancy, sophisticated, high tech gear, it's still just going to be processing the vibrations coming from the strings on your guitar. You might as well have the best sounding vibrations available.