The G string is the one that never quite sits right. Chords ring clean in open position and go sour by the fifth fret. One note in a D shape is always a little off. Most players blame the guitar. Usually it is the string.
The argument about wound thirds is almost always about feel. Wound sounds more even. Plain bends easier. Both true. Neither is the part you can measure, and the part you can measure is the reason the wound G existed in the first place.
Quick Answer
| What you play | Wound or plain | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Bends on the third string, blues and rock lead | Plain | The bend cost is real and it is not worth trading |
| Chords above the fifth fret, jazz, rhythm work | Wound | Better intonation where you actually play |
| Three saddle Telecaster, stock bridge | Wound | The D and G share a saddle. A wound G solves it. |
| Heavy gauge sets, .011 and up | Wound | The plain G gets stiff enough to fight you |
| Slide | Wound | Even response across the set matters more than bending |
| You keep breaking or detuning the G | Try wound | The plain G takes the most abuse of any string |
What Compensation Is
Fretting a string stretches it. Stretching it raises the pitch. So a string fretted at the twelfth fret plays a little sharp of the octave unless you make it longer at the saddle to cancel that out.
That extra length is compensation. Every string needs a different amount. Stiffer strings need more, because a stiff string resists bending over the fret and stretches more to get there.
Stiffness comes from diameter. That is the whole rule.
The Part That Is Not Obvious
Here is where people get it backwards, and I did too for a long time.
A wound G looks bigger than a plain B. Hold them side by side and there is no contest. So it seems like it should need more compensation than the B does.
It needs less.
The winding is mass wrapped around a thin core, and the core is what bends over the fret. A .020 wound G has a core somewhere around .012 or .013. The plain B sitting next to it is a solid .016. The wound string is thicker and more flexible at the same time, and flexible is what the saddle cares about.
Now run the whole set. On a standard set with a plain G, compensation climbs from the high E to the B to the G, and the G is the furthest back of anything up there. Then it jumps forward at the D, because the D is wound and its core is thinner than the plain G it follows. Then it climbs again through the A and the low E.
Put a wound G in and that jump moves. It happens at the G instead of the D. The G steps forward, and from there the set runs in order the way you would expect.
One string change and the shape of the whole bridge changes.
Why the Plain G Is the Problem Child
A plain G is the largest unwound string on the set. Nothing else on the guitar is a solid rod of steel at that diameter.
Stiffness gets bad on a plain string somewhere around .020. A .017 or .018 is not that far under the line, and a heavy set puts you right on it. That stiffness gives you inharmonicity, which means the overtones run sharp of where they should be relative to the fundamental. The higher you play, the worse it reads.
That is why the plain G is the hardest string to intonate when it is brand new, before anything has worn. It is also why it is the first string to go false once you have played it a while. Stiff to start, and it takes more bending than any other string on the guitar.
Two separate problems, same string, same cause.
The Telecaster Case
If you play a three saddle Tele, this stops being theory.
That bridge puts the D and the G on one saddle. One saddle sits in one place. So the two strings have to agree, and with a plain G they do not agree at all. The plain G wants to be well behind the D. You split the difference, the G runs sharp up the neck, the D runs flat, and you decide the bridge is a design flaw.
It was not a design flaw in 1951. A wound G was standard on electric sets then. A wound G and a D have similar cores and want nearly the same saddle position, and a straight barrel handles both of them fine.
So there are two honest fixes. Put a wound G on it and use the stock saddles. Or keep the plain G and buy compensated saddles, which are angled to give the two strings different lengths on one barrel. Both work. The first one costs a few dollars and the second one costs about thirty.
What does not work is turning the screw harder.
What Switching Actually Costs You in Time
Going from plain to wound moves that saddle forward by more than a normal gauge change does. Budget for it.
On a Strat, a hardtail, or any bridge with six individual saddles, it is one saddle screw and a twelfth fret check. Ten minutes. Tune the open G, play the twelfth fret harmonic, play the twelfth fret fretted note, and move the saddle forward until they match. If the fretted note is flat, keep going forward. If it went sharp, you went too far.
On a locking tremolo it is the same idea with more steps, and the saddle by saddle procedure covers it.
On a three saddle Tele you are done in five minutes, because the whole reason you switched was that the two strings finally agree.
Do not judge the new string until after you have set it. A wound G on an uncorrected saddle sounds flat and dull up the neck, and that is the saddle talking, not the string.
The Cost, Stated Plainly
Bends are harder. Not a little harder. A wound third takes real effort to pull a whole step, and a bend and release does not snap back the same way.
The winding also squeaks when you slide. If you play with a lot of position shifts, you will hear it.
And if you bend the G constantly, which most blues and rock playing does, none of the intonation math above matters. You are going to be bending the note into tune by ear anyway. Stay on a plain G.
Who Should Actually Switch
Play chords above the fifth fret and the wound G is a real improvement. Jazz players never left it for a reason.
Play a stock three saddle Telecaster and it fixes a problem you have probably been living with for years.
Play .011s or heavier and the plain G is getting stiff enough that the wound version is easier on your hands and better in tune at the same time.
Bend the third string as your main move and leave it alone.
Everybody else is somewhere in the middle, and the way to find out is to buy one wound G, put it on, set the saddle, and play a week of the songs you actually play. That is a four dollar experiment. Most gear questions are not that cheap to answer.
