Chuck Berry's guitar strings: the Gibson ES-355 / ES-345 rig, sourced

Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry (October 18, 1926, St. Louis, Missouri, March 18, 2017, Wentzville, Missouri) is widely cited as the foundational figure of rock and roll as a genre. His catalog from 'Maybellene' (1955) through 'Promised Land' (1964) on Chess Records established the electric-guitar-driven, riff-based song structure that became the template for rock; his stage persona (the duck-walk, the cherry-red Gibson semi-hollow, the showman-guitarist visual) became the template for rock-guitarist stage presence.

The double-stop riff opening of 'Johnny B. Goode' (1958) is the most-imitated electric-guitar riff in modern music. Keith Richards, Pete Townshend, John Lennon, and George Harrison all cite Berry as their primary foundational influence; the early Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Who live sets included Chuck Berry covers as standard repertoire. He was inducted into the inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class in 1986.

Gibson semi-hollow archtop electrics across his catalog. The Gibson ES-350T (a thinline archtop with PAF-style humbuckers and a Bigsby vibrato) was his primary instrument on the foundational late-1950s singles. He later moved to the ES-355 and ES-345 across the 1960s and onward; cherry red was his canonical finish color.

For strings, light-gauge nickel-wound electric, .010-.046 territory. Specific brand documented variably across his career; the Gibson and Fender flat-top catalog sets of the era are the period-correct choices. Standard E tuning across the catalog.

His signal chain into Fender combo amps (the Twin and similar tube combos of the era) at moderate volume produces the slightly compressed, mid-tube-saturated tone heard on the Chess sessions. The combination of semi-hollow archtop guitar, light strings, standard tuning, and a tube combo at moderate volume is the canonical late-1950s rock-guitar texture; Berry established the template, and the early British Invasion bands replicated it.

The semi-hollow archtop body produces an acoustic resonance that solid-body electrics don't, which on records like 'Johnny B. Goode' contributes to the warm, slightly compressed mid-saturation tone. Light-gauge strings on standard E tuning are easy to bend, which suits the double-stop and bend-heavy lead vocabulary that defines his style; the Bigsby vibrato on the ES-350T provides subtle pitch modulation without the deep dives that came with later trem systems.

The signal chain stays simple: guitar into tube combo, no overdrive pedals (which didn't exist commercially in the 1950s), saturation comes from the tube amp itself at moderate volume. The result is the high-clarity, mid-saturated, articulate-attack tone that defines the foundational rock-guitar sound.

A Gibson ES-345 / ES-355 (in current production) or any thinline semi-hollow archtop with humbuckers, light-gauge .010-.046 strings, standard E tuning, into a clean tube combo at moderate saturation, gets you in the period-correct territory.