9's never felt so good

Fingers Mcginty

After years of building up finger strength and progressing up thru the gauges i felt 11's were the highest i could go and felt happy enough. Recently got a new strat fitted with 9's and i have to say it feels sooo good being able to bend up 2 full notes whenever i please. Also vibrato is so much easier and the guitar feels so much easier to play in many respects. It begs the question why do we guitarists strive to play the highest possible gauge??? Does it really affect the tone that much?? Billy Gibbons' tone is certainly not thin and the man uses 8's.
By the way i play in standard tuning not dropped down a semi tone

Savman

Fingers Mcginty wrote:

It begs the question why do we guitarists strive to play the highest possible gauge???

Can't say I've ever had any desire to go heavy guage but to each his own.
Was alway's playing 009's, tried 008's coupla times but have settled on 010's now

Karl Hungus

It's odd, but I find it harder to play on 9's than 10's when playing at speed. There's definetly an advantage to 9's with reguards to bending and vibrato, but other than that, I think I'm ok with 10's.

Can't say I've noticed much difference in tone mind you.

deaddonkey

i've got a heavy left hand grip (and my hands are big and quite strong too) cos i learnt to play on a cheapy guitar with high action
9s or 10s leave little resistance and i press hard enough to put them out of tune, i can't get along with anything under 11s really. 10s i can live with, but 9s... no way.
I don't break the 11s or 12s either.

Voodu Child

Guys will use all sorts - I cant say ive ever noticed 'guitarists striving to play the highest guage possible'.

Id imagine for every SRV wannabe, theres a Yngwie wannabe playing 8s in Eb. Id say it all averages out, with 90% of guys just playing 9s or 10s.

Fingers Mcginty

deaddonkey wrote:

i've got a heavy left hand grip (and my hands are big and quite strong too) cos i learnt to play on a cheapy guitar with high action
9s or 10s leave little resistance and i press hard enough to put them out of tune, i can't get along with anything under 11s really. 10s i can live with, but 9s... no way.
I don't break the 11s or 12s either.

My sentiments exactly..however i have toned down the ould heavy handed grip some in the last year or so which enables me to play lighter. I remember observing a bassist showing showing me a riff on a PRS before with 12's and those strings were being bent all over the shop unintentionally of course. Anyway i suppose what i'm trying to say is higher gauge string not necessarily means fatter tone. I heard Stevie Ray started using lighter gauge strings prior to his untimely demise.

Frankiestylee

I mostly play an acoustic... and I have 11s on my sg ... but no more, gonna go and pick up some 13s in town, cause 13s be what I play on the aul acoustic you see. I hate the aul "put it slightly out of tune" thing I get on the elec if I'm not focused.

-=al=-

i just cam back from an d easter trip with my acoustic with 12's on them, when i got home playing my strat was so fun and easy,

i use 9's and 12's depends on what gutiars, but genreally nines. seem to be aok to me

Voodu Child

Frankiestylee wrote:

I mostly play an acoustic... and I have 11s on my sg ... but no more, gonna go and pick up some 13s in town, cause 13s be what I play on the aul acoustic you see. I hate the aul "put it slightly out of tune" thing I get on the elec if I'm not focused.

You might laugh, but i'd be pretty uneasy putting 13s on a SG.

That headstock will be just begging to snap off at the slightest knock. Seriously

Creamy Goodness

you can't beat the skinny bottom heavy tops from ernie ball 10 13 17 30 42 52

feels like i'm using acoustic strings on my strat

It wasn't me!

Cremo wrote:

you can't beat the skinny bottom heavy tops from ernie ball 10 13 17 30 42 52

feels like i'm using acoustic strings on my strat

They're damn nice, I use them on the Les Paul.

fish-head

I'm an 11s man, anything else is just spaghetti to me. Plus, I only play archtops so they're jus begging for the big strings to make 'em ring.

leninbenjamin

i hate slinky strings.... 9s feel like they aren't there, can't get any grip behind them,. I have tens on at the moment but even they feel a bit light. I prefer heavier gauge because, even though they did take a while to get used to, i find it much easier to get the pitch right, 9s and 10s just slide off the fretboard at times. highest i can go with the slim neck i have is about 12 gauge, but i've always wanted to go higher.

jimi_t

I play with 2" thick custom-wound titanium alloy

Pansies.

deaddonkey

voodoo_child wrote:

You might laugh, but i'd be pretty uneasy putting 13s on a SG.

That headstock will be just begging to snap off at the slightest knock. Seriously

I had 12s on my SG for a while, no problems
14s on my tele too, no structural problems
my fingers killed though
sounded great for really fat surfy runs though.

Voodu Child

deaddonkey wrote:

I had 12s on my SG for a while, no problems
14s on my tele too, no structural problems
my fingers killed though
sounded great for really fat surfy runs though.

I wouldnt worry about a tele, built like a brick sh1thouse.

SGs are very weak at the neck/headstock. Ive heard of the headstocks snapping off while the guitar is sat untouched in the case (not a joke! google it).
I figure if you double the string tension, you're increasing the chance that the headstock will snap off if you inadvertently give it a knock off something.

I was only half-serious, but i genuinely would think twice before going too far with the heavy string thing on a SG.

Karl Hungus

voodoo_child wrote:

SGs are very weak at the neck/headstock..

All Gibsons are. Les Paul headstocks break all the time.

feylya

10-52 on the Eggle and strat. 9-48 on anything with a floyd though. And the heaviest strings known to man on the bass.

david

Elixer 9's on the tele and cheapo 10's on the SG, 10's kill my fingers for some reason when playing lead, im a pussy lol. I cant hit the tri-tone bends playing gilmour leads with 10's.

fourmations

hi

i used play 9´s all the time but recently
got an ibanez sz (brick sh*thouse) and changed to 10´s

it really helps define the thicker strings,
heavy distortions are much more defined
now where the 9´s were muddy

I have just bought a jazzmaster and
have read extensively that 11´s are the way to go
for that particular guitar

I suppose its down to what you like but
also that different guitar benefit from heavy strings and
some do not

ciao

4

Frankiestylee

voodoo_child wrote:

You might laugh, but i'd be pretty uneasy putting 13s on a SG.

That headstock will be just begging to snap off at the slightest knock. Seriously

Ah it's ok, I generally play in standard D. Must remember that though if I ever decide to tune up for anything.

gaffmaster

String guage is dependent on scale length among other aspects of guitar design.

I use

9's on my Strat
10's on my LesPaul
11's on my Jaguar

They all feel RIGHT. If you know what i mean.

Fingers Mcginty

Actually i think i might have been a bit premature in my decisions. I'm going back to me Rotosound blues strings. The custom 10-52 lads.