Dropping from 10's to 9's

population

Been thinking about doing this for a while as I used to have an Ibanez strung with 9's that was a pleasure to play. Sold it a while ago leaving me with just my Strat with jumbo frets strung up with 10's. Lately I have been fancying a change and thought I may drop a gauge. Is this a tricky procedure? A lot of settling in involved for the guitar or no?

darrenw5094

Not really. Truss rod might need a tweak and the bridge saddles adjusted for intonation. Don't see what the problem would be.

Another alternative would be hybrids, top 3 strings are from 9's and the other 3 strings are from 10's.

Also, i have my LP's fitted with 9.5's, as the 10's slighly to heavy for me.

Meehanmeehan

There's no need for much tweaking for dropping one guage.

population

darrenw5094 wrote: »

Not really. Truss rod might need a tweak and the bridge saddles adjusted for intonation. Don't see what the problem would be.

Another alternative would be hybrids, top 3 strings are from 9's and the other 3 strings are from 10's.

Also, i have my LP's fitted with 9.5's, as the 10's slighly to heavy for me.

So the EAD strings are 9's?

Ravelleman

I would agree. You should be fine going from 10s to 9s.

Hybrids can go either way - bass and treble sides can be one up or one down, depending on what you order.

darrenw5094

population wrote: »

So the EAD strings are 9's?

Nope, the G,B and e are 9's. The rest are 10's.

Ravelleman

Unless you get hybrids that go the other way round - light bass strings, heavy treble.

population

So the jumbo frets on the guitar wont make a difference then? Somebody suggested to me this could cause intonation issues when changing gauge more so than on a regular fretted axe

Malice

Assuming you don't have a floating bridge you shouldn't have any problems. As darrenw5094 wrote, you may have to adjust the string saddles and the truss rod a little but that should be it.

Sergio

Id stick with the 10s if i was you and try to get used to them.ive always found 9s to be too much like elastic bands way too thin with my hands anyway. The 10s hold their tuning alot better and will give you a fatter tone.

demanufactured

Sergio wrote: »

Id stick with the 10s if i was you and try to get used to them.ive always found 9s to be too much like elastic bands way too thin with my hands anyway. The 10s hold their tuning alot better and will give you a fatter tone.

This thicker strings = Better tone thing....I dont get it .
I have tried everything from 8s to 13s and cant say i noticed a difference in tone at all...
I have been playing for 16 years and I find that certain guitars feel better with a certain string guage.
Its all down to what you prefer.

kevin65

I've switched from 9's to 10's and back and never had any issues with action or intonation. As said above, you may need to adjust with a floating tremolo. It's down to personal preferance which strings to use. 9's make string bending easier, but chords may not sound as powerful. Hybrids could be a good compromise, but never used them myself.

Where you might get slight intonation issues with large frets and light gauge strings is if you are heavy handed when fretting as the lighter gauge strings have less tension in them, but the only way to know is to try it out.

JonathanAnon

I switched down to 9s a few years ago... as was said above, it is easier to bend strings but I guess that string bending on thicker strings is just a matter of building strength in your fingers... Had a few more string breaks, and didnt notice any big change in the sound... I wouldnt bother changing if it was me.

Tallon

I love 9's. It's all I buy, but when switching to my guitar with 10's, I have no major issues at all

darrenw5094

Lol......i did suggest 9.5's made by D'addarrio. They DO exist, not just a myth.

It's totally personal preference. It varies with play style, pickups, neck, bridge, and different types of guitar, but why not just try it and see. If you don't like it just change back, you're only costing yourself an extra ten or twenty quid for something that might make a decent difference to your playing.

Personally, i like using 10s on my Les Paul style Guitars, the lead tone with humbuckers seems to be nicer than it is with thinner strings for the kind of stuff i play (blues mostly, and some rock), and i think it gives me a better all round "feel" for playing rythm and lead. It's a little harder to bend or push them, but you get used to it, and i find it actually helps with playing blues. I use 9s on strats because it just feels weird to me to put heavier strings on them, and it doesn't seem to make much difference at all to their tone.