9s vs 10s

[PlayAndersons]

10's now, used to be 9's with just 1 or 2 with 10's and way back in the day it was 8's with the B string a 9 maybe it was - the longer the hair the lighter the touch bawhahaha

 

[Badronald]

9-46 standard
10-50 I think for Eb dropped D tuning.

 

[borabora]

I've been using a 10s forever.

 

[Mr. Willy]

I can't play 9's at all. They flop around too much. I use 10's on 25" and 25.5" scale lengths. For Les Pauls, 11's. Standard pitch.

 

[Shark Diver]

I am pretty much to the point where tone is not in the equation as far as string gauge for me. As shown many have huge tone with lighter gauges. So it just comes down to feel for me. I was 13s forever, dog bite hand injury down to 10s - but I'm going back to 12s at least this weekend. It just feels better. I can adjust everything else for tone.

 

[racerevlon]

All of my guitars with floating bridges run D'Addario 9-42. Every other guitar with any other trem runs the same except for one Suhr which runs a D'Addario hybrid set 9.5-??. D'Addario is smart to put out these hybrid sets so people can gradually move between standard gauges. I typically don't like 10's but can play the 9.5's just fine. Weird.

Billy Gibbons uses 7's. I have his Mexican Lottery brand strings on two Les Pauls and they both play and sound killer. I have some other fixed bridge guitars that have 8's and sound and play awesome. I think it's simply a function of what you like to feel under your fingers and how much resistance you like to feel when bending and fast picking.

 

[MrDan666]

For me, 9's work better with the way i dial in my tone. I can get the right kind of top end with them. I always find that 10's are a little too dark sounding for me on the thin strings.

 

[spanny]

11's for standard tuning. Full step down 12's.

10's or OK, but I still feel like they flop around, especially if you do drop D tuning. 9's are way to thin.

 

[xzyryabx]

9-46 on all my floyd guitars and anything I keep in E, especially if they are 25.5 inch scale length
10-52 on ay guitar I drop down to Eb or D or fixed bridge 24.75 inch scale length axes.

I feel people that use 11's and above rarely venture down below the lowest three strings, and probably don't do any bends or vibratos.

End of story, whatever sounds best to your ears and fingers, let your amp and toys do the rest!

 

[daveg62]

dumb question... heavier gauge = bigger tone.
I use 9's but voted 10's to answer the question.

 

[blackba]

I use 10-46 on all of my guitars.

+1 10-46 for me in general, whether its a strat, les paul or other. My one exception is my Ric360 which I think is 10-42.

 

[TeleBlaster]

I play 25-1/2" scale guitars, in standard tuning I use 9.5's, half or full step down guitars use 10's.

 

[Ventura]

I don't think string gauge and tone can be perfectly correlated.

I think the string gauge that suits you - the player - best, will result in the best playability and therefore translate into finer, better, more gooderer tone.

I use 10's normally, 11's for drop tuning. I like them, they don't feel flimsy and thin in my manly warrior hands

 

[Shawn Lutz]

I use 10's on every guitar, either tuned to E or Eb.

I'm thinking on going to 11's on my Les Paul next string change.

 

[reverymike]

dumb question... heavier gauge = bigger tone.
I use 9's but voted 10's to answer the question.

This is false. See previous posts.

 

[chunktone]

I'm curious because I notice all these guys are using VERY thin strings and get huge guitar tone (AC/DC is 9s I think; pretty sure ZZ Top & Black Sabbath are 8s or 7s). I used 9s tuned to Eb for a long time, then a couple of years ago switched to 12s when I heard people saying how much bigger they sound. I think I changed pickups at the same time, so I never really got a direct comparison.

Anyway, over the last year or so I've been slowly going back to the thinner strings. Today was the first time in years I played 9s in Eb. And of course there's no standard measure for what sound "big", but for some reason the thinner strings - same brand (and age), same guitar, same pickup, same amp, etc - just sound bigger and better to me. There's definitely more high end, but when the action is adjusted properly, I just haven't felt there's any less low end. Seems like with the bigger strings, they can sustain better, but I always felt the high end was a little choked.

For now, I'm liking 9s

Last I heard the Rev Billy G uses 7's and gets a great tone with them.

I'll stick with 8-38 unless I tune way down.

 

[joepete77]

A heavier string gauge will always produce a "bigger" tone.

Tell that to Eddie or billy gibbons

 

[chunktone]

A heavier string gauge will always produce a "bigger" tone.

Tell that to Eddie or billy gibbons

Malmsteen uses really light strings, and gets a great tone too!

 

[pjrake]

12's for me.

PJ

 

[carlygtr]

I think it depends on the guitar, the tuning, etc. I got used to 10-46 because a few guitars I own shipped with that gauge and I was too lazy to change.
Having gotten used to that gauge I find 9-42 too light although I like them on my Dean Soltero (Les Paul) I like to have that guitar be like a Jimmy Page type response. Alot of the feel the old school guys did were due to light strings.

On my E Flat Hendrix Strat I use 10-46.
On my Trower which is tuned to D I use 11-48
On my Yngwie, I experiment. I use 10, 11, 14, 26, 36, 48 sort of a Blackmore set