Fight 10s or resign to 9s?

[SpiderWars]

Apparently I have woman hands and even 10s seem stiff after a long day at work. Or maybe I'm just getting old. 9s just feel better. Should this even be a hard decision?

 

[Rock Bodom]

No, should be an easy decision, use the 9's. A lot of guys use way too heavy strings...use what works for your hands, don't listen to some idiot on a forum who thinks using 12 gauge on a strat is "bragging rights".

 

[KentC]

Not a hard decision at all. Go with whatever feels best to you. Ive done the same thing before. What guitar you doing the switch on?

 

[LP Freak]

Try 9.5's

 

[FourT6and2]

Yaaah, you are a little girly mahn. You are so flabby zat if you were to undo your belt, you vud cause a flabalanche. You need to work out your puny phalange muscles!

Or just use 9s. No biggie!

 

[Mailman1971]

I know your pain. Tried 10's. Just didn't feel right.
I went back to 9's. Never looked back again.

 

[Elric]

Tony Iommi uses 8s and he's a legend with massive toanz to boot. What makes you think 9s are somehow bad?

 

[Racerxrated]

Always used 9s. I've strung up 10s, 11s, and neither offered any tonal improvement IMO. Some will disagree but I think that's a load of BS. Only time I've kept heavier gauge strings on a guitar is to work on my chops..practice on 11s, then go to one of my main guitars with 9s and things were much easier.

 

[stratjacket]

Of course, nothing wrong with 9's if that's what feels good to you and you like it.

 

[yngzaklynch]

Me I like 9s on 25.5 scale and 10s on 24.75 scale

 

[Shask]

That or buy a short scale guitar.

 

[Mr. Willy]

I wish I liked 9s. They're so easy to bend and get squeals. I just can't play on them though. They flop around too much for me. I've also found that since I've been gigging a good bit, I get kinda nervous and dig in pretty heavily. I've moved up to 11-52 for Eb tuning. That's just my preference because it feels better. A lot of great guitarists got killer tone with very light strings. Go with whatever feels best.

 

[SavageRiffer]

Stick with 10's and tune down 1/2 or whole step. Problem solved. 9's don't have as good tone, definition for heavy chording, and sustain. 10's are like the minimum for drop-tuning. 9's only sound good tuned to C 440 as far as I'm concerned.

 

[crankyrayhanky]

A balanced set is the key based on guitar scale & tuning
Stringjoy or Kalium FTW

 

[jsp]

Should this even be a hard decision?

No.

 

[Rayneman]

I use 9.5 - 44 in Eb on guitars I use with my bands. Standard tuning is 9s all the way. Often I get trades that have 10s and I try to keep them at that gauge but I always go to the 9s or 9.5s.

I see no point in struggling with thicker strings, especially if you bend a lot.

 

[rstites]

Go with 9s if you like them. Personally, I've never bought into the part about heavier strings resulting in better tone. As mentioned above, Iommi played 8's and had monstrous tone! At the very least, whatever minuscule difference there is in tone will be more than compensated for by your better playing on strings that feel comfortable to you.

I've gone through stages of playing heavier strings to try it out and lighter strings to try it out. I still sound like me, so I decided to play what I feel the most comfortable with......and that depends on the guitar and the tuning.

 

[guitarobert]

Thin strings, thick pick. That was a tone and playability epiphany for me!

 

[GJgo]

I play the lightest strings I can without bending the note out of pitch when I fret. I fret hard apparently, because that's 10-52s. I don't notice a difference in tone when I go lighter, but I definitely can tell in the pitch.

 

[mchn13]

Ernie ball hybrid slinkys. High end 9-46. I use them in standard and drop d. Way easier bends and vibrato, but the low strings hold together better.