Who here uses .009 gauge strings on their les paul or les paul copy?

[weepingminotaur]

Re: Who here uses .009 gauge strings on their les paul or les paul copy?

Yeah, do what feels right for you. It might take a bit of messing around before you find your thing. I was using 11s and 12s for a while, and while I loved the tone, it made bending a lot harder on the fingers, and I like bending and vibrato. Came back down to 10s for my E standard guitar and it's been great. I have 11/52s on an E flat Gibson scale guitar, to offset the reduced tension, and they sound and feel great.

[JMP/HBE]

Re: Who here uses .009 gauge strings on their les paul or les paul copy?

I feel no "shame" talking strings or gear.
If someone is that sensitive it likely has nothing to do with music gear & maybe you should seek Professional help.
I played .009 to .046 Boomers all thru the 80's but broke strings some.

Played 9.5 to .048 GHS Nickels for 10 years til the stopped making them. Thats how i ended at @ D'Addario's door.
A good fret level & setup plus medium strings tuned to E flat = pinch harmonic nirvana for me.
I can bend an .046 bottom string 1/2 way across the neck.

I have strong hands & need alot of string tension to reach my potential.
I used to marvel at SRV playing piano wire until i found out he played custom gauge sets & the current set i play with is heavier than what SRV used. Now i get it ...

I also used to play with stainless steel & copper picks but it eats the outer wind on the D string after one band practice.
EVH, DeMartini and others use metal picks, love the sound but i go thru strings too fast.
.011's with a heavy bottom tuned to E flat is where i live now. Just love it.

[Sirion]

Re: Who here uses .009 gauge strings on their les paul or les paul copy?

String shaming is funny. It used to be heavier string users busting on light string users. More recently, it’s light string users insisting that heavier strings are unnecessary. I’ve tried both, and prefer heavier ones.

For the record, saying that guy whoever used lighter/heavier strings as proof that they can sound a certain way is dumb. That’s the point where the “it’s in the hands” thing comes into play.

I actually find both statements here problematic.

The first is a false equivalence. Notice that the heavy-string position is "busting on light string users", whereas light string users merely argue that using lighter strings is valid. For what it is worth, those representations are pretty accurate, in my experience: I have yet to hear anybody claim that you can't get a good guitar sound with heavy strings, yet you hear the opposite on a fairly regular basis still, even if it less common than in 2007, when this thread was begun.

The second seems to me to be a non sequitur. "It's in the hands" (admittedly a statement I am not a fan of), if true, would itself be evidence of the light-string position.

[Clint 55]

Re: Who here uses .009 gauge strings on their les paul or les paul copy?

Everything was a compromise for me in standard tuning. 9s were too thin sounding. 10s and up were better but the higher tension made it harder to play and also made the bass worse than a looser string. Had to get into 11s and 12s to really get the fatness I wanted. I even tried short scale guitars. Eventually went eff this and tuned down a whole step. My 10s now have the slinkiness of 9s and sound plenty beefy with the lower tuning. 11s are unnecessary ironically.

[JMP/HBE]

Re: Who here uses .009 gauge strings on their les paul or les paul copy?

I actually find both statements here problematic.

The first is a false equivalence. Notice that the heavy-string position is "busting on light string users", whereas light string users merely argue that using lighter strings is valid. For what it is worth, those representations are pretty accurate, in my experience: I have yet to hear anybody claim that you can't get a good guitar sound with heavy strings, yet you hear the opposite on a fairly regular basis still, even if it less common than in 2007, when this thread was begun.

The second seems to me to be a non sequitur. "It's in the hands" (admittedly a statement I am not a fan of), if true, would itself be evidence of the light-string position.

Fingers do nothing by themselves. Wanna prove it to yourself ? Stand next to someone playing a JCM-800 2203 1/2 stack on "5" and you start playing "air guitar" by yourself.

What you think you're going to hear ?

Flesh & bones emit not one single decibel or harmonic except clapping/snapping fingers whatever.

Tone woods/pickups/strings/speakers/amps/cabs/valves is where the tone is.

When EVH finally passes pickle his left hand in formaldehyde in a jar & see what it sounds like.

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Who here uses .009 gauge strings on their les paul or les paul copy?

I actually find both statements here problematic.

The first is a false equivalence. Notice that the heavy-string position is "busting on light string users", whereas light string users merely argue that using lighter strings is valid. For what it is worth, those representations are pretty accurate, in my experience: I have yet to hear anybody claim that you can't get a good guitar sound with heavy strings, yet you hear the opposite on a fairly regular basis still, even if it less common than in 2007, when this thread was begun.

The second seems to me to be a non sequitur. "It's in the hands" (admittedly a statement I am not a fan of), if true, would itself be evidence of the light-string position.

You’re over complicating this. Everyone should use what they like the feel and sound of. Heavy string users saying 9s suck are incorrect, and light string users saying 8s or 9s are more expressive are just as incorrect.

[chadd]

Re: Who here uses .009 gauge strings on their les paul or les paul copy?

String shaming is funny. It used to be heavier string users busting on light string users. More recently, it’s light string users insisting that heavier strings are unnecessary. I’ve tried both, and prefer heavier ones.

For the record, saying that guy whoever used lighter/heavier strings as proof that they can sound a certain way is dumb. That’s the point where the “it’s in the hands” thing comes into play.

I agree completely, but I have also found that there is more "sparkle" on the high end with my teles and strats when I put 9s on them. I've been known to throw 9s on my thinline for exactly that reason every now and then.

[Clint 55]

Re: Who here uses .009 gauge strings on their les paul or les paul copy?

Fingers do nothing by themselves. Wanna prove it to yourself ? Stand next to someone playing a JCM-800 2203 1/2 stack on "5" and you start playing "air guitar" by yourself.

What you think you're going to hear ?

Flesh & bones emit not one single decibel or harmonic except clapping/snapping fingers whatever.

Tone woods/pickups/strings/speakers/amps/cabs/valves is where the tone is.

When EVH finally passes pickle his left hand in formaldehyde in a jar & see what it sounds like.

Dude this is so sigworthy. The statement tone is in the fingers is so ****ing annoying. Oh so ur gonna get George Van Eps tone with 7s on ur bullet strat jam pack?

[Sirion]

Re: Who here uses .009 gauge strings on their les paul or les paul copy?

You’re over complicating this. Everyone should use what they like the feel and sound of. Heavy string users saying 9s suck are incorrect, and light string users saying 8s or 9s are more expressive are just as incorrect.

That I can agree with. Is anybody saying the latter, though? I certainly cannot see anybody do so in this thread.

[JMP/HBE]

Re: Who here uses .009 gauge strings on their les paul or les paul copy?

Dude this is so sigworthy. The statement tone is in the fingers is so ****ing annoying. Oh so ur gonna get George Van Eps tone with 7s on ur bullet strat jam pack?

Danke Heir Kommandant.

[Sirion]

Re: Who here uses .009 gauge strings on their les paul or les paul copy?

Fingers do nothing by themselves. Wanna prove it to yourself ? Stand next to someone playing a JCM-800 2203 1/2 stack on "5" and you start playing "air guitar" by yourself.

What you think you're going to hear ?

Flesh & bones emit not one single decibel or harmonic except clapping/snapping fingers whatever.

Tone woods/pickups/strings/speakers/amps/cabs/valves is where the tone is.

When EVH finally passes pickle his left hand in formaldehyde in a jar & see what it sounds like.

Ehh… I'll let you fight this out with the guy who brought it up, if you so please. I merely mentioned it to point to what appeared to me a fallacious argument.

[JMP/HBE]

Re: Who here uses .009 gauge strings on their les paul or les paul copy?

video edited for cuss words. sorry didn't know.

[Mincer]

Re: Who here uses .009 gauge strings on their les paul or les paul copy?

Well, the issues happen when you have to tell other people what they do is wrong because it isn't what you would do. I'd hope we won't treat each other like that here.

[Boogie Bill]

Re: Who here uses .009 gauge strings on their les paul or les paul copy?

I have eleven Les Pauls, and a trio of 335s. My string choice for my 25.5" G&Ls is 9-42 Fender Super Bullets, or in an emergency D'Addario XLs.

On my 24.75" scale Gibson and Ibanez guitars I prefer 10-46. But...out of those eleven Pauls I have four that really seem to prefer 9-46...my '59 Historic, one of my LP Supremes, and my two mid-'90s 1960 Classic Premium Plus models. (The factory strings on those were Gibson 9-46 LP Signature strings.) After trying both 10s and 9s, it seemed that everything just fell into place with the 9-46 sets on these four guitars. Weird.

The biggest downside is that they almost never go on sale.

Bill

[Archer250]

Re: Who here uses .009 gauge strings on their les paul or les paul copy?

I just put 10-46s on everything I expect to play fast on and 10-52s on strats because I prefer how the thicker strings sounded with single coils

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