Changing again to 9's from 10's

[tone?]

After a cool 10 years or so of playing 10's i am switching back slowly to 9's.

I have been playing for around 20 years now and my hands need a break. From playing alot of shred/type as well as blues my hands are getting a bit hurt from playing 10 for so long and hard.

Actually switching back i noticed that 9's give a tone that 10's cant. And the other way around of course. To me they are better for distorted tones. They get more 'slack' and are warmer in many applications.

With the addition that they are so so much kinder to my poor hands. Glad i made the switch. Especially on my Floyd guitars which are less slinky.

On my new Axis 9's sound so much better as well.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Changing again to 9's from 10's

Do you play in standard tuning?

I like a stiffer feel with 11's, and the bigger sound from fatter strings. But, I was usually playing in Eb tuning. Now, I'm finding that playing with keyboardists or musical arrangers, everything is in std. tuning. I'm finding myself going down to 10's in std.

I don't know how anyone can play on 9's though. They're just way too slinky and plinky. I guess if you play with a really light touch, it won't make your tone sound small.
Gibbons does it, and probably Yngwie. I still think 10's are as light as I can go, for my touch.

 

[tone?]

Re: Changing again to 9's from 10's

Hey Jonesy,

yeah i play mostly in standard tuning. I like the string to have some slack in it, makes for a warmer sound to me.

Actually Gibbons plays with 8's im almost sure. And Malmsteen for sure plays with 8's.

I loved 10's for the longest time, but they just got my hands too tired after so many years. Just my hands.
I can play with 10's on a regular strat with vintage trem, and that makes for a slinkier feel, but on my Floyded guitars, 9's are just sounding better. They actually sound 'fuller' in a weird way with gain. All the Gibbons stuff sound so much more right with 9's and so does the Ed stuff.

My touch takes awhile to adjust but not too long, i have been playing so long that i adjust pretty quickly.

The Axis sounds perfect with 9's. With the 10's it was too stiff and wasnt letting the string 'vibrate' enough. Its a preference thing for sure.
Like i dont play with two string trees but only one cause i like the 'middle' strings to be slack. Makes em warmer to my ears.

 

[tone?]

Re: Changing again to 9's from 10's

by the way, whats with that new Avatar man??? That would be a better version of that movie for sure!

 

[KeeperOS]

Re: Changing again to 9's from 10's

I think that it's the guitar that chooses the string gauge and not the player.

Right now both my guitars have 9s. With my Cort they feel just right but with my Strat they feel really slinky, I want to put 10s to it but last time I did the neck didn't seem to like them, it would make deep bow and wouldn't return easily so it was back to 9s for it...

 

[TimmyPage]

Re: Changing again to 9's from 10's

Theres this cliche that bigger strings sound better. They sound warmer and fatter, but that's not a tone everyone is going towards. I find I sound best on a 9-46 scale, to have the same tension on bottom for chugginess, and lighter in the top for all the weedly weedlies.

 

[Holy Diver]

Re: Changing again to 9's from 10's

9-42 rules, especially D'Addario. Buzz Feiten (the man) said they have the best intonation of any other brand, Take that as you will.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Changing again to 9's from 10's

You're all a bunch of sissies. I use 50's in standard tuning.

 

[TimmyPage]

Re: Changing again to 9's from 10's

9-42 rules, especially D'Addario. Buzz Feiten (the man) said they have the best intonation of any other brand, Take that as you will.

I've never heard him say that personally, but I've never had a problem with guitar intonation either since switching to D'Addarios so.. there you go eh? Might just all be in the head though.

You're all a bunch of sissies. I use 50's in standard tuning.

Effin' bass players. :banned:

 

[butnut]

Re: Changing again to 9's from 10's

Been playing 9s since the 70s, switched to Tomasik heavy bottom 10s this year and love it. Not as heavy as I feared and it has more 'feel' to it, plus they last 3x as long as my fave EB Slinkys.

 

[B2D]

Re: Changing again to 9's from 10's

I've switched from 9's to 10's in '05 and I've found that at this point I can't go back to 9's... I like the tone, feel, resonance, and resistance of 10's more.

To each their own. Using what feels and sounds good to you is the most important thing.

 

[arellanon]

Re: Changing again to 9's from 10's

I usually use 9's for standard and 10's for Eb, but I think this is pretty standard. However, I am playing my standard strat with 9's and Eb and admit to it as pretty good in its own right. It's fairly hot-rodded (graphtech graphite saddle, sperzel locking tuners, dimarzo HS3 in the neck, sd cool-rails in the middle, and sd ssl-5 in the bridge) so maybe that's why it sounds good. I just wish it had more sustain; I have the tremolo blocked but the sustain isn't what I wish it would be....

Anyways, back to the string talk. When I started playing I put some 10's in standard and they just kicked my butt left and right; nowdays they would be ok but still would feel fatigue much faster than with 9's. I don't blame you for going back to 9', especially after all those years of playing on 10's.

 

[Stratman]

Re: Changing again to 9's from 10's

Wimp!

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: Changing again to 9's from 10's

I have 10's on both of mine at the moment. I'm toying with changing to 9-46, to get the full sound of the wound strings, and a little more give in the plain strings.

 

[XSSIVE]

Re: Changing again to 9's from 10's

9s feel like sloppy crap to me on any guitar. 10s feel a bit better but not good enough to play, still too sloppy. 11s feel perfect on the wound strings but just a hair too tight on the unwound strings in E on a 25.5" guitar but in Eb or on a 24 3/4" guitar they feel perfect...so what do i do?? i strated playing D'Addario 10.5s in E on all my 25 1/2" guitars and it's PERFECT and i stick with 11s on my 24 3/4" guitars and Eb 25.5" guitars....the one tuned to drop C is a whole other ball game with some monster strings on it lol. anyway, i found the 10.5s have nice balance of tension and give and there's no sloppy mess like real thin strings but enough give that i don't have to try quite as hard. i've been playing 11s for years and just tried these 10.5s for the first time the other day on one of my Charvels and i'm hooked and ordered 15 sets lol.

-Mike

 

[Metalblaze]

Re: Changing again to 9's from 10's

I begun with 9s then changed to 10s and now I'm back to 9s. I play with very light touch and for leads I use fingers for picking so 9s are better for me. Also picking with fingers and fretting with very light touch on 9s lets me achieve very fast speeds which I just can't get with 10s.

 

[Diego]

Re: Changing again to 9's from 10's

On my Epi I used to use 10-52 with the obscure zebra pickup that I bought for 20 bucks for it. It gave me a cool EVH kind of tone. But now I popped a JB in there. And the 10-52 strings sound... bad with it, to say the least. Too dark and way too middy. I'll try some 9-42 on it and see how it goes. It should brighten up a bit.

And if it doesn't work, it's back to the zebra pickup.

 

[Gunny47]

Re: Changing again to 9's from 10's

How bout this:

11-52 on standard and open E.

I played in Eb last night jamming with a few of my friends and honestly, the 11s felt WAY too slinky. Maybe if I were to get a guitar to tune in Eb, I'd put 12s on it...

 

[Oudy]

Re: Changing again to 9's from 10's

used to use i think it was like 8-38 till i was 15 then started using 10-52 strings andhavn't gone back ever

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Changing again to 9's from 10's

I use piano strings....them be somewhat stiff......but well???