Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

[guitfiddle]

Re: Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

Jimi you madman. 11's a compromise? 10's are brutal for me. I think 9's are an ideal compromise between 8's (which are ridiculous) and 10's (which are too tight). When you're doing extreme & spontaneous Peter Green/Jimmy Page bends, like me, any appeal of thick strings quickly disappears. However, if I was mainly a rhythm player, I'd use 10's.

Awwww, now. If SRV could bend those 13-58 wires with a 23 g string, you could, within a couple of days/weeks, get to bending 11s with ease.

The guitar will fight back for a few days, and then you'll notice the level of ease coming back. My guitars are all strung 11-50, and I'll stand up there and match any bend you can do.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

Awwww, now. If SRV could bend those 13-58 wires with a 23 g string, you could, within a couple of days/weeks, get to bending 11s with ease.

The guitar will fight back for a few days, and then you'll notice the level of ease coming back. My guitars are all strung 11-50, and I'll stand up there and match any bend you can do.

SRV downtuned. Pushing strings and bending's one thing, but he wasn't doing anything like Peter Green-style deep bends with fast vibrato. If you're familiar with Peter Green & Danny Kirwan in their heyday (1969-1970), there's no way anyone's doing those kinds of wild sustained bends, in standard tuning, with 11's. That's bending at it's finest.

 

[sosomething]

Re: Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

SRV downtuned to Eb and used 13s. That's pretty much equivalent to standard 440 with 12s.

Careful with your generalizations, blueman...

I play in Eb with 11s, which feels about the same as 440 with 10s. 1&1/2 step bends with vibrato aren't a problem. If I were to go down to 10s, every bend would go wicked sharp.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

Yep, I'm with you. I bend and vibrato the heck out of everything so 9's are key. Let the amp do the work as far as tone is concerned.

+1. EQ your amp differently, or use different pots & magnets. You can tweak you tone without developing carpel tunnel fighting with thick strings. Doesn't make you any more of a man. An audience can't tell your string gauge, but they can tell who can bend deeper and more accurately, and for longer. Like the late '60's Brits, my style revolves around bending. If your style doesn't involve much bending, then string gauge isn't so crucuial.

 

[sosomething]

Re: Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

Sorry, ya just can't tell me that strings / string gauge aren't important re: tone.

They are. Irrefutably.

There are some things you just can't compensate for.

There is no kinetic energy knob.

 

[Jay 77]

Re: Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

Two words: Tony Iommi.

/thread

 

[richard parker]

Re: Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

10's with a highish action for me. I like a bit of a fight - to me it makes bends and vibrato sound much better. Playing 9's is like beating up the skinny little kid in the playground, too easy. I also like to get some flesh under the string for bends rather than just pushing them across the fretboard. But we're all different. Some us even like Fender guitars - how do you account for that ?

 

[blueman335]

Re: Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

10's with a highish action for me. I like a bit of a fight - to me it makes bends and vibrato sound much better. Playing 9's is like beating up the skinny little kid in the playground, too easy. I also like to get some flesh under the string for bends rather than just pushing them across the fretboard. But we're all different. Some us even like Fender guitars - how do you account for that ?

I also have to get my fingers partly under the strings to control them for the bends I do. But with that 'skinny little kid' you can whip him all over the place at will, which is what I look for in strings. Total compliance without any talking back.

As far as explaining why some guys like Fenders, perhaps it has something to do with mad cow disease? Close proximity to a nuclear power plant? Something in the water? There has to be a scientific explanation for it. Where's my lab coat & slide rule...

 

[blueman335]

Re: Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

Careful with your generalizations, blueman...

I play in Eb with 11s, which feels about the same as 440 with 10s. 1&1/2 step bends with vibrato aren't a problem. If I were to go down to 10s, every bend would go wicked sharp.

Pushing the strings a step and a half & and Peter Green bends are two different things. Deep sustained rapid vibrato, not just a little wiggle at the end. Listen to Fleetwood Mac's 'Like it this Way' and 'Coming Your Way'; if you can do that regularly in your solos throughout a 3 hour gig, night after night, you're a better man than I. I gotta have 9's to do that in standard tuning.

 

[Bludave]

Re: Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

I use 11's on all my electrics & 13's on acoustics. The reason was not for any other point that going from acoustics (where I bend very little) to an electric strung with 10's well I was constantly knocking my guitars out of tune, so I stepped up from 10's to 11's. I had no issue in playing them but my tone was a lot better...... bigger and deeper. The one thing you have to be careful of is you can loose some of the Strat "sparkle" when you go to heavy. SRV had a great tone no question, but if you listen to some early Dire Straits I think Marks clean sound has that Strat "sparkle" SRv had much heavier strings and he lost some of that.

 

[guitfiddle]

Re: Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

As far as explaining why some guys like Fenders, perhaps it has something to do with mad cow disease? Close proximity to a nuclear power plant? Something in the water? There has to be a scientific explanation for it. Where's my lab coat & slide rule...

lol

hahaha

:friday:

 

[El CHupacabra]

Re: Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

Don't forget SRV was a freakin beast.

 

[jimijames]

Re: Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

Don't forget SRV was a freakin beast.

And that he did a lot of cocaine. And that he would use super glue to put his calluses back on. And he also drank like it was going out of style. The man was a talented guitar player, but some of the chemicals in his system may have contributed to his super-human stregnth on guitar.

I mean, the guy said that he tried 18's for a while because thicker strings are supposed to sound better. .18s!

I've heard that he had a few guitars strung with .11s later on in his career if he wasn't feeling up to the .13's on a given night.

Also, I haven't heard the peter green stuff, but its not insanely difficult to put vibrato on a bent note - the difficult thing is getting used to it, because you have to go slightly above the bent note for it to sound right. But, as with everything, practice it for a while and it'll be like regular vibrato - second nature.

 

[El CHupacabra]

Re: Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

^ Just like when you're starting to bend normally.

 

[Hagbard Celine]

Re: Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

Sorry, ya just can't tell me that strings / string gauge aren't important re: tone.

They are. Irrefutably.

There are some things you just can't compensate for.

There is no kinetic energy knob.

It's a little vaugue but on the assumption you mean that bigger strings must sound better because of the increased mass vibrating around - an argument I've hear far too many times before...

Then I guess I should put those Steve Harris Rotosounds I used to use on my bass as my E, B, G, and D strings and get some 6 and 10m cable strand from work (Phone Co.) for A and E.

Refutation: Hendrix, Page, Iommi, Clapton, Gibbons, Campilongo, Buchanan, May, Burton, Lee, Santana, Walsh, Van Halen, Malmsteen, King (Albert), Winter, Schenker, Shall I go on?

To the OP - you might like the sound of 10's better. Or 11's or 16's... If so, have fun and enjoy. But please don't become one of those people who thinks that because they like something it is "better" and PLEASE don't try to "Prove" you're right through some pseudo scientific observation.

 

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

You have players that have fat tone with 8s and others who will say that anything under 12 is too thin...

I like 10s the best - mainly for feel but I can also hear some improvement in tone, at least when I play them. I can live with 9s but I also found out that 11s are too much for me, at least on a 25.5" neck...


So you see - we are all individuals. (I'm not).

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

thicker strings sound better.

i got a 13 as my high e
and a 52 as my low E.

my A is a 46.

sounds badass. sounds huge, sounds warm and crisp, articulate.

playability gets better too, with thicker strings you can lower the action a bit.

from .9 to .10 is not a big step at all.

try it.

 

[Jay 77]

Re: Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

If you want thick strings, just play bass instead.

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

If you want thick strings, just play bass instead.

touché

 

[symptom]

Re: Going from 9 gauge strings to 10 gauge?

Here's my experience:

In my tele and in all fender like guitars (longer scale) I think 10's plays better.
In my SG and in gibson like guitars (shorter scale) 11's play well.

But, I love how 10's plays in my SG, the problem is that with 11's the intonation is a lot easier (already order a new bridge trying to correct that) and there's no fret buzz (I always get buzz with 10's in the SG, no matter the higher action, new nut, fretwork or truss road adjustment). But 11's feels lighter in Gibson style guitars than in Fender style guitars.

In my opinion, there's a great improvement in tone from 9 to 10's, but the improvement from 10 to 11's isn't that noticiable...