I just switched from .11s to .9s

[NewWave]

Re: I just switched from .11s to .9s

You have it wrong friend, shorter scale = loose feel.

strings feel as if they were thinner, not thicker. Also, I believe the point our fellow member was trying to make is that there is nothing wrong with using lighter gauge strings.

LOLOLOLOL you are the one wrogn mate. as shorter scale guitar stretch the strings less, the strings fell harder to bend, A longer scale make strings thinner as the string are stretch longer and bends easier and when you strum it with normal person force the strings go everywhere when you use 9s or even 8s on a strat which has very long scale

 

[astrozombie]

Re: I just switched from .11s to .9s

It's all about feel. 9's feel like utter **** to me for most things I play. Not enough push back on the left, and too floppy on the right. 11's or 12's through 50's to 54's on the bottom feel right to me for most things. My favorite set at the time being is 12-50. I'm thinking about making that my standard set, as opposed to 11-52 or 11-54. I do keep 10's on a few guitars, though. But that's with heavy bottoms.

I like heavy bottoms... i used to play 10-52, which i thought was fantastic.

right now I'm really digging 9-42 although I may go with 9 - 46

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: I just switched from .11s to .9s

LOLOLOLOL you are the one wrogn mate. as shorter scale guitar stretch the strings less, the strings fell harder to bend, A longer scale make strings thinner as the string are stretch longer and bends easier and when you strum it with normal person force the strings go everywhere when you use 9s or even 8s on a strat which has very long scale

WTF?

 

[astrozombie]

Re: I just switched from .11s to .9s

LOLOLOLOL you are the one wrogn mate. as shorter scale guitar stretch the strings less, the strings fell harder to bend, A longer scale make strings thinner as the string are stretch longer and bends easier and when you strum it with normal person force the strings go everywhere when you use 9s or even 8s on a strat which has very long scale

Shorter Scale = Less tension to tune to same pitch. The strings are under less tension, as a result, the physical effort required in vibrato and bending is less. Less strength is required.

 

[NewWave]

Re: I just switched from .11s to .9s

Isnt that logic? A longer scale guitar stretch the strings further and spread the mass of the strings more evenly so you can bend strings with ease. If you dont believe me just try the same strings gauge from the same company and use it in different guitar with different scale. If shorter scale makes strings feels slinker, every shredder wont play a long scale guitar

 

[Petrovsk Mizinski]

Re: I just switched from .11s to .9s

I tried using 10-46 in E standard with a 25.5 inch scale and I honestly could never get along with it for the blues rock-y style elements of my playing.
I've just always stuck with 9-42. Perfect tension with 25.5 inch scale for my tastes.

However damnnnnnnn man, with a 24 inch scale? Must feel like 7-32 gauge strings or something :laugh2:
However, I imagine the frets on your Jag are quite a bit smaller than what I use (I dunno the brand of fretwire, but it's the same size as Dunlop 6100, fairly big), so the looser tension will help to offset the slight extra difficulty of bends that you get with smaller frets.

 

[Coma]

Re: I just switched from .11s to .9s

Isnt that logic? A longer scale guitar stretch the strings further and spread the mass of the strings more evenly so you can bend strings with ease. If you dont believe me just try the same strings gauge from the same company and use it in different guitar with different scale. If shorter scale makes strings feels slinker, every shredder wont play a long scale guitar

I have. The result was less tension on the shorter scale guitar and easier to bend. It's really quite simple, a shorter scale streches the string less, means more slack, mens less resistance, means easier to bend. The difference can also be quite noticable. I sue 11's on my LP and 10's on my superstrat, and the bends are still way, WAY easier to pull off on the LP (though there are of course other factor to take into consideration, such as string height and fingerboard radius).

The reason most susperstrats or shredder's axes use 25.5 scales is due to constraints when using a shorter scale. As traditional electric guitars only have 21 or 22 frets, space isn't really an issue, but shredsticks tend to have 24 or sometimes even more frets than that. On a shorter scale guitar, the spacing between the upper frets can get a bit cramped.

Personally, I don't see it as a problem, since I'm a tiny guy, but for the larger fella, the longer scale length means ease of use in the high notes. I tend to avoid 25.5 (or strat scale) guitars, since I'm so used to the Gibson short scale, they just feel wrong to me. Took years to figure out though, early on I had no clue what the hell scale length was, so I could never for the life of me figure out why strats were always such a PITA for me to play.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: I just switched from .11s to .9s

Isnt that logic? A longer scale guitar stretch the strings further and spread the mass of the strings more evenly so you can bend strings with ease. If you dont believe me just try the same strings gauge from the same company and use it in different guitar with different scale. If shorter scale makes strings feels slinker, every shredder wont play a long scale guitar

WTF?

 

[NewWave]

Re: I just switched from .11s to .9s

WTF?

I'm serious mate, my strat which basically is longer and bigger frets than my les paul (its a tokai copy but heck its a ls 135 tokai it must be the real scale) are easier to bend even on 11s and I can bend it like crazy and with a les paul I develop callouses on every finger.. Are you guys serious or the whole internet is making fun of me?

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: I just switched from .11s to .9s

Wtf

 

[Kam]

Re: I just switched from .11s to .9s

Isnt that logic? A longer scale guitar stretch the strings further and spread the mass of the strings more evenly so you can bend strings with ease. If you dont believe me just try the same strings gauge from the same company and use it in different guitar with different scale. If shorter scale makes strings feels slinker, every shredder wont play a long scale guitar

You're incorrect, sir.

I have guitars with 24", 24.74" and 25.5" and the shorter the scale, the looser the strings feel. Consistently.

I'd put your difference in feel down to different instruments. You do get the occasional oddball guitar that feels much stiffer for no immediately obvious reason. I'd also point out that your Strat probably has a trem bridge, which can give the strings a springier feel.

 

[Kam]

Re: I just switched from .11s to .9s

My view on this is that it depends on the instrument. Humbuckers can sound thick with tiny little strings but, in my experience, single coils need thicker strings to sound their best. Or sound the way I want them to, would probably be a better way of putting it.

Also, some guitars just respond differently to different size strings. I've played humbucker guitars that sounded great with thin strings and and some that sounded like **** with anything less than .11s. It's just like dialling in the sweet spot with pickup height or your amp's EQ; you just need to find that combination of gear that really works. I strongly believe that every guitar in the world has a favourite string guage and it's out of the players hands, for the most part.

I play heavier strings because my strumming hand is made out of bricks. I pick hard and I absolutely ****ing DETEST the feel of floppy little wet spaghetti strings under my pick. There's way too much give to get the attack that I like. I need the strings to really bounce off my pick and resist my attack a little. Otherwise it totally screws up my picking. I usually equate this to trying to run through loose sand. Of course, I could just learn to pick everything lighter, but then I'd be losing what I feel is a fundamental aspect of my style.

 

[tubecrunch]

Re: I just switched from .11s to .9s

When I play my students mini strats I can bend the strings from here to Thursday, no matter what gauge is on there. Makes stairway and whole lotta love solos fun. I can reach the bends without having to make "lead guitarist face." I still make the face anyway. I lead by example.

 

[Archer_of_Fish]

Re: I just switched from .11s to .9s

I've bounced between 9, 10 and 11 gauge sets for years. I usually return to 10 gauge sets...happy medium. I dont find the tone difference is all that great, it is there but i still sound like me.

 

[Coma]

Re: I just switched from .11s to .9s

When I play my students mini strats I can bend the strings from here to Thursday, no matter what gauge is on there. Makes stairway and whole lotta love solos fun. I can reach the bends without having to make "lead guitarist face." I still make the face anyway. I lead by example.

I think that's really a fundamental part of the music tutoring that a lot of teachers sadly neglect. Having chops but no guitar faces to back them up can be disastrous for a music carrer

 

[astrozombie]

Re: I just switched from .11s to .9s

I'm serious mate, my strat which basically is longer and bigger frets than my les paul (its a tokai copy but heck its a ls 135 tokai it must be the real scale) are easier to bend even on 11s and I can bend it like crazy and with a les paul I develop callouses on every finger.. Are you guys serious or the whole internet is making fun of me?

No one is making fun of you. We're simply pointing out physics.

I tried using 10-46 in E standard with a 25.5 inch scale and I honestly could never get along with it for the blues rock-y style elements of my playing.
I've just always stuck with 9-42. Perfect tension with 25.5 inch scale for my tastes.

However damnnnnnnn man, with a 24 inch scale? Must feel like 7-32 gauge strings or something :laugh2:
However, I imagine the frets on your Jag are quite a bit smaller than what I use (I dunno the brand of fretwire, but it's the same size as Dunlop 6100, fairly big), so the looser tension will help to offset the slight extra difficulty of bends that you get with smaller frets.

the frets on my guitar are "vintage" style, they are quite small compared to what I've played in the past, the difference is minimal really, but I recently played another guitar and was blown away by how different it felt just by the difference in scale and fret size.

My view on this is that it depends on the instrument. Humbuckers can sound thick with tiny little strings but, in my experience, single coils need thicker strings to sound their best. Or sound the way I want them to, would probably be a better way of putting it.

Also, some guitars just respond differently to different size strings. I've played humbucker guitars that sounded great with thin strings and and some that sounded like **** with anything less than .11s. It's just like dialling in the sweet spot with pickup height or your amp's EQ; you just need to find that combination of gear that really works. I strongly believe that every guitar in the world has a favourite string guage and it's out of the players hands, for the most part.

I play heavier strings because my strumming hand is made out of bricks. I pick hard and I absolutely ****ing DETEST the feel of floppy little wet spaghetti strings under my pick. There's way too give to get the attack that I like. I need the strings to really bounce off my pick and resist my attack a little. Otherwise it totally screws up my picking. I usually equate this to trying to run through loose sand. Of course, I could just learn to pick everything lighter, but then I'd be losing what I feel is a fundamental aspect of my style.

I pick pretty lightly. It's a problem between me and musician friends: I set up my guitars to my own playing and when anyone else picks it up it buzzes like mad.

 

[metalchurch79]

Re: I just switched from .11s to .9s

I play 8-38s and 9-42s exclusively. I have played thicker strings but they slow me down and the small loss in tone/sustain is negligable so I dont worry so much about that. Seems the trend is thicker guages, and while they do build strength and dexterity and as said above, they definitely add sustain and more tone because they resonate louder and longer, but I feel the 8's and 9's really arent that far behind in terms of performance if that makes sense.

Going from 10's or 11's to 8's or 9's is like taking ankle weight off of your cankles before you go for a run. It gives the impression that you're stronger, which you are, but most times it's all mental.

Rock on man!

 

[astrozombie]

Re: I just switched from .11s to .9s

I play 8-38s and 9-42s exclusively. I have played thicker strings but they slow me down and the small loss in tone/sustain is negligable so I dont worry so much about that. Seems the trend is thicker guages, and while they do build strength and dexterity and as said above, they definitely add sustain and more tone because they resonate louder and longer, but I feel the 8's and 9's really arent that far behind in terms of performance if that makes sense.

Going from 10's or 11's to 8's or 9's is like taking ankle weight off of your cankles before you go for a run. It gives the impression that you're stronger, which you are, but most times it's all mental.

Rock on man!

It's just less resistance under my hands, which is great. I don't have desire to hit the weights. :lmao:

 

[metalchurch79]

Re: I just switched from .11s to .9s

It's just less resistance under my hands, which is great. I don't have desire to hit the weights. :lmao:

Agreed, I was just making a point in general, it wasnt directed at anyone in particular.

 

[Dr. Vegetable]

Re: I just switched from .11s to .9s

When I want to lift weights, I pick up an acoustic.