who's got their strats at Eb with 11's?

[appar111]

For some reason, i keep coming back to this setup on my strat: 11-49 strings (almost always D'Addarios), low action, tuned to Eb.

I keep fooling myself for short periods of time that 9's at Eb are fine, but I always knock them out of tune, even with a good string lock technique on the tuners and stretching the strings out appropriately.

I tried 10-46 briefly and that may be the best compromise for me between something that I can really bang on and something that has enough bendability, but there's just something about a strat w/ 11's and low action. Just feels right.

My buddy's 95% a lead player in a successful local cover band and he can't stand picking up my guitars for the most part. When I set his guitars up, it's 9's, Eb and the action as low as I can get away with. He plays high gain stuff (as do I), but his guitars are all floyded and those things have a way of getting super low action w/ almost no buzzing. I'm convinced that the trem system sucks up enough vibration that it doesn't get translated into fret rattle.

Anyway, who else loves 11's on their strat?

 

[DeathALT.]

Re: who's got their strats at Eb with 11's?

My RG currently has 11-49's tuned to E Standard, and it's good for me when I play metal, and when I play blues too. I think I'm going to switch to 10's (or maybe 9-46???) though, so that I don't need to use so much effort when playing legato.

 

[CTN]

Re: who's got their strats at Eb with 11's?

10s and 11s in Eb are fine. Wouldn't go much lower or higher than that though. A 10-52 set is great for lots of bendiness on the high strings and tight solid rhythms on the lows.

 

[Rockstar216]

Re: who's got their strats at Eb with 11's?

I use to have a strat set up like that then it was stolen. It was a beater but point is it was still mines but guess it was a good thing some what cause now I almost have to buy a new guitar maybe a tele with the same set up.

 

[sosomething]

Re: who's got their strats at Eb with 11's?

Anyway, who else loves 11's on their strat?

I use the same setup as you on two Strats. One is an Eric Johnson Strat and the other is a G&L Legacy. It lends a lot of weight and punch to the tone and doesn't fight too much in Eb tuning.