Will I notice much difference in moving upto 11's?

[Brow]

Hey guys.

As some of you may know, I have coil tappble pickups (Screamin' Demon and Pearly Gates) on my Gordon Smith Graduate 60.

I've noticed that when split, both pickups sound good but a little 'wimpy'. Would moving up a gauge of strings to 11's make much (if any) improvement to the split coil tones?

Are 11's much harder to play on than 10's, or is there little difference in playability?

Thanx for any opinions guys.

Craig

 

[Rainmaker]

Re: Will I notice much difference in moving upto 11's?

Craig, I think it gets thicker but the reason why your pickups are wimpy when split is because they're already quite low output. Pickups around the 16k mark get split tones of around 8k, which is a strong single coil. Also keep in mind the the PG has mismatched coils.

See you on MSN.

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Will I notice much difference in moving upto 11's?

You'll notice a difference going to .011. It may improve your tone,But i
doubt it will fatten up split coils. But you should give it a shot anyway.

 

[Jeffrec]

Re: Will I notice much difference in moving upto 11's?

You'll notice a difference going to .011. It may improve your tone,But i
doubt it will fatten up split coils. But you should give it a shot anyway.

One thing you'll notice is that you'll have to work on your bends, etc., because your fingers will seem weaker at first. Within a day or so you should get used to them. I used to use them on my Strat to lose some of the treble, bu tended up switching pups, which worked out better. If you play slide, thicker strings are important for good tone.

 

[gordon_39422]

Re: Will I notice much difference in moving upto 11's?

Yeah, it will give your fingers a great workout. I love .11's on my strats. When I go into a guitar store and jam, or play a friend's guitar, I always over bend the strings. I think that is a good sign of finger strength.

As said previously it will warm things up, but not necessarily fatten the tone of the pups.

 

[Quencho092]

Re: Will I notice much difference in moving upto 11's?

i also find that .11's help you keep control of your bends more since theres more resistance. You can hit more exact pitches on the run without over bending.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Will I notice much difference in moving upto 11's?

I toally agree . . . I've been using .11s on my Dot for three years now, and I find that the strings are easier to control when I'm doing fast runs. Just make sure that you get your guitar set up for them, and DONT get a wound 3rd string. . . tried that and it is REALLY hard to bend with.

 

[Hellion]

Re: Will I notice much difference in moving upto 11's?

I think you'll get a better response if you change from a "split" function and change the option to having the coils in parallel. You'll get a tone similar to that of a single coil but with a bit more fullness. As far as the difference between 10's & 11's, I don't think you'll experience much difference in feel, but the tone should improve. The 11's will feel a little tighter.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Will I notice much difference in moving upto 11's?

Dunno about "tone"....I like 10's better than 11's in normal tuning.
The topend is more alive and the bottom goes deeper with 10's.
The 11's will sound fatter, but it sacrifices some of the twang, but in the end it depends on what you like and how the feel is with the 11's.
They move more mass but not as widesounding as 10's, well that is how I hear it.

 

[nuntius]

Re: Will I notice much difference in moving upto 11's?

Raise your action with 10s first and see how that goes.. There seems to be a point where your tone seems to come alive, and you'll wonder how you put up with a low action + smaller sound (imo). If your guitar's still set up the way it was when you got it, the actions way to low lol...

I dunno, I just seem to prefer the feel of 10's + a higher action VS 11s and a normal ish action. 11s and a high action gets a bit harder, and I deffinatley second no wound 3rd!

 

[Brow]

Re: Will I notice much difference in moving upto 11's?

Thanx for all the posts guys

I normally play with a medium action, accept on my Gordon Smith which came setup with 10's and a very low action.

Also, I do play slide and as someone mentioned above the heavier strings might also improve things for when I do play slide.

I think I'll try a set of 11's on my 70's strat and see how I like them. That way I've not messed up the way my other guitars play

Craig

 

[nuntius]

Re: Will I notice much difference in moving upto 11's?

They'll actually feel tighter on the strat since it's a longer scale length

 

[kevlar3000]

Re: Will I notice much difference in moving upto 11's?

Many folks play strings beyond their hands strength and it leads to long term hand and wrist issues. Thicker strings don't give you better tone, they give you different tone. I like a brighter bite to the note so I play lower gauge strings (9s). Billy Gibbons, Albert Collins played 8s and have among the greatest guitar tones ever. You have some very bright stock pickups, I would look at volume/tone pot value and at the cap value on the pots. Can make huge changes in your sound. The string gauge won't take shrillness away. As far as bends and such, if you practice you should be able to control your bends with your hands and not simply with extreme string tension that limits it. Let your hands control the guitar, not the other way around.

 

[Brow]

Re: Will I notice much difference in moving upto 11's?

Thanx for the new replies

I wouldn't say the pickups are too shrill sounding. I love the Demon and PG tones when they're wired as full humbuckers, and they do sound good when split, they're just a little weak is all

I think I may try changing the wiring to series/parallel and see if that improves things

Craig

 

[aestus]

Re: Will I notice much difference in moving upto 11's?

I have 11's on all of my guitars. I like the beefier sound and feel. 10's feel too flimsy now. The resistance of 11's slows me down when I play leads, which is good. It keeps me from playing "busy bee" type leads with notes flailing all over the place. I'm actually quite slow when playing leads because of the 11's. 9's are too thin and I will either break them and/or waaay over bend them and pull them out of tune. I play with a metal pick and have an aggressive pick attack sometimes. I once jammed my finger on 9's because I over bended on a note and push the g string clear off the fretboard and my finger got caught when the strings slinged back. I'm waaay too sloppy on 10's, but can manage better.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Will I notice much difference in moving upto 11's?

Your fingers will get used to whatever you use for a few weeks. Like Kevlar said, each gauge has it's own sound, not better, but different. To me, 11's improve your left hand's string control, and give a bolder, less bitey tone, with less string warble too.
I use 11's on all LP's, because of the shorter scale and the fact I tune them to Eb.
I use 10's on strat scale guitars, just because they feel equal to 11's on a Paul.
And definitely reslot the nut and do a thorough setup if you go up one gauge.
You can still put 10's back on, and the benefit will be that your strings now have plenty of room to slide through the nut.

 

[Brow]

Re: Will I notice much difference in moving upto 11's?

Thanx for the replies guys.

I'm seriously thinking about trying 11's on my Gibson and Gordon Smith Les Pauls just to see how I like it

Would the Brass nut on my Gordon Smith make any difference to my wanting to fit 11's on the guitar?

Craig

 

[Brow]

Re: Will I notice much difference in moving upto 11's?

*bump* just to see if anyone can help me as regards the Brass nut issue

Craig

 

[Hellion]

Re: Will I notice much difference in moving upto 11's?

*bump* just to see if anyone can help me as regards the Brass nut issue

Craig

I personally don't know why anyone would have a brass nut on their guitars. I realize that there are some people that really like them, but I've always had a problem with the strings binding on a brass nut. Hence, they're the first thing I get rid of.

 

[Kelsey]

Re: Will I notice much difference in moving upto 11's?

I use .010s on my Fenders with 25.5" scale length and .011s with a Jr wrap on my Gibsons with 24.75" scale length. They seem pretty close in tension and control. Any heavier would cause serious hand and wrist problems for me; .009s go out of tune too easily and are too difficult to control precisely for me. I suspect that the problem you're having is inherent in the split tone of pickups in that output range, but I've never bothered with splitting HBs.