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Strings - 10s vs 9s


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Does anybody here prefer 9s over 10s for setneck, shorter (Hamer/Gibson) scale guitars?

I've always gone with 10s, but have been playing a number of local-shop guits that appear to be strung with 9s. And am in bendy heavan; have been listening/playing to a lot of Page stuff lately.

Do you lose much in the tone and or sustain departments?

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Just the opposite for me, .010 - .046 on gibby scale and .009 - .042 on a Fender scale. I probably leave something on the table but I play non bo-teak gear anyway so WTF.

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I strung up a rather bright sounding Ibanez ST with 11s, a Hamer Studio w/ 10s and Daytona with 9s. And I've mixed and matched. They pretty much sound the same to me when playing heavily through heavy - moderate distortion. Playing clean there is a difference to my ears, but I like bendability. The 11s were more difficult to bend so I've gone away from those entirely.

Good luck.

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11's on my 24.75" scale guitars tuned to standard and on my 25.5" guitars tuned to E flat.

10's on my 25.5" scale guitars tuned to standard.

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10's on everything! I've never had any guitar that I've tried with both where the 10's didn't sound better. For some gutiars it changed a kind of crappy tone to a good one. I'm used to them so bending on any scale isn't a problem.

Plus, come one, you know who light gauge strings are for, don't you? :lol:

-Austin

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Plus, come one, you know who light gauge strings are for, don't you? :lol:

guitar_cat.gif

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9-46 for me, on all scale lengths. The slinkiness I like on the unwound strings with a little fatter tone from the wound strings. High action too, which is what real men prefer.

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10 to 46 for me

As for tone, I bought into the big strings/big tone thing for years. From a pure physics standpoint, the higher mass of larger strings would have to produce higher disruption of the pickup's flux field. Then I learned the the Rev Billy G plays 8 to 40s. His tone doesn't seem to suffer too much for it. :lol:

Edited, sorry for the tangent...

Jeff

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I use 10-52 on all my 24.75".

To me there is a slight difference about tone --or so I want to believe-- but that's not the point. I am actually an EXTREME BENDER too so, if you want to know why I use 10's and not 9's, please keep on reading:

With 9's, when I want to bend up to a perfect fourth, sometimes I cannot hit the note I go for, no matter how hard I try. I have very strong hands, so it's not a matter of strength. I think it's just because the elasticity of the string reaches its limit at a given moment --being thinner, 9's would stretch up to a lower point than 10's.

That's how I moved from 9's to 10's, and from them on my extreme bends worked way easier.

Just try this now: bend up a major third on your E string at, let's say, the 12th fret. Did it work? Ok, now try to do the same on the B string. Do you notice how it's easier to go one major third up in the later case? No!? :D Well, I do! :lol:

In any case, that's my rationale about why I don't use 9's anymore. It seems to me that, the thicker the gauge, the more "stretchable" the string is when tuned at the same tension.

I found 10's provide the best tension/tone/elasticity combination for my style of playing --which, I repeat, includes a lot of extreme bends.

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As for tone, I bought into the big strings/big tone thing for years. From a pure physics standpoint, the higher mass of larger strings would have to produce higher disruption of the pickup's flux field. Then I learned the the Rev Billy G plays 8 to 40s. His tone doesn't seem to suffer too much for it. :lol:

Yes, but I don't know anybody who's worked harder on putting together strange combinations of downstream components to get those tones. He doesn't just plug into the nearest Mesa.

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I too was fascinated by the fat string phenomena ... I read about SRV and Dick Dale ... The Mermen ... sometimes 13's were common.

I know for a fact that my Daytona sounded much richer going from 10's to 11's. With the 11's the 46 just seemed too small ... 52's? Now thats manly. Now all my guitars have the 11 52 set.

I dont play any shred ... bluesy alt rock over here. :D:lol::D

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As for tone, I bought into the big strings/big tone thing for years. From a pure physics standpoint, the higher mass of larger strings would have to produce higher disruption of the pickup's flux field. Then I learned the the Rev Billy G plays 8 to 40s. His tone doesn't seem to suffer too much for it. :lol:

Yes, but I don't know anybody who's worked harder on putting together strange combinations of downstream components to get those tones. He doesn't just plug into the nearest Mesa.

11s seemed to sound 'bigger' but 10's have been a good compromise, 'playability' vs. tone.

Edited, sorry for the tangent...

Jeff

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As for tone, I bought into the big strings/big tone thing for years. From a pure physics standpoint, the higher mass of larger strings would have to produce higher disruption of the pickup's flux field. Then I learned the the Rev Billy G plays 8 to 40s. His tone doesn't seem to suffer too much for it. :lol:

Yes, but I don't know anybody who's worked harder on putting together strange combinations of downstream components to get those tones. He doesn't just plug into the nearest Mesa.

Ha! JohnnyB wins on calling me on this, followed closely by Pirateflynn and Feynman (having a little fun with you guys...).

I didn't buy in to the 8's argument

1. To JohnnyB's point, if I had eight Bixonic Expandoras to chain together before the amp, each adding just a hair of gain to the next, eights might just work.

Billy G's pulling your leg on that one, too.

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