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MAXIFUNK
February 19th, 2010, 04:43 PM
Hey guys my CV Thinline just arrived at the local place I buy my gear.

Question Does a Tele sound better with 10's or do a lot of you guys do this?

markb
February 19th, 2010, 04:57 PM
My tele' is more resonant and twangy with 10s than the 9s it came with. I've had others that don't care.

tot_Ou_tard
February 19th, 2010, 08:36 PM
Who cares about 10s or 9s, how is the guitfiddle?!?

MAXIFUNK
February 20th, 2010, 12:00 AM
Who cares about 10s or 9s, how is the guitfiddle?!?

I do not know yet I will not pick it up until Saturday.

birv2
February 20th, 2010, 08:19 AM
I just joined the tele brigade, and I've got 10's on mine. They sound fine. 9's are too wobbly for me, and I can bend the 10's fine.

wingsdad
February 20th, 2010, 10:28 AM
... more resonant and twangy with 10s than the 9s it came with...
...sums it up well. :AOK

The bit more mass & strength of 10's inherently yield richer tone and a shade more volume, and not just with Tele's. Thus, any single coil pup performs better with 10's than lighter gauges, while 'buckers handle 9's or lighter better with ostensibly twice the magnetism. 10's are also less prone to prematurely stretching out of tune from agressive bending, since they're stronger.

I go with 10's on all my electric 6's, not just the Tele-type. 9's are just too flabby and weak for my style of play, primarily rhythm & chord-lick, grounded in Motown/Memphis soul, r&b & blues.

hubberjub
February 20th, 2010, 11:44 AM
.10s on the Fender scale guitars and .11s on the Gibson scales. That's what works for me. Although I did have .08s on my Ibanez Jem I had when I was 15. Those were the days.

MAXIFUNK
February 20th, 2010, 09:18 PM
Thanks everyone for your input I am going to try 10's on the Tele and next time I re-string one of my Strats.

I have D' Addario XL 110's on my LP like the sound a lot but just to see the difference I'll try 11's next time. Not worried about bending the strings since I started out as a Bass player bending guitar strings no matter the size should not be an issue.

MAXIFUNK
February 20th, 2010, 09:36 PM
I do not know yet I will not pick it up until Saturday.


Well the CV ThinLine is one extremely great looking guitar felt great in my hands the neck was spot on perfect.
BUT the neck had a ding or nick on the neck right near the top right side of the 1st fret next to the 1st/2nd fret separator. UGH!!!! So, now I will wait to see if they can get a new one in or fender will let them mark down this one but honestly I would just rather a new with out any flaws if it was on the body of the AXE I properly would not care but on the neck no way.

So, now I must wait it out but the guitar was way more than I expected once I get it worked out it is another keeper to add to the collection for sure.

MAXIFUNK
February 23rd, 2010, 10:24 PM
Well the CV ThinLine is one extremely great looking guitar felt great in my hands the neck was spot on perfect.
BUT the neck had a ding or nick on the neck right near the top right side of the 1st fret next to the 1st/2nd fret separator. UGH!!!! So, now I will wait to see if they can get a new one in or fender will let them mark down this one but honestly I would just rather a new with out any flaws if it was on the body of the AXE I properly would not care but on the neck no way.

So, now I must wait it out but the guitar was way more than I expected once I get it worked out it is another keeper to add to the collection for sure.


Fender only wanted to give them $10.00 off of the guitar with a chipped/dinged neck So now I have to wait 3 weeks for a replacement. :what :thwap @#!@$!#@$#@!%$@#@!
but it will be worth it once I have it in my hands.

Duffy
March 26th, 2010, 12:27 AM
That sounds foolish of Fender to offer such a small price cut, especially if the ding is under your finger during any playing or bending. It just won't sound right, I mean for a brand new guitar.

UPS is terrible I know, but who do you blame? Quality control should have picked it up, in my opinion.

Nice way to take the wind out of your sail and increase the anxiety level waiting all that time. Then they might move the date back even farther. I'd ask for something for the inconvenience in additon to the defective neck.

MAXIFUNK
March 26th, 2010, 01:13 AM
That sounds foolish of Fender to offer such a small price cut, especially if the ding is under your finger during any playing or bending. It just won't sound right, I mean for a brand new guitar.

UPS is terrible I know, but who do you blame? Quality control should have picked it up, in my opinion.

Nice way to take the wind out of your sail and increase the anxiety level waiting all that time. Then they might move the date back even farther. I'd ask for something for the inconvenience in addition to the defective neck.
I am still waiting!!!!!!!!! :thwap LOL
Good thing I have plenty of new toys to enjoy!!!

FrankenFretter
March 26th, 2010, 11:31 AM
Like a lot of other guys here, I like the sound and feel of 10s on my Fender-ish guitars. It just feels like the right gauge of string for single coils/ inline tuners. Or something like that.

That sucks about your "almost" guitar. I really like those Thinlines. Hopefully the replacement will come soon, so you can satisfy that GAS pain.

ZMAN
March 26th, 2010, 11:52 AM
I found a happy medium. I use the D'Addario 9.5 set. They are just a little thicker than 9s but not a full 10. I use them on all of my guitars. When I bought my CV Tele Custom I am pretty sure they set it up with 10s. I always get them to do a set up before I buy, and a different person did the set up. My normal guy would have automatically put on 9.5s. With the 3 saddle bridge there is a lot less tension on the strings and it make for a nice light feel.
I find it easier to switch from my Strats to my Gibbies with the 9.5s.

MAXIFUNK
April 10th, 2010, 08:01 PM
Well finally the CV ThinLine Tele arrived yesterday I picked it up today.
This one has some starches on the bottom edge of the pick-guard but you can not see it unless you hold it upside down. The rest of the axe was spotless no dings or neck issues this time. :happy

Pics and a little review to follow. I am almost certain I am going to swap out the pups with these!

http://store.guitarfetish.com/nehaviotenep.html

http://store.guitarfetish.com/nehavinobrpi.html


Time to go check out the axe!

Iago
July 14th, 2010, 09:13 AM
I don't think they sound necessarily "better". 9s will give you a thinner tone, but it's easier to bend and in my own experience, they last a little less than 10s. 10's are a little thicker sounding, a tad harder to bend at first, but you get used to it. I have been using 10's for 7 years, then for 1 year I switched to 9s and I couldn't consider it "worse".

gregsguitars
July 16th, 2010, 09:30 AM
10's on my Tele's and Les Pauls, 9's on my Strats...it works for me.

BluesHack
December 3rd, 2010, 04:10 PM
I've got 10s on my Warmoth thinline, works for me.

Presto
December 4th, 2010, 04:40 AM
I use 10's on my tele and prefer them over 9's.

player
December 5th, 2010, 01:30 AM
I found a happy medium. I use the D'Addario 9.5 set. They are just a little thicker than 9s but not a full 10. I use them on all of my guitars. When I bought my CV Tele Custom I am pretty sure they set it up with 10s. I always get them to do a set up before I buy, and a different person did the set up. My normal guy would have automatically put on 9.5s. With the 3 saddle bridge there is a lot less tension on the strings and it make for a nice light feel.
I find it easier to switch from my Strats to my Gibbies with the 9.5s.I just bought a set of 9.5's so should be interesting gauge to check out.if I like em on one git the others might get them too.

Earle G
January 17th, 2011, 05:45 PM
I use 10s on Teles. These seem to be a happy medium and balance. I like
.011s too but there is a trade off a bit on .009s and .011s for Teles.

Commodore 64
February 3rd, 2011, 07:41 AM
I too, use 10s on my Teles. Sometimes the Ernie Ball Hybrid (heavy top skinny bottom), but recently bought a 10-pack of D'Addario EXL 110.

Duffy
February 3rd, 2011, 08:05 AM
I might try some 9.5s today when I have the Fender locking tuners put on my LPB CV fifties strat. Just fo the fun of it. They might hit those Texas Specials just a little harder. Pretty soon I won't be able to call it a CV anymore without feeling guilty.

MAXIFUNK
March 9th, 2011, 11:42 PM
I might try some 9.5s today when I have the Fender locking tuners put on my LPB CV fifties strat. Just fo the fun of it. They might hit those Texas Specials just a little harder. Pretty soon I won't be able to call it a CV anymore without feeling guilty.

HEY Duffy whats on that cv parts wise?

progrmr
March 10th, 2011, 08:28 AM
I just joined the Tele club over the weekend - I put 10's on it and it plays great but the pickups suck. It's an Arbor..?? Anyway I've got some GFS pickups and a stewmac tele rewire kit coming in to resolve the sound issues. On a squier tele I had the sounded great with 10's (and fender noiseless pickups).

How's the pickups on that CV sound??

http://www.daverancour.com/arbor/arbor1.jpg

http://www.daverancour.com/arbor/arbor3.jpg

Tig
March 10th, 2011, 08:42 AM
I just joined the Tele club over the weekend - I put 10's on it and it plays great but the pickups suck. It's an Arbor..?? Anyway I've got some GFS pickups and a stewmac tele rewire kit coming in to resolve the sound issues. On a squier tele I had the sounded great with 10's (and fender noiseless pickups).


Wow, nice Tele. I'm looking for one with a mini-humbucker in the neck, but will likely have to buy a regular one and convert it. I might go with CV Custom with Al 5's and put in a Seymour Duncan SM-3n mini-hum for the neck. All the CV Tele's (Custom and 50's) I've played sound pretty good, but not as nice as the American Special with the Texas Special pickups.

progrmr
March 10th, 2011, 09:05 AM
Only paid $120 for that thing too! It was a steal.

Duffy
March 10th, 2011, 12:23 PM
Maxi,

The CV is a strat in Lake Placid Blue with a white pearl pickguard and Custom Shop Texas Special pickups. I recently put the brushed metal Fender Locking tuners on it. Very nice guitar. It has the bridge tone control mod so you can adjust the tone on the bridge switch setting only, the middle pickup is wide open. Sounds super great.

I put some Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups in my Squier Standard tele, walnut finish, black pickguard, nice looking guitar and sounds good with the noiseless pickups but not like a traditional tele. Not having noise is nice though. However, it seems like you have to be willing to put up with that noise if you want to get real good tele sound, to one extent or another. My MIM std tele has hot ceramic single coils and is noisy, '09. Great tone though. But I keep thinking, there has to be something better out there for this guitar to cut down this noise. My Nashville tele has Tex Mex pickups and isn't nearly as noisy, but they are alnico pickups.

I think one pickup solution may be to install, "low output" pickups. I think these would sound better and might be less noisy, but when you turn them up they might get real noisy, I don't know. I suspect, however, that the low output pickups will be much quieter.

Jipes
March 15th, 2011, 07:09 AM
Hey guys my CV Thinline just arrived at the local place I buy my gear.

Question Does a Tele sound better with 10's or do a lot of you guys do this?

I have a 10-52 Fender set which sounds great on both my Esquire and my Thinline Custom

GREENMACHINE
January 9th, 2012, 10:00 PM
My Fender Am Deluxe Tele came with 9's on it. I liked them for abit cause they were really easy to bend on but I couldnt get a thick enough sound out of them for my liking and I play a mixed gauge of 10 - 52 (light tops, heavy bottoms) on my strat, so I thought I'd put the same set on my Tele and bam! They were a huge imporovement

stingx
January 10th, 2012, 06:44 AM
I use 10s on all my instruments sans a Floyd Rose. On those I use 9s.

jtees4
January 18th, 2012, 11:44 AM
I put 10's on everything.

Miami-Ace
February 20th, 2012, 12:16 PM
:danceWell, I think a lot of the desire for 10s is just macho stuff. I generally play pretty clean, so the slightly lighter tone of 9's is just fine for me. I also like the easier touch for bends and other legato moves. Now, if you want to bomb away with gain/distortion ... OK, I think 10s might be better ... but you're probably going to be doing that with a humbucker setup.:dance

deeaa
February 20th, 2012, 12:34 PM
Played 11's with thicker lows for a decade. It does give a great unwavering rhythm sound. Swapped to tens for easier leads, but it wasn't so much easier and lows got lax. So now I have put a thick 11 set bottom end but 9's top end on everything and I love it. Strong chords but very light and lively to bend. Also swapped from thick jazz pics to regular .50 delrins...a bit playing style adjustment too...and been very happy since.

Too thick is too thick...I love a thick string low end so I can smack it hard without wobbles, but if Angus and gibbons can play 8's and sound huge, why torment them fingers.

Photomike666
February 20th, 2012, 02:03 PM
I've got 11s (Ernie Ball Power Slinkys), love the sound & don't have any issues bending

Tig
February 20th, 2012, 02:08 PM
:danceWell, I think a lot of the desire for 10s is just macho stuff. I generally play pretty clean, so the slightly lighter tone of 9's is just fine for me. I also like the easier touch for bends and other legato moves. Now, if you want to bomb away with gain/distortion ... OK, I think 10s might be better ... but you're probably going to be doing that with a humbucker setup.:dance

Good to see you back, Miami-Ace! :agree

deeaa
February 20th, 2012, 11:18 PM
I've got 11s (Ernie Ball Power Slinkys), love the sound & don't have any issues bending

Really? Must have really strong fingers. I could not do it well. I mean, yeah, I can bend a step up but forget about 1,5 or two-step bends, and especially forget about applying a loose Angus-style vibrato at the height of the bend. Even when I used a heavy LP the string pull would be too much doing even a one-step bend without pushing the neck in the other direction simultaneously.

What I love about nines is I don't have to hold on to the neck when bending, but rather just lift the string with fingers and suspend the whole guitar basically by the bending fingers, then kinda move my whole arm for vibrato, and that just doesn't happen even with tens. Well maybe with tens on a LP etc. it is just OK, but even better with nines and especially lighter guitars which I prefer these days.

Photomike666
February 21st, 2012, 03:18 AM
Ok, I'm not that good yet so no vibrato when bending, but I don't lack in finger strength. Maybe on the next set I'll try nines and see the difference

riverrick
February 22nd, 2012, 10:06 AM
+1 on the 10's!!!

R_of_G
February 22nd, 2012, 10:10 AM
:danceWell, I think a lot of the desire for 10s is just macho stuff. I generally play pretty clean, so the slightly lighter tone of 9's is just fine for me. I also like the easier touch for bends and other legato moves. Now, if you want to bomb away with gain/distortion ... OK, I think 10s might be better ... but you're probably going to be doing that with a humbucker setup.:dance

Interesting take on it Ace.

I never really thought about machismo entering into the picture but since we're talking about guitar players, I suspect you're probably right on the money.

Now the question becomes, when someone wants to move up to thicker strings is that "tone envy?" ;)

Perfect Stranger
February 25th, 2012, 03:50 PM
Try these on your tele. GHS Big Core Nickle Rockers 9.5 - 43
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/ghs-nickel-rockers-big-core-extra-light/h72616000000000

I use GHS Big Core 9.5-43's on my single coil guitars, and I use the GHS Big Core 10.5-48's on
all my humbucker guitars. I think you'll really like them.....and the sound. :AOK

stingx
February 25th, 2012, 03:59 PM
LOL on the "macho stuff." I think people should just use what they like and works best for them. For me, 10s just sound better than lighter gauges. I never switched because so and so uses a particular gauge. I just experimented with different brands and gauges and kept buying/using what I found felt good to my fingers and sounded good to my ears.

piebaldpython
February 25th, 2012, 10:26 PM
I like 11's on my Tele........primarily because I intersperse a lot of slide with fretting.....or just play mostly slide depending on the tune.

deeaa
February 25th, 2012, 11:05 PM
I recommend everyone to once try a mixed set for highs and lows. Really, why stick with what the companies offer? It's just a price of a set and you might really like it.

Just take a .009 set and substitute the three low strings from a .11 set. It takes a few minutes to get used to bigger change over the mid strings, but it's very nice, really the best of both words.
I use 9,11,17 and then 30,40,49 or 50 or even 52 depending on guitar and what I find. Some guitars won't accept a .52 (can't intonate, the bridge doesn't go far enough back).

BackwoodTele
May 10th, 2012, 03:01 PM
I use Ernie Ball Heavy Bottoms Light Tops (10 -52) on my Strat and my Tele.
I like that the top end is easy to bend and very usable in solos, and I love that the bottom end adds thickness and is great with overdrive/distortion

Commodore 64
May 11th, 2012, 09:41 AM
I don't attribute my affinity for 10s to any type of macho motivation. I have big hands and tend to squeeze hard. That means I pull a lot of stuff sharp. 10s strike the balance for me, 8 and 9s I'm way outta tune, especially on chords and rhythm playing. 11s and 12s are too hard for me to chord around on, I'm talking particularly about Barre and partial chords further on up the neck.

kuvash
July 18th, 2012, 05:10 PM
I made the same observation myself "64" and it was especially evident on my JA90 Tele which has medium jumbo frets and a shorter scale length...I tend to apply a bit of pressure on chords and go sharp.So for me it was 10's and remember to "lighten up"
Honest folks...I wasn't trying to make mine bigger or go for more girth,no siree.

kuvash

deeaa
July 18th, 2012, 11:19 PM
I'm still looking for balance, and I'm pretty happy with what I have now.

Instead of just putting same strings on every axe, I find it best to select a suitable set for each guitar.

Thus my Fender scale axes have sets that have .11 bottom end but .9 set top end - great tight chording but easy lead bends.
My Gibby scales seem to work fine with regular .10 set due to shorter scale - the chording is less tight but then again they're different guitars in every way anyhow & it's cool to have a clear difference.

I also keep one guitar strung with 09 superlights in case I want to record some crazy fast passage for instance, and my main studio/recording guitar is strung with .11 heavy set with wound G because when recording you can play again and again until you get it right even with thick strings, and the thickness really makes recorded sound so much clearer and punchier with less drive required.

Duffy
July 19th, 2012, 03:55 AM
You might want to try the new "cobalt" strings. They are advertized to be more powerful and clear sounding. I found them to be louder and very nice. They made such a big difference in sound and tone that they reminded me of the difference you notice when you put some good new pickups in a guitar. I definitely like them. Whether they last longer I don't know but they do have a different sound them that some may find useful.

I still use D'darrio nines and tens, and Slinkys. The "cobalts" are just another option.

Tig
July 24th, 2012, 10:46 PM
You might want to try the new "cobalt" strings.

I like the set I put on my Reverend (P-90's). I think they work really well on single coil guitars, especially when you are looking for a bright, clear, well defined sound. I bet they'll go nicely on my Hell No.2 (Tele style) and my Gretsch.

Commodore 64
July 25th, 2012, 02:39 PM
I have recently converted to hybrid 9s. It's a 9 set on eGB and 10 set on EAD. I always figured i'd go up in gauge the longer I played, but that doesn't seem to be the case.