What String Gauge Do You Use?

[deeaa*]

Depends entirely on guitar.

On most guitars I use a custom set that has 9 tops but 11 bottoms, 9 to 50 or 52.
One Yamaha shredder I keep 9-42 and it's reserved for like crazy fast recording riffs, otherwise it's way too lax to play.

On a couple of 'em I have 9,5 sets (GHs) and on one gibby scale I usually use a 10 set. 13 on acoustic.

It's been getting this thin in recent years, when I had just a few guitars I used .11 - 52 sets on them.

[deeaa*]

Depends entirely on guitar.

On most guitars I use a custom set that has 9 tops but 11 bottoms, 9 to 50 or 52.
One Yamaha shredder I keep 9-42 and it's reserved for like crazy fast recording riffs, otherwise it's way too lax to play.

On a couple of 'em I have 9,5 sets (GHs) and on one gibby scale I usually use a 10 set. 13 on acoustic.

It's been getting this thin in recent years, when I had just a few guitars I used .11 - 52 sets on them.

[FrankenFretter***]

I use 9-42 on my longer scale guitars and 10-46 on shorter scale guitars. For years I used 10s on everything but that was when I was playing all the time.

I'll bet you have to buy strings by the gross, Spud. Do you have a rotation schedule for string changes, or is it on an "as needed" basis? As I slowly grow my flock, I realize that strings have to be something to budget for. I have four or five that are due, and that will probably mean that I'll only have a few sets left afterward. Thank goodness for Webstrings!

[deeaa*]

I for one have seriouzly pondered about putting one of those sticker printout dymo labels on the back of each guitar stating the gauges, and having selected just the right gauges for each guitar (meaning, some love a 52 bottom, some have to be 48, and the best D string could be 28 on some axe 32 on another...and I alwyas forget exactly what went where.

Then I could just order like 20 piecez oc every gauge I use, which would mean maybe 20 diffefent gauges.

[Spudman***]

I'll bet you have to buy strings by the gross, Spud. Do you have a rotation schedule for string changes, or is it on an "as needed" basis? As I slowly grow my flock, I realize that strings have to be something to budget for. I have four or five that are due, and that will probably mean that I'll only have a few sets left afterward. Thank goodness for Webstrings!

I buy 12 per gauge in straight packs at a time. I generally don't have to buy that often for 2 reasons: first, I only use a few guitars to gig with and those would be the ones I want fresh strings on. Second, strings seem to sound better longer than they used to. I don't have oily or sweaty hands and strings seem to have a longer active life. I get more for my money than in the past.

I'm only paying about $2.50 per set so it's not that bad.

[Teleman77]

I use 8's an all my teles and 10's on the Gibbys.

[Katastrophe]

@ Teleman77 -

Dude! Glad to see you posting here again... welcome back!

[Teleman77]

@ Katastrophe -

Thanks! It's good to be back. I'll make sure to stop by more often than every 6 months.

[Ch0jin]

10's on my Maton's that both have a 25.5" scale length and 11's on my Strat that has the same scale length but is detuned a whole step.

[old mark]

I started as a bass player, and I used 13's on my guitars...My hands are now OLD bassplayer's hands and I am down to 9's...Ernie Ball for many decades now.

mark

[Tig***]

Wisdom indeed!

Welcome to The Fret, Mark.

[Blaze]

10 for some guit..

9 - 46 for some other

11 -12 for slide ..

[DrumBob]

It depends on the guitar. On the Gretsch Anniversary and the Les Paul Junior, it's 11s. On the Fenders, it's 10s, although I'm thinking about going to 11s, because I'm over bending. I think I'm getting to the point where I can handle 11s pretty much all around.

[Tig***]

Good to see you again, DrumBob. Do you have any recent articles at Premier Guitar or other publications we should read?

[deeaa*]

Gettin' back to the thread, I just played a training session last night with a semi-eleven set on a strat scale guitar...I could play quite OK, bends and all, but boy my playing sucked.

I'm thinking, I should really always play at practice with at least tens, and then when I record leads or play a gig, switch to nines. Playing fluidity and bending vibrato improves 300% or so. I like to bend every note a little when I play leads, and the best thing is to do a full bend and then a wide vibrato on the bent note...that's very hard or impossible if you have thicker strings. Also, I noted that with 11's it's nigh impossible to do a two-step bend which is also something I enjoy doing.

[DrumBob]

Unfortunately, not at the moment. When the new editor-in-chief came in last year at PG, I, along with several other stalwarts who helped build the magazine into what it is today, were swept out in order for him to bring his journalistic buddies in, most of whom wrote for Guitar Player. The way they did it was horrendous. I have yet to hook up with another guitar magazine, but I will soon. Thank you for asking.

[Eric***]

Gettin' back to the thread, I just played a training session last night with a semi-eleven set on a strat scale guitar...I could play quite OK, bends and all, but boy my playing sucked.

I'm thinking, I should really always play at practice with at least tens, and then when I record leads or play a gig, switch to nines. Playing fluidity and bending vibrato improves 300% or so. I like to bend every note a little when I play leads, and the best thing is to do a full bend and then a wide vibrato on the bent note...that's very hard or impossible if you have thicker strings. Also, I noted that with 11's it's nigh impossible to do a two-step bend which is also something I enjoy doing.

What's a training session? Like you were teaching someone or something?

[deeaa*]

Aaa, I meant the bi-monthly band practice session by that. We play circa 4-6 hours a month with Spookbox.

[Tig***]

I hate to hear that. It happened to me before.
Hang in there.