String Gauge difference

I agree about no "one size fits all" wrt string gauge. Action, pickups, tunings, slide, musical style... all come into play.

I don't know if it's just me, but certain electric guitars of mine just seem to "take" to certain string gauges and brands.

E.g. my Melody Maker works best for me with GHS boomers, 10's. But my Jackson with Floyd works best with DR 9's... and so on.

Richard
 
My goal is to try to make my vibrato much easier with standard tuning. Is the key here just thinner strings than what I use normally? (9 gauge Ernie Balls or DR's)
 
I'm fairly brutish with my left hand, so when I down gauge, I play out of tune with chords unless I watch myself.

That's not a bad thing for me. To practice to relax in the heat of battle makes me play more fluid. I am dialed in for 10's or 11's as far as my left hand though.

Richard
 
claxor said:
My goal is to try to make my vibrato much easier with standard tuning. Is the key here just thinner strings than what I use normally? (9 gauge Ernie Balls or DR's)
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I don't think so. My vibrato really started coming together when I went with 11's on a 24 7/8" scale guitar.

Terry.
 
barhrecords said:
I don't know if it's just me, but certain electric guitars of mine just seem to "take" to certain string gauges and brands.
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I'd agree with this. My Collings 290 was shipped with 11's and when I talked with the music store he suggested I try the 11's first before thinking about changing them (10's were my standard then). He said they were "made for 11"s". He was right. That guitar is a joy to stretch with the heavier strings. I've heard the same story from others who have bought the same guitar. I think part of the reason is that it has higher frets, along with some excellent fretwork.

Terry.
 
Tone Seeker said:
I don't think so. My vibrato really started coming together when I went with 11's on a 24 7/8" scale guitar.

Terry.
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Well, the guitar I'm trying to make vibrato easier on a Jackson USA (25.5" scale) w/ official Floyd Rose. I have 9's on it, and I'd like to make it easier to fast, erratic vibrato.
 
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The Floyd headstock string clamp on my USA Jackson seems a little wonky with the lower pitched strings when I put anything but 9's on it. The bigger strings don't seem to sit as well. They probably make different clamps for thicker gauges but I've never looked into it.

Even a normal 9 to 9 re-string is a PITA to me with a floating Floyd. I used to take my Floyd guitars into the shop for string changes but this year I did my first Floyd re-string. All by myself... woo hoo lol

Richard
 
claxor said:
Well, the guitar I'm trying to make vibrato easier on a Jackson USA (25.5" scale) w/ official Floyd Rose. I have 9's on it, and I'd like to make it easier to fast, erratic vibrato.
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Do you use the Floyd a lot? If not you might want to install a bridge lock. You have to fight a floating bridge a lot more when executing Vibrato or bends, just the nature of that beast. The Tremol-No™ is a cool little device that makes that transition much easer.

Changing string gauge, doing it the right way can be a major PITA. Unless you have extra nuts cut fore the string gauge you want to use (non-trem guitars), strobe for intonation adjustments, and know how to adjust the neck you can only go so far with experimentation with string gauge and get good results.


 
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claxor said:
Yeah, some good opinions/advice here!

Probably the thing that has stopped me from really experimenting with a variety different of different string gauges is the fact that i don't know everything that has to be adjusted on the guitar each time i try different string sizes (the setup, intonation, truss rod, etc.). I'm kinda concerned about screwing up my best guitar, and its expensive to have a tech do all this for you multiple times.

Any of you guys see a tutorial of instructions on the net that covers all the bases so I do it with confidence?

Thanks!
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The best: IBANEZ RULES!! tech - setup

Not a massive fan of Ibanez or anything, but this guide is quite good.
 
I find 9.5's the perfect compromise between tone and playability. Wonder why they aren't more popular.
 
Sixstring said:
Changing string gauge, doing it the right way can be a major PITA. Unless you have extra nuts cut fore the string gauge you want to use (non-trem guitars), strobe for intonation adjustments, and know how to adjust the neck you can only go so far with experimentation with string gauge and get good results.
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+1
Gotta be careful switching gauges. I normally use 9-42's and switched to heavier 10's on my Les Paul for a few months to get a 'fatter' tone. When I switched back, I had a lot of trouble staying in tune because of the wearing in the nut. Ended up selling it.
 
I use 10s pretty much exclusively for solidbodies. To my ears, the tone is beefier and tighter than with 9s. A little bit hotter too, because there's more metal passing through the pickup's magnetic field.

I used to use 9s. I briefly tried an 8.5 set, but the tone of the high E string was thin and jangly. I can't imagine what 7s would sound like. When you get that thin, I think string breakage would become a major problem.


claxor said:
My goal is to try to make my vibrato much easier with standard tuning. Is the key here just thinner strings than what I use normally? (9 gauge Ernie Balls or DR's)
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The only reliable way I've found to improve vibrato is practice. Lighter strings might reduce the effort needed, but they won't help you with accuracy or feel.


barhrecords said:
Even a normal 9 to 9 re-string is a PITA to me with a floating Floyd.
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True. But it's much less painful if you change one string at a time. Still nowhere near as sweet as restringing a fixed-bridge guitar.
 
Sixstring said:
Do you use the Floyd a lot? If not you might want to install a bridge lock. You have to fight a floating bridge a lot more when executing Vibrato or bends, just the nature of that beast. The Tremol-No™ is a cool little device that makes that transition much easer.

Changing string gauge, doing it the right way can be a major PITA. Unless you have extra nuts cut fore the string gauge you want to use (non-trem guitars), strobe for intonation adjustments, and know how to adjust the neck you can only go so far with experimentation with string gauge and get good results.[/SIZE
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Hey Six,

I'm planning on getting a Tremol-No for dropped D tuning. Good call.

With the Tremol-No "hard-tail mode" engaged, could you remove all strings completely for cleaning the guitar body and intonation? The one-string-at-a-time method of changing strings is getting really tiresome.
 
I found some youtube videos on string changing the Floyd and followed those.

I was a little skeptical of making adjustments to the springs because I had never done that before, but it wasn't too bad.

And I got the bridge perfectly parallel to the guitar top and all my fine tuners back into the middle of their travel with the guitar in tune. I've got a Charvel with an 80's neck and a Floyd in the closet I need to re-string next. It has a graphite nut and no clamp at the headstock though.

Richard
 
I've be.en playing with 10s for years on all my guitars. Recently I bought a new Tele which came with 9s. It sounds nice bright and twangy and feels great as well. I have been looking at this thread and wondered how much difference there would be if I put 9s on one of my Strats.

So last night I put a set of 9s on my #1 Strat. Before I changed strings, to get a baseline I played into my Ultra for an hour or so using a variety of patches, paying attention to input levels and tone. I used a variety of picking techniques, from shreddy light economy and sweep picking to SRV type hard digging in. As usual, the Ultra responded very well to the input dynamics on both low and high gain patches.

When I changed the strings, I also removed one trem spring. After I got everything tuned up and got the bridge level, I fired up the Ultra and played the same patches in the same way. I honestly could not tell any significant difference in the tone at all (other than what you would expect with brand new strings), and the input levels did not change enough to notice. The only major difference, as expected, was a much slinkier feel, due to the lower tension.

I won't argue that there are some good reasons to use 10s over 9s, but the tonal difference was actually much less than I expected.

JWW
 
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JWDubois said:
I've been playing with 10s for years on all my guitars. Recently I bought a new Tele which came with 9s. It sounds nice bright and twangy and feels great as well. I have been looking at this thread and wondered how much difference there would be if I put 9s on one of my Strats.So last night I put a set of 9s on my #1 Strat. Before I changed strings, to get a baseline I played into my Ultra for an hour or so using a variety of patches, paying attention to input levels and tone. I used a variety of picking techniques, from shreddy light economy and sweep picking to SRV type hard digging in. As usual, the Ultra responded very well to the input dynamics on both low and high gain patches.When I changed the strings, I also removed one trem spring. After I got everything tuned up and got the bridge level, I fired up the Ultra and played the same patches in the same way. I honestly could not tell any significant difference in the tone at all (other than what you would expect with brand new strings), and the input levels did not change enough to notice. The only major difference, as expected, was a much slinkier feel, due to the lower tension. I won't argue that there are some good reasons to use 10s over 9s, but the tonal difference was actually much less than I expected.JWW
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How tweaked out is your Strat? I've got a 71 and it is very picky about pickup height adjustment in relation to tone. But once I get that dialed in, when I re-gauge it with the same brand of strings I too don't get a big tonal change.

But if you like or have your Strat pickups closer to the strings, the gauge change is very pronounced, for me on my Strat.

Richard
 
barhrecords said:
How tweaked out is your Strat? I've got a 71 and it is very picky about pickup height adjustment in relation to tone. But once I get that dialed in, when I re-gauge it with the same brand of strings I too don't get a big tonal change.

But if you like or have your Strat pickups closer to the strings, the gauge change is very pronounced, for me on my Strat.

Richard
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I'm pretty sensitive to pickup height. I prefer a cleaner, brighter sound, and I spent a lot of time getting the pickups set so that they don't pull the strings and cause warbly harmonics. So in my case the pickups are probably lower than average. I pretty much have to do a Pete Townshend to get a red light on the Ultra input.

As usual, your milage may vary.

JWW
 
+1 the difference between 9 and 10 in standard is pretty slight.

The bigger difference comes with a drastic step up to say 13's or something. Even at a half step down, which I usually use 13's for, there is a significant difference in tone and feel then say 10's or 11's at half a step down. As a big fan of drop tunings I also look for sets with a heavier E string or supplement it myself with a single to keep the tension high.

I really encourage anyone to learn to work on thier own guitars and do setups. I always had the hang up doing anything related to trust rod adjustment but with as drastic changes I was making, like drop B with a .65 on top, I had to, the neck simple had too much bow or not enough = buzz slop hell. Once I jumped that last hurdle all the other things I was doing, saddle/bridge height, intonation, bridge level, lube nut, etc came together and now I think I do a pretty damn good setup. Nice and low with no buzz with a nice flat even frettboard and action.

When it comes to trust rod, go slow and small! Quarter turn at a time and let it settle. I personally like to do quarter of a turn a day, recheck everything next day and reassess if it needs more with the smallest and least corrective input going into truss rod adjustments. Don't know if that is sound philosophy or not but makes me feel better about it.

I'm rambling....key points;

1. Try it for yourself, find out what you like
2. Slow and small for truss rod......THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!
3. Guitar is about balance, learn to balance your guitar and your guitar will balance you
4. Have fun and <insert additional random cheesiness here>
 
JWDubois said:
I'm pretty sensitive to pickup height. I prefer a cleaner, brighter sound, and I spent a lot of time getting the pickups set so that they don't pull the strings and cause warbly harmonics. So in my case the pickups are probably lower than average. I pretty much have to do a Pete Townshend to get a red light on the Ultra input.

As usual, your milage may vary.

JWW
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Sounds like I have mine in the same ballpark pickup height wise.

I like a warmer bell tone so I don't crank the pickups close to the strings. In our case one gauge down isn't a big tone change as long as the strings are made of the same material and style, wrapped vs. solid G etc.

Richard
 
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