What gauge strings do you use?

[AndyK]

I was irritated to see that my Vintage Reissue Gibson 010s described themselves as "lights", since I've just moved up from playing 009s for 25 years or more and am still struggling a bit! Page sometimes used 006s, SRV used 013s and superglued skin from his leg to his fingertips, apparently. (Why not just turn the amp up?)

 

What do you peeps use?

[Rabs]

Ernie Ball Super Slinkey 9s.

[Searcy]

Slinky Cobalt 9's accept for my Chet which has 10's

[Pin]

Ernie Ball Cobalt 10s

[CoreyT]

Ernie Ball Cobalts 9s on all of mine.

[L5Larry]

12's on the solids and semis (LaBella EL-BH), 14's on the archtops (LaBella #800M)!

[milod]

Almost inevitably 9s on most of my guitars, electric and AE.

 

Exceptions are 10s on the other AEs for flatpick mostly strumming for "old time" material, and 8s on the early 1970s Guild version of and SG.

 

Another exception is a relatively new Gretsch full hollow that I'm experimenting with flatwounds of relatively light gauge, but with 9 as the lightest treble string and 38 to 42 for the bass E.

 

The reason for the lighter strings is that I'm very much a fingerpicker and I tend to play pretty much as though steel strings were nylon. I did more flatpicking in the '70s, but far less today and pretty much only with "old time" material while playing with others. Most of my material is arranged to be solo, both instrumental and vocal.

 

m

[quapman]

Tried all kinds but seem to keep coming back to D'Addario 9's.

[jdgm]

11s mostly, DRs or Ernies, except on acoustic - a 12 or 13 set - and I have some 'light' gauge (12) flats on one of my archtops. Recently I discovered Optima Gold plated strings which are the loudest, fattest-sounding strings I ever heard....and expensive too! IMO they're no good for solid bodies (though Brian May endorses the 9 set) but amazing on a semi. However a friend tried my semi with them on and didn't like them at all, preferred the EB cobalts. At over £13 (GBP) I'd buy one set a year.

[bigneil]

I play 9's on the 25.5" scale guitars an I play 10's on my 24.75" scale guitars and I play 10's on my acoustics.

 

 

If my local store sold 9.5 gauge strings I'd use em on the 25.75 scale guitars.

[Buxom]

8-38

[bonzoboy]

I have used .008-.038 strings since circa. 1969 when I found that Fender started to make the 150 SLs and switched to D'Addario .008-.038s some time in the 70s and have used them exclusively until recently when I got wind of Rev. Willie's Mexican Lottery 7s.I couldn't find any place in Canada that sold them so I ordered 12 sets from Strings and Beyond-for a great price too,I might add.Anyway these strings have really made a huge difference in my playing, because all these problems I've had with my hands for almost 3 years now, have made playing guitar very difficult and painful and at times impossible.The gauges are .007,.009,.011,.020,.030, and .038.These strings are very supple and easy to bend almost off the neck-even with the old mitts as fooled up as mine are.It's much easier to do the extreme Hendrix bends that were killing me to do before-to bad my spped and dexterity can't get back to the way they were...lol.Anyway you'd think that strings that slight would sound thin and have a weak signal but they are surprisingly bright and very very full sounding-after all that's the strings that Billy Gibbons designed and uses exclusively and his sound is anything but thin and wimpy.Anyway thanks to Rev. Billy I'm getting some semblence of my old guitar style back again and can tolerate playing much longer than I could before the switch.

 

BTW-They hold their tuning tenaciously and even after very aggressive whammy work and bending they stay perfectly in tune-provided you have your guitar set up right of course.

[Izzy]

they have 8s!? Man, no use switching from 9s now. My fingers are tough, rawr.

 

10s on LP like the rest of ya'll, but 9s on the rest.

[chewy60]

yeah, i use d'addario medium chromes (flatwound 13s) and tune a half step down . really love the round low-end sound. bass forms the core of my tone....

[STEVIL]

Ernie Ball slinky 10-46

[Versatile]

Custom 008's on a 12 str acoustic at concert pitch

009's on a Strat and various LP Junior and SG copies

010's on Gibson ES's

011's on a lone Eastman archtop

012's on a hollow Peerless archtop...

 

Used to use 013's on a Gibson ES 165

And 014's on a Maccaferri copy... :blink:

 

Anything above 012's I find unworkable due to skin peeling

 

Rotosound, D'Addario, Newtone...

 

V

 

[btoth76]

Hello!

 

I've finally settled on Rotosound 10-46s on Gibsons, and 11-48 on the Fender.

 

It works out great. I started to write the date of string change on the packages and leave them in the guitar case. Previously, I have been using the 3-times more expensive Elixirs. They lasted almost half a year. Just checked out, when did I put on the last Rotosound set on my guitars. It was in February. I use Ernie Ball string wipes once during the lifetime of a set. Now it's about time to change them. So they lasted 4 months for me. That's great for the price. Not to mention they are nickel strings, so they won't eat away frets that fast on a Gibson.

 

Cheers... Bence

[LT ED]

9s on all my guitars and round wound light gauge 40s on my fretless basses and that is a monster combination. that does come with a bit of fingerboard marking but I can live with that.

[zigzag]

10s on solid bodies, 11s on on hollow and semi-hollow, 12s on acoustics and acoustic-electric. Wound thirds on most.

[charlie brown]

Generally, I use: D'Addario, Elixir, or Ernie Ball (not necessarily, in that order, but more what's "available.")

 

Fenders: 9-46 (Hybrid)

Ric's 10-46 (Except the (short scale) 320...it get's 11's)

Gibson: 10-46

Gretsch: 10-46

 

CB

[manse]

Ernie Ball Skinny Tops / Heavy Bottoms. On everything (except my ES-295, which has 13's and a wicked heavy wound G.)

Manse

[Kaiser Bill]

S.I.T. 10-46 on everything except the two steels and the acoustics. I think those are much heavier. I'll never for get this "The fatter the string the fatter the sound" Tom Smothers circa 1958....... Its still true to this day.

[Guest Farnsbarns]

Very recently put 11s on my Lester and I like them. I'll prolly use 11s on all electrics now. I use 16s on my dobro.

[AndyK]

Crikey, all you guys on 11s, 12s, 13s - can you bend strings?? I guess I have delicate fingers.

[cjsinla]

1369661354[/url]' post='1379993']

Crikey, all you guys on 11s, 12s, 13s - can you bend strings?? I guess I have delicate fingers.

 

I use 12's on my Martin. Really improves the tone but,no, I can't bend those.