String gauge

Reason? Well thicker strings typically have better tone. You'll play a chord and maybe it'll sound a bit better.

Take Stevie Ray Vaughan for example. He used 11's (even 12's for a short period of time), that's one thing that gave him that "SRV tone" besides the natural, beautiful tone in his fingers.

AT the same time, thicker strings will be harder to press down if your fingers aren't very strong.

Here's some other negatives. Your neck my need to get setup, or your guitar might. Hell, it might with 9s or 8s too.

I suggest trying them out though., You might like 10's more than 9's, so try it out.

Better tone? So all those guitarists with 09s are playing with worse tone? Didn't know that yet. Apart from that apparant advantage you can have lower action with thicker strings. But IMHO it's just about what feels best: I like to 'dig' into the strings and that works better with thicker strings. Give me 08s and I constantly detune the strings with my fingers. Got 11s on my DFstrat, 10s on the superstrat, 12s on the jazzbox, it just depends on the instrument. Try around and see what you enjoy best.

A final reason could be different tunings. If you're going to downtune you'll need thicker strings. (which is why bass-guitars have a thickers strings then a guitar)

It's all down to the individual. I like a low action on my guitars, and I use 9's - I do a lot of bending, and lighter strings are easier to bend. Slide players generally like thicker strings and higher action. Lead guitarists might want lighter strings than a rhythm guitarist who wants a fat chunky sound.

SRV, I believe, used to use 15's on some guitars....

The british band Status Quo have two guitarists - Frank Rossi plays mostly lead, Rick Parfitt mostly rhythm. They both use Telecasters. Frank uses 9's, Rick uses 13's with a modified bridge.

The only way to find out is to experiment.....and use what feels right for you. It also makes a difference whether you use a plain or wound G string....again, the only way you're going to find out is by experimenting.

:D :D :D

Vic

I prefer thicker strings, especially when finger picking, other than not being so razor sharp, thicker strings are mostly going to be louder, that doesn't matter so much in the sense you can turn your amp up or down to compensate, but it's definitely the case. Thicker strings might not need replaced quite as often as thinner strings but I can't really say that I've noticed a difference personally, I'd have to keep a log of string changes to really gauge something like that objectively.

Different techniques require different types of strings to achieve desired results, that's all.

Even within the same genre in dealing with similar techniques, individual differences will require different strings to achieve similar results.

For me there's two main reasons to use 10's and 11's on my guitars.

First and foremost, 9's fall apart on me.
I've got a very heavy picking hand and do lots of bends, including whole step bends of double stops.
One of my favorite "Tele tricks" is hooking a finger on my pick hand under a string, pull up and let it "pop" into the neck.
It doesn't take very long for 9's to fail under that kind of abuse.

Second, consistent feel between scale lengths.
My main guitars are an Epi Wildkat (24.75" scale) and a G&L ASAT (25.5" scale).
I use 10's on the G&L and 11's on the Epi to keep the "feel" during bends approximately the same.

Edit: I was writing an example to kingpatzer's post and didn't even realize it :lol:

I agree with most said above about strings on electric guitars.
But on steelstringed acoustic guitars .011 or .012 strings sounds better than .010 strings.

Kalle

I agree with most said above about strings on electric guitars.
But on steelstringed acoustic guitars .011 or .012 strings sounds better than .010 strings.

Kalle

It depends entirely on the guitar and the application.

Accoustics are slightly different than electrics in that the sound is amplified by the transfer of energy from the string to the soundboard. This means that there is a certain amount of minimum energy that you have to create to amplify the sound.

This means the build quality of the guitar is very important in determining the lower-end of usable string guages.

But there are accoustics of high enough build quality that light guage strings, even down to 9s, sound just fine.

Thanks for all the answers.. my ibanez has 10s on it and my dean has 9s

As I have said here before, my heros used 9's, so I used 9's and now I have grown acoustom after 30 some years. They feel better to me. Try different guages and play the ones you like best. Simple as that.

So on the Accoustic guitar what brand do most of yall use?

So on the Accoustic guitar what brand do most of yall use?

Currently I'm using D'Addario EXP16 (which are 12s) on 2 of my gits and D'Addario EJ11 (which are also 12s) on the other. On my 12 string I just put on some Webstrings light Portland Acoustics because the price is very low. I don't have brand loyalty, but strings that I don't like I won't buy again.

I used to use 10's on my guitar until Leslie West handed me a pick and said "Play!" He used a really thin pick (which I still have) and was using 8's on his guitar. I put 8's on my Sheraton, and put 9's on the Strat.

I use 10's on my acoustic.

So for me, it depends on the guitar. And how my hands feel. The Strat is crisper sound and has a wammy bar. The Sheraton is very clean.
I've played a few Les Pauls, and they all seem better with 8's

I have DR Sunbeams (13s) on my Seagull. These have a round core wire which gives a bit less tension, but they feel and sound great.

Elixir Custom Light (11s) on my Breedlove, though I might go up to 12s next time I change. I'll probably try the Sunbeams on this guitar as well.