Quote:
Originally Posted by PapaC
(Post 6528409)
Help me out here. What does it involve changing (If anything), to have a Strat set up for 10’s?
You mean I can’t just throw a set on and got to town?
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Yes, if you have a floating Strat trem you'll need to adjust the spring tension to rebalance the bridge height. If you measure the height of the the back of the bridge before the new set, and then adjust the claw in the spring cavity to restore that height after the string change you're good enough for rock'n'roll.
A setup is a good thing on an instrument full stop, and if you are going to have a setup done and you have string preferences, it's good to have the setup done with your string choice for optimum results.
I played .010 set on electric guitar in the 20th century. In the current century with my worn-out mid-20th century hands I've moved predominately to .009 sets on
most electrics.* I do think there's something to the .011 sets with the wound 3rd sound when playing clean, and I have two electric guitars setup with at least that gauge for when I want that.
I notice those differences most when playing some chordal styles, and I refer to my Tele with .011 and a wound 3rd as my "think acoustic while playing electric" guitar. I think some fully hollow archtops respond nicely to heavier strings too. However, I'm mostly a "lead" player and I don't find any sound advantages to a heavier gauge than the typical .009 set. I play with a range of timbres, clean to distorted, and given that my playing isn't the greatest if I found a sonic edge there from thicker strings for my lead playing I'd go for it. Instead I just find it harder to bend when I wanna go weedy widdley and my joints hurt more often and sooner.
Even though we often refer to string sets by the top E string gauge, I don't find much difference between a .009 and a .010 top E. Where my joints feel it it is more at the lower pitched four strings. When I started out in the 70s playing electric the standard set light gauge electric strings were a .010 to .038 set (Fender 150 Light, and Gibson branded strings had a very similar set then too). These were even sold in non-guitar stores. Note how thin that low E string is! Today we'd call that a light top/super extra light bottom set! And yet that vintage spec is entirely forgotten.
Really forgotten. I feel like the guy in the
Yesterday movie who tells folks about the Beatles and gets blank stares. The otherwise knowledgeable guitar tech expert in the recent Rich Beato video where they discussed the tighter bottom end sound from lighter strings repeated the now oft told tale that "Jimi Hendrix used .008s." No. He used the Fender 150 light set, which had
it's lowest strings like a set of .008s.
I keep my reverse Stratocaster strung with nickel wrapped .038 to .010 set, 'cuase that's what Jimi used. They're harder and harder to find.
*Besides an electric big body fully hollow archtop with .012 and another with .010 set, I have my Jaguar (24" short scale) with .010. that "think acoustic Tele" with .11 flats and my two MIDI interface guitars with .10 because with some virtual instruments you don't want accidental string bends. And then there's my "Jimi Hendrix" style reverse Strat...