Please educate me on strings.

[Sonics]

Bending strings takes a lot of skill and strength if you've never done it before. If you're also new to electric technique then I would suggest 9 gauge for Fender scale and 10's for Gibson scale. The string tension will be about the same due the differences in scale lengths.
I should add the caveats if your guitar has an advanced tremolo system and you plan on 'dive bombing', then use the next gauge up. Or if you plan on detuning to Eb or you're one of those scary djent guys with the tats who like to chug, chug, then you may want to go up one or even two gauges. Once you get comfortable with these gauges and if you want an improvement in tone, then use a heavier string.

I like the feel and sound of the Ernie Balls strings, however I tend to snap the high E 9 gauge string very easily, hence I use D'addario as they tend to be more reliable.

[Johnny K]

Originally Posted by numb fingertips

Thanks for the help. I wanted to dabble in electric. I was considering a new MIM strat but decided to go used and picked up a squier strat and fender modern player tele. Forgot to mention I'm a beginner.

When I had a Strat and a Les Paul at the same time, It was GHS Boomer 10's and after a few years I ended up going to Ernie Ball Super Slinkys. Because, Stevie.

That was a lifetime ago....

My current Tele, A G&L Bluesboy has Elixir Opti-Web Lights 10-46

My Gretsch with a Bigsby wiggle stick has Thomastik Jazz Swing Flatwounds in 11-47.

I don't recommend either for a beginner, unless you have deep pockets. If you do I cannot praise Thomastik strings enough.

[Beechcreek Gary]

The inexpensive Dunlop srings do it for me. I don't think the brand is as important as the guage on an electric guitar. Acoustic guitars are a different story.

[FrankHudson]

I always have several electric guitars and like to work in various styles, therefore what strings I use on them also varies.

In general I'll say that electric strings are less critical to the sound, because so many other things impact an electric guitar's sound. The cleaner your amp and sound, the more the strings component in sound stands out.

Steve's already mentioned flat-wound strings. Like Steve I'm aware of their historic usage, but personally I've never bonded with them on electric guitars, even though half my electric basses have flats. I keep a set of TI flats on one full-sized hollow-body electric guitar. They are an different experience, and if anyone reading this likes to explore the range of electric guitar sound and feel, you owe it to yourself to explore flats.

In place of flats I'll sometimes go with Elixir electric guitar strings, even the electric Polywebs, which I don't see around much anymore. Like flats they reduce string noise and artifacts and the Polywebs are a bit darker too. Not the same as flats, but just a bit to that side of things. I also tell myself they work well with Bigsby setups as friction point reducers. I also use Elixirs on my MIDI guitars, as you don't want any string noise triggering MIDI notes (note to self: sometime I've got to try flats on a MIDI guitar).

On Fender guitars I often like pure nickel strings. A great many electric guitar strings are nickel plated, but the less common pure nickel formulations are bit more mellow.

Heavier strings and wound G strings? Another thing I've tried and generally didn't find it working for me. I kept a Tele with .011 or .012 wound G strings for awhile. I never found it making any magic sound I couldn't get out a of .010 set (and I mostly use .009 sets these days). The one thing it did do for me was let me approach the electric more like an acoustic. I thought of that Tele as my "solid-body acoustic." Playing styles, tastes, the electric amplification component, etc means that Steve's experience and mine could both be true at the same time--and I reserve my right to change my mind on this yet. Again, it's fun and worthwhile to experiment. .012 strings sometimes don't work with stock nuts well, but other than that you're out the time to change strings and the cost of a new set and maybe a bit of a truss rod tweak or bridge adjustment.

Most of my solid and semi-solid acoustics are strung with Ernie Ball Slinky .009 to .042 sets or from my old stock of Fender 150L nickel strings (.010 to .038, an odd gauged set that was once very common and is now very rare). The EB Slinkys are cheap and cheerful and I find them consistent. The regular Slinkys are "only" nickel plated, but on humbucker guitars that's less of an issue.

[perttime]

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

... I kept a Tele with .011 or .012 wound G strings for awhile. I never found it making any magic sound I couldn't get out a of .010 set (and I mostly use .009 sets these days). The one thing it did do for me was let me approach the electric more like an acoustic. I thought of that Tele as my "solid-body acoustic." ...

The effect of string gauge is certainly at least open to debate. I totally agree that different string gauges seem to lend themselves to different kinds of playing. I like to feel some string tension that helps me do what I want to do. Very light gauges require a different kind of delicate touch and precision.