My strat is now set up for .10's and i'm in heaven!

[FoxHound4690]

Got my AmPro strat set up professionally today for 10's and wow what a hell of a difference!!!! the guitar plays like a beast now it's got so much more substance in it's tone, alot more "thicker and meatier " are the two words i'd use to describe the difference....

absolute chalk and cheese compared to the 9's.... I'm kicking myself that I didn't get this done sooner...

The 9's feel like cotton thread compared to the 10's, I never would have imagined that going up one gauge would make such an enourmous difference. Super happy =)

Any of you guys switch up to 10's (or higher) and straight away notice the difference?

[Steel and wood]

My Stratocaster has 9's and my Telecaster has 10's. (Tried 11's once and knew right away that they weren't for me).

Like you, I think I like 10's better. (Enough so that I might change my Stratocaster over to 10's when it next needs a restring).

[Jimi2]

10s are for sure the sweet spot for me. Way easier to do bends than 11s, way thicker tone than 9s. I saw a couple videos in YouTube wherein they argued that 9s or even 8s sound as good or better than thicker stings, but all their tests were done with distortion. For clean sounds, I think it’s clear that a little more gauge sounds better.

[FoxHound4690]

Originally Posted by Jimi2

10s are for sure the sweet spot for me. Way easier to do bends than 11s, way thicker tone than 9s. I saw a couple videos in YouTube wherein they argued that 9s or even 8s sound as good or better than thicker stings, but all their tests were done with distortion. For clean sounds, I think it’s clear that a little more gauge sounds better.

Hey Jimi yeah I plugged my strat in when i got it home earlier on today and started playing it clean and I could hear the difference from the first strum and few notes i licked out... hooked up my DS-1 and started playing some grunge power riffs and AC/DC power riffs and could even hear the difference distorted, alot heavier sounding in the low end than the 9's. Very happy with this result, it's like my strat was a pokemon that has now evolved into it's next form =P

[rrgguitarman]

10s are for sure the sweet spot for me.

Exactly. I use the 3rd string wound on all my electrics as well.

[BigTerp]

Yep!! Bought a used G&L Tribute Legacy over the summer. Came setup with 9's. WAY to sloppy feeling for my taste. Re-stringed and re-setup with 10's and it made a world of difference for me personally.

[raysachs]

Been playing 10s on my electrics for years, and a strat has always been my #1 electric. Generally 10-46/47, but when I had a semi-hollow, I played 10-52s on it for a while. Sounded great. I do a lot of bending, but not a lot of super heavy bending, rarely more than a full step, and that's plenty easy enough with 10s.

-Ray

[PapaC]

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?

[Paleolith54]

Originally Posted by PapaC

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?

If you now play .009s or .011s, I'd do exactly that and just play them for a while to see where you want to settle. Then it's usually a good idea to run through all the usual suspects (neck relief, action, intonation, etc) to get them just right but IMO it's a waste of time for most people to do all that if you're just moving up or down one gauge.

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by PapaC

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?

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...

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by FoxHound4690

...Any of you guys switch up to 10's (or higher) and straight away notice the difference?

Bought my Fender/Squier Strat brand-new in '86, had nothing but flatwound 12's on it since day one (the way Leo intended) - added the Leo-approved two missing trem springs, dropped the tailpiece flush with the top, and had MandoBros set it up with ultra-low action; plays better than most of the USA stuff of whatever vintage, no problem doing bends, and sounds fatter (with more sustain and attack) than you'd expect even with the stock pickups - my road warrior for 25 years, now my wife's favorite rhythm guitar...

[rmp]

I played on 9s for years (too many to even count..) moved up to 10s about 15 years ago, Never looked back. Can't even play a guitar with 9s on them anymore.

I have tried 11s and my fingers said "stay in your lane boy.."

[PapaC]

Thank you Paleolith, & Frank. That helps. I’ll try 10’s on my Strat just for fun. Currently 9’s.

I’m running 12’s on my es339 and yeah, not a lotta bending going on there lol, but I love it!

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by PapaC

Thank you Paleolith, & Frank. That helps. I’ll try 10’s on my Strat just for fun. Currently 9’s.

I’m running 12’s on my es339 and yeah, not a lotta bending going on there lol, but I love it!

Let us know how things go with 10s. You may, or may not, need a slight 1/8 - 1/4 turn truss rod adjustment.


Hey FoxHound - congrats on your new setup.

[M Sarad]

I started with tens and went to eleven on my Strat.
Going the other direction, I just .008s on my Tele and LP TV Special. I can get the Albert King super bend now.