The string guage poll for electric guitarists

What size strings do you use?

Originally Posted by: McDuffieWhat size strings do you use?

On which guitar? :confused: :)

9 thru 42 electric
10 thru 50 acoustic

Steve Vai plays with 7's on his high E.

10-52 D'Addario's for me

12-52 on my archtop, 11-50 on my strat

9-46 Dr Handmade Red Devils (****in expensive, but better than any GHS, Elixir or Ernie ball i've played)

10-60 GHS ZW's on both my Strats... they get pretty mean tone.

9-46 on my Floyd Rose Dean
10 on my fixed bridge Shecter 7 string

D'addarios works for me they hol up the abuse pretty well and love the color code on them, (I get confused from time to time)

I play:

9-42's on my Prs ( Elixirs )
10-46's on my Gibson LP ( D'addarios)
and 11-? on my Cort (also Elixirs)
and Elixir Baritone guage (12-?) on my Ibanez MMM1.

I am really liking the sound of my Prs lately (maybe its the strings, maybe the guitar) But I think maybe 9's are the way to go...looking at maybe changing from Elixirs tho...broke a string on sat, and feel its time for a chnage...what are those handmade DR's like Moose?

Dangit, you forgot 13 thru 56!!! :D

After reading about what SRV did, that's what I put on my Strat, but I hate it (that Strat, not the strings, and not Strats in general by any means) because it has a Floyd Rose bridge! Floyd Rose sucks. I have to keep it downtuned to C# or lower so that the stupid bridge won't pop right off! I guess I have to get more and beefier springs for the back cavity. Still haven't gotten around to it... and downtuning low and barfy is alright by me (Iommi is one of my Top 3 guitar heroes) but it sounds like crap on a Mex Fat Strat. Grrrrrrr... I think I'm going to give that guitar to an unsuspecting buddy and then find something with a nice beefy hardtail set-up to put 13s on... or better yet, something with a Kahler.

I recently got a second guitar... the freeloader that bunks at my parents' house gave it to me. Some obscure early 1960s Japanese model... the brand is "Norma." It has P-90 pickups and seems suited for surf guitar and that sort of thing. I guess they used to be part of the Crown company that also used to include what are now Tama drums. I had a spare set of 10-46 lying around so I put those on that. Easier to play and sounds/feels decent... but nothing compares to those 13s!

11-48's on all 3 guitars.

I found that going up in string gauge stabalizes floating knife edge type bridges and prevents that horrible gargling noise when you hit a string hard.

It also makes the bridge more stabile for palm muting and the tone goes way up with heavier gauge strings.

11's still let me do big bends but not over bend or have that annoying over exagerated vibrato the hair bands had in the 80's. :rolleyes:

GHS .012's -- unwound G because I destroy lighter guage strings.

10-56 for me.

11"s now, going to try 12"s with plain G next, if the frets don't buzz, then I'll stay with 11's.

Originally Posted by: PRSplaya10-52 D'Addario's for me

rock on....but i choose DR

11's are normally good for me

but my packs are 11 - 49.(d'addario).

i like the heavier strings cause i can feel them when i do pulls or hit em hard(which is a lot). really feels good digging into thick strings.