String Gauges

[BillC15]

Hey all. Just bought a few packs of regular slinkys and can't wait to put em on. But I have a few questions about sting gauges. Firstly, I put a set of D'addario .011-.049 on my mexican strat a few weeks ago and loved the tone, but had a hard time dealing with the tension. (It was hard to bend up a whole step on the high e). So after a few days, I took em off and put a pack of .010's back on and my fingers thanked me. But I want to go back to 11's because I miss them in someway. I'm wondering if I just dealt with it, would I finally get used to them and not mind the extra tension? Also, does ernie ball have slinkys sizes .011-.049? I haven't seen any. Well thanks in advance.

[D.SALSA]

Hi BillC15. There is not an 11-49 gauge, but Power Slinkys, which are 11-48, are very close.
Evan

[Jodizzle]

D Salsa replying to a post about a mexican guitar

[BillC15]

Well, it's not exactly a Mexican guitar. It's just assembled in Mexico. The parts are made by Fender.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestion. Have you guys or anyone else had experience in switching to heavier strings like .011's and have trouble adjusting to the tension? Will I become used to it if I decided to switch again?

[Jodizzle]

Ttee hee, I just found the play on words funny

Switching back and forth between gauges might be a little difficult to adjust to. From tension, intonation, playability etc. But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't experiment ... it's good to diversify yourself in different string gauges. Evan's right ... try the Power Slinkys

[BillC15]

Oh duh I didn't see the play on words there.

[Robert Marlin]

I have a Gibson ES369 presently I have 9's on it. I bought a set of Slinky top heavy bottom: 10 - 52. My question is if I put these on, would I need to adjust the truss rod? I have never messed about with this and would be a little worried that I might damage the guitar?

Also it has a brass nut, so looking at the slots I would have to file these out a bit to make room for the larger strings, this also worries me... I would take it to a music store and get a professional to do this but I live in a third world country and there are no music stores, techs, concerts, other musicians ? it is like living in hell...

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Polaris]

...just to answer your previous question, yes, you will get used to heavier gauges after a while. I suppose you could liken it to playing an acoustic after an electric - more pressure is needed to fret notes and bending is much more rigid (depending on the gauge, of course).

I switched to 12-52 on my electric tuned to E-standard for about a year and it definitely strengthened my fretting hand.

Aside from this I found I actually preferred the tone of the heavier wound strings, so now I use heavier strings on all me guitars!

You could always go with a light top - heavy bottom gauge. Personally I found the jump between the top/bottom three strings a little too much, but it definitely works as a compromise.

[BillC15]

Hey thanks for the input. I did try 11's once before and they were a killer. How long did it take you to get used to heavier strings? Also, I have 3 springs angled to the center in my tremolo right now (strat trem) and I was wondering if you would recommend more springs for 11 gauge strings.

[Polaris]

Well, as far as I can remember it took about a month, and I was doing a lot of practicing. I went with 12-52 to start with and that was hell for the first week!

After that I switched to 11-52 and this worked a lot better for me - just the lighter g-b-e strings so that bends didn't shred my fingers so much.

In my current band I'm tuned to C (as in E-standard tuned down to "C") so I'm using 12-56 with a 22 wound G string. Hard to bend at first but you just have to really man-handle the thing and after a while it becomes normal.

I'm also using the same tuning for my acoustic stuff so I use 13-56 on that stuff. I've really grown fond of the tuning as well - everything sounds massive, deep and warm!

Keep at it though. Everytime I play a guitar with 9's or 10's it really doesn't compare for me - the heavier gauge wound strings just have much more punch. If you do end up going back to light gauges, it'll be much easier to play!