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What's the difference?... 10's or 9's

Petrucci

Petrucci

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 14, 2004
Messages
48
Location
Carolina, Puerto Rico
When I got my Ernie Ball Petrucci guitar it came with 10's in the strings but it was tuned one step down. I change the strings with 9's and it was ok. Now I'm thinking in getting those 10's back because the sound. I just want to know your opinion with 10's strings.

What is the difference in sound when changing from 9 to 10?

Thanks
 
The difference is noticeable, mostly louder and fuller sounding. The bigger the gauge, the louder/fuller things get. However, I'm not one who likes to fight against the strings...I don't fall into that "I like the sound of me fighting my strings" artsy-fartsy mindset. I prefer to sound like I'm in charge of the instrument, not the other way around. Life's hard enough, why make it harder? ;)

For those like me, hybrid string packages do the trick. EB makes a set called Hybrid Slinkys, and I use the ones that have the plain strings from a standard set of 9s, and the wound strings of a standard 10 set. These work great on things like vintage-style Strats or other guitars which were originally set up with 10s, and don't pack a lot of bottom end due to the pickups or woods used.

You still get the bendiness of the 9 set, and the fuller bottom end sound of the 10 set, and you may not even have to readjust your action - if you do, it's usually just a small tweak or two. It's a good choice if you're working your way up or down between the two gauges, or just can't seem to comfortably make the jump from one to the other. And the sound difference also isn't so huge that one drowns out the other, to my ear (besides, you can always just hit the quieter strings harder, right? :D).

Of course, the same mentality applies if you're wanting to work your way up to an even higher gauge - there's other sets that have the top strings from 10s and the bottoms from 11s, and there's even some that use the inverse philosophy where the low strings are skinny and the top ones are fatter - how's the wound bottoms from a 9 set and the plain tops of a 10 set strike ya?

Try 'em! :)
 
John uses 10-46 on all his standard tuned guitars, adds a 56 for the low B on the sevens and uses a custom set for the downtuned guitars.
 
deadringer said:
John uses 10-46 on all his standard tuned guitars, adds a 56 for the low B on the sevens and uses a custom set for the downtuned guitars.
Click to expand...

Where can I find this information about Petrucci's guitars?
 
http://www.johnpetrucci.com/ is a great source of information itself but the forum has some of the most knowledgable musicians and gear guys I've come across (present company excluded). You'll actually find a lot of cross traffic here and and the Petrucci forum. Say a little shout Orange! :D
 
deadringer said:
http://www.johnpetrucci.com/ is a great source of information itself but the forum has some of the most knowledgable musicians and gear guys I've come across (present company excluded). You'll actually find a lot of cross traffic here and and the Petrucci forum. Say a little shout Orange! :D
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks a lot for that... I'm just very happy with my Ernie Ball guitar... It's great!!!
 
You know the more I think about it the more names I could add to the "cross pollination" list between here and Petrucci's pad. Orange Channel is the first one I think of due to his activitiy in both. Some days I feel I like I'm just following him around between Ernie's, Petrucci's, and Huge Rack's. ;)
 
Yeah, needed something to do while my wrists got themselves on the mend (weird not hurt to type, did hurt to play alot....) Hopefully I won't be moving again anytime soon. Yeah I'm all over the place....none of you guys post on the snapcase forum tho, tho' one of the guys posts in the bass forum often. I mod over there.



The difference between 9's and 10's....hmmm my description includes dead's and purple's....less slack, more volume and punch, and a fuller tone....plus they'll build up your finger strength. When I got into the EBMM's I moved down a guage from Beefy Slinky's and it's brought my finesse back, that being said......when my Silo comes in (Hi Pete! hahaha!) I'm going to string that one up with 11-49's and do some drop tuned stuff.
 
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I use Elixxer Nanoweb Hybrids on all my guitars. 10's on the high E,b and G strings and 11's on the rest! You'll have to reintonate and reset the action when making this jump but everything improved tonally a thousand times over. If you set up the axe right you won't have to fight these strings.

I load them on my ESP Eclipse II Standard and my Ibanez SZ 520QMHB with PRS Tremonti Pickups as well as my Ibanez Proline 1550 I refurbished.

My Kramer Frankenstrat 5150 Replica has Nanoweb 10-46's and on my Axis I'm gonna leave it as is with whatever it comes with.
 
All of your replies are helpful, but nobody answered the question...The difference between 9's and 10's is .001 Thank you! Good Night! :D
 
Doc Rawk..are the Tremonti p/ups as hot as they sound on the PRS DVD?

And by the way...I will be setting up a Limited SR5 for Paul to use in his studio.. :cool:
 
Jon:
I haven't heard them on the PRS site and I really can't now because with other than the ability to just cruise the net and post to the forum, the soundcard guts are out of my PC as we are prepping to install and setup the my new DAW on this PC over the next couple of weeks. I say couple of weeks because free time is very limited and we are waiting on the manual which was never included in the product. I'd download it off the web but it's hundreds of pages long.
I bought the E-MU 1820m 192Khz System. Same exact guts as Pro Tools 192HD just less money!

So you'd like to know about the Tremonti pickups huh?

Well, here's what I can tell you........

First, I thought that even though I installed these pickups in that Ibanez that I would come close but not dead on to Mark's tone at least guitarwise. Being really the only difference between the two guitars is the fact that his is a Singlecut and mine is a double cutaway even the weight of both guitars was about the same is the reason I chose this guitar for the test.

I put the pickups in, set it up and took it down to GC (I know..I KNOW but my buddy and co guitarist works there and he's not like the rest of them) and we pulled the actual PRS Tremonti model off the wall and compared the two in a side by side using the same amps, same settings, blah blah blah and guess what? There was absolutely no difference in what you heard between the two guitars. In fact my SZ seemed to sustain much longer than the PRS (probably due to my setup). So all in all instead of spending $3400.00 on a Tremonti Model, I spent $450.00 on the Ibanez, $60.00 on a set of PRS Locking Tuners, $12.00 on a set of Dunlop Strap Locks, and I think I paid $200.00 for the set of Tremonti pickups.
Total Investment...$722.00 and a wise one at that!!!

If you were to put on any album from Creed or the new Alter Bridge album that's the sound bro, right on the money. His tones are pretty much straightforward and uncolored even in the recording mix.

The bridge unit is extremely high gain but very articulate because there is a mid presence in there that allows you to boost or cut the mids on your amp without degregading your tone. Lots of bass here to, enough to shake the old gonadatrophic zone. The highs are not as strong or pronounced as the bass EQ in this pickup by any means. Think of pumping your tone through a Rivera Los Lobottom Subwoofer System just a bit less drastic. I've found that I have to boost the Treble and Presence a bit when using this pickup but no matter because this is the only bridge pickup I have used to date whereas I can strum a chord and let me tell you you can hear every single note in the chord as clear as day. It's absolutely astounding. Of course I don't have my Axis in my hands yet to hear the pickup difference but this guitar and the Axis are two completely different animals anyway. Definetely the beefiest, clearest ringing and most articulate in a high gain humbucker ever.

Now let me tell you about the Tremonti Bass Neck Pickup......

I was in search of the ultimate clean pickup. For some reason every time I tried a Duncan or Di Marzio or anything else for that matter the cleans were, well, clean but not that pristine, glassy, transparent clean without killing the low mid and high EQ. I call this a weak clean. Since I purchased the Tremonti Treble why not give the Bass Neck Pickup a shot right? I mean they were meant to go together. Besides I was looking for Tremonti tone anyway.

Just like the bridge pickup ringing every note in a chord, the bass neck pickup did just that. And it was the beefy full bodied perfectly EQ'd cleans I was always in search of. For a neck pickup this baby has some serious sustain and does not even breakup one bit when playing through a clean setting on your amp. This is as close to heaven as you can get.
Wanna use it as a neck lead with some overdrive or high gain settings no problem!! The pickup lets the amp tone do the work without coloring the amp and killing your tone by squashing the gain circut of your amp with the high gain boost of most pickups. I've found alot of times that gain on gain situations have killed my tone. No more of this going on.
Your tones here with gain can range from bluesy to fusionesque and everything in between.

So there you have it. An in depth review of the PRS Tremonti Pickups. As you can see they come very highly reccomended for their tonal aspects as well as extreme versitility. I really have not found too many outside manufactured pickups that can do what these do. Of course you'll need to work with your amp settings depending on the guitar you install them in but once you dial everything in the way you want you'll have a smile on your face that will beam from ear to ear in irreverant glory! A top notch upgrade for any guitar in my book for sure! ;)
 
I've used 12's in standard tuning for years, but now I can't find a decent set for 7 string guitar. I supposed I could make my own set from mixing different packages.
Yes, I had to adjust the guitar setup for using 12's. I have pretty strong hands, so I can bend just fine with larger strings. But on a seven string, I have to use like a 60 or larger for the B!!! :eek:
I dont like the slinky, rubber-band feel of light strings. Lately I've been using 10's, and just recently I put a set of 9's on. I do have to make some minor adjustments every time I change strings, but it's not that bad. I hardly ever have to adjust the truss rod, even between 12's and 9's.
 
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