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Why all the hate for 9s?

I used to use 9s... then I think my fingers got stronger, and I kept bending them out of tune... So I switched to 10s. Loved them now until I think sometimes I still do bend them too much. I recently tried an Ibanez John Scofield set up with 11s... I might upsize now... They feel good. I like fighting for that note once in a while...
 
9's are my favorite...

I have been using Ernie ball 9's for almost 13 years... They are my favorite.
 
I run 9's on my Jp and my Ltd, Hybrid slinky's on my one ibanez, Power slinky's on my other ibanez(drop C). 9's are my favorite though.
 
I've gone through a lot of strings on a lot of different guitars over the years, and I always come back to the Slinky 9s. They're just the most comfortable I've played. I did play 8s for a long time because I convinced myself for some reason that the thinner strings would compensate for my short stubby fingers, but I got tired of replacing Es. :D Snapped them all the time when I was using 8s, and it rarely happens with 9s.

I've seen the same thing, though. I'd told my wife, if she wanted to buy me a guitar for Christmas, to have it set up with Slinky 9s. (I had no idea it was going to be an Axis; I threw that one out as an "if we win the lottery" choice and thought that was well out of the price range.) When she told the guy at the store she ordered it through, he told her "that would be a really bad choice for this guitar" and tried to convince her to go with something else. Umm... that's the string that comes on it from the factory. Luckily, my wife knows me well enough that she didn't listen to the guy, and the Axis came set up great straight from the factory anyway.
 
FWIW, I've been using 10's on my guitars for over 15 years now. I recently picked up a Music Man JP7 which was shipped with 9's. At first I couldn't wait to switch them out for 10's because I'd knock it out of tune while fretting just by the amount of pressure I'd put on the string. I also had issues where I'd slide up a fret but the fretted note would be out of tune because of the pressure from only sliding up the string. Also, if I could get the pitch to raise while hitting power chords in the lower positions, particularly on the seventh string.

Fast forward to 2 weeks later. I've actually gotten used to the 9's and have adjusted the amount of pressure my left hand exerts on the strings. I'm actually liking the 9's better now in that they are easier to control during vibrato and bending. They also seem a little more sensitive to harmonics and legato.

The only reason I would even consider going back to the 10's would be for more sustain and to eliminate the pitch changes while playing chords which I mentioned above.
 
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