9 to 10s?

[neastguy]

man, I switched both of my guitars to 10's and now I'm wondering if I made a mistake....how long does it take to adjust..? my hands just dont seem as light across the board anymore...getting fatigued fast....I'd hate to go back to 9's because they feel like nothing is there anymore when I play....tell me this is normal please.....I like the 10's, but I dont know if my hands can take it....

[Supertgtr]

Maybe try a 9 1/2 set from GHS?
Or a hybrid set from Earnie Ball?

give it at least a couple weeks or a month of regular practise, you'll adjust.. the tone improvement is worth it.

[neastguy]

Originally posted by mikeyp123
give it at least a couple weeks or a month of regular practise, you'll adjust.. the tone improvement is worth it.

thats what I was hoping to hear...I can defiantely hear a tone and feel difference so I dont want to give up, as long as all seems normal right now.....

[3Sides]

I went through this last summer. I switched to 10's and after 5 months I still hadn't adjusted. In fact after that time I was still having difficulty with things I was playing on 9's. Ended up with 9.5's and stayed there. I recently went back to 10's for a week and still didn't like it. IMO adjusting your amp and pickups will make the two gauges sound almost the same except for the cleanest of tones.

[neastguy]

i'm gonna give it another 3 wks and then decide, maybe 9.5's are the answer....

[Mark Robinson]

And play what sounds best to you. I'm a naysayer on the idea that heavy guages, automatically = better tone. It may be true for some, but it's not a hard fact. I actually prefer the sound of lighter strings, the lighter the better, and would play 9 sets or even 8 sets, if they stayed in better tune on my guitars with trem. I'd love to be able to easily buy a set with a 38 on the bottom, about a 15 or 16 for the G and a 9.5 for the skinny e. Larger guage sets do sound good to me if they are tuned down a bit. At concert pitch they sound and feel tight and piano like. I prefer a loose and juicy, loopy light guage set.

I also like the option of fretting a 2nd on the "G" string and bending it up a whole step to a major 3rd , against the 4th and or root tones, with my index finger. That is much more difficult with a 17 or heavier on a Fender scale guitar. So 9.5 or lighter for me usually, with no apologies.

Heavy wire on an L.p. can also make it pretty difficult for me to get a really clean, high headroom sound out of my Guytron or Marshall amps. It's a lot of signal. The light sets sound good to my ears.

Plenty of great players use heavy strings, and plenty use light strings. Same goes for high versus low action. It's possible to get great results with either. I'm not going to toss my light strings out with the internet bathwater.. But I do have a profound personal dislike for skimpy frets. YMMV etc.

[Brian D]

Also, a little tweak to your set-up may be in order to get the best feel for your new string gauge.

i jumped from 9 on my old guitar to 13 on my new one about 4 months ago.....it takes time to adjust and im still adjusting but it gets better....and when i go back and play my other guitar....its even easier to play....wich is always nice ..lol

that's another good point mentioned.. what scale is your guitar, fender or gibson?

I was a 9s guy on my start.. switched to 10s on my Les Paul, since the shorter scale is much easier to bend, also depends on how low your stop-bar is? The lower the stop-bar, the lower the tension, lowest when it resting against the body.

Anyway, I played 10s on the LP for a couple weeks then switched to 10s on the start.. and after about 2 months on the start, I'm completely comfortable. It was pretty brutal at first, just stick with it.

It's also made switching between acoustic and electric much easier.

[OOG]

Thomastik has a set that starts with a .014
maybe just thinking about that will help?

seriousley speaking
the "half gauge" thing is great
i like the sound of a bigger string but like the feel (for some things) of lighter ones
on my 335, going from 10's to 10.5's worked perfectly for me
11's were just to heavy for lots of things that i play on that guitar

[KHK]

Keep at the 10's. I think the heavier guage has an audibly more fleshy tone. You will find that your fingers will get stronger and many things will become easier. 11's sound about perfect and you can easily get used to them over time. Fingers use muscles which get stronger with resistance training (increasing string tension). Anyone can develop strong fingers. You will be glad you stuck with it 6 mos from now.

JMO

[neastguy]

ok, well for some reason last night and today my hand came alive again, I guess they finally started to adjust, seems like I can play normal again....I still dont like em much on my lp custom, but on my strat its seems cool...just an update...

[bluesdoc]

Originally posted by KHK
Keep at the 10's. I think the heavier guage has an audibly more fleshy tone. You will find that your fingers will get stronger and many things will become easier. 11's sound about perfect and you can easily get used to them over time. Fingers use muscles which get stronger with resistance training (increasing string tension). Anyone can develop strong fingers. You will be glad you stuck with it 6 mos from now.

JMO

I don't agree. Some hands will not adjust well to higher string tension. Muscles might adapt, but tendons and ligaments are much less able to change, especially with age (ie, me). I get tendonitis and overuse joint ligament problems if I try. Yup, it does sound good, but some of that can be adjusted for (with lighter strings) by raising the action a bit. 9.5s seem ideal for me. Guys that don't bend much can of course tolerate heavier guage strings. But for us benders, not everyone will adjust.

jon

[t0neg0d]

I had the same issue when switching to 10's... I did this years ago. I, as others have stated, believe it is worth the time it takes to adjust for the increase you'll hear in tone/sustain.

cpokay mentioned switching to 11's... tried this as well... but couldn't do it... I don't play enough now to make a switch like that again... wish I could though. Let us share your pain! Tell us how it goes.

Me