Question for gibson players

FWIW, I play Fenders most of the time and use 10's on them. When I have to play a Gibson or any other shorter scale-length guitar, I always go a gauge up or it feels like I'm playing rubber bands.

 

I play both my Gibbies and Strats with 9's. It's all up to the player really.

 

Each guitar is a little different. Experiment with the string guage to find what is right for that guitar and you.

 

I play 10's on all my guitars also.

 

When I had a strat I played 9's on it and the LP. Then I moved to 10's on the LP. I thought the feel was similar. Now all I have are Gibson scale and I've moved up to 11's on both.

I didn't notice a huge difference in tone between 9's and 10's. I moved to 10's because they started feeling slinky. Recently the 10's started feeling loose so I moved to 11's. I think there is a BIG difference in tone now. I like it!! Also, since some of the stuff I'm playing req's drop d or even detune half step and then drop d...the heavier strings make a huge difference.

jeffhef

 

my LP custom feels and sounds great with 9's, but thats my pref because i do not like to play on heavy strings

 

I agree with jeffhef, I found more of a tonal difference when I went up to 11s (which is what I currently use) than going from 9s to 10s on my LP.

Am actually gonna try a set of 12s now. I like the heavy feeling strings, since I'm a heavy handed player and get "my" sound from really digging into the strings. I think it's a very personal thing. Your hand definitely gets stronger after you've moved up a guage, so I don't find it any harder to play than when I used to use 9s. Infact, when I play a guitar with 9s on them now I find it quite unconfortable because there's too much "give" in the string. Like some else said before - rubber bands!

But to answer your question, when I had a Tele on loan from a friend, I also found I got a simillar feel with one guage down from the LP.

Forgot to mention, all my guitars are in regular tuning. Hope this helps.

Mike.

 

I know what you mean. I don't like to fight the strings. Which is why I played 9's for years. But over the past few years my playing time has increased dramatically. The more I played the lighter the 9's felt to me. Until it got to the point where I thought I'd try heavier strings. As I've moved up I've not tried to go heavy enough to make me fight. It's just that I play so much more often now that the 11's now feel to me like 9's used to.

Another thing I've noticed in the last few months. Used to be I'd play for an hour or two and my fingers...even though they're callused...would get a little sore. Now it seems like that almost never happens. In fact, my finger tips actually feel a little numb. I guess they're so heavily callused now that it just doesn't bother me anymore.

My theory is...play what feels comfortable. If 9's suit you then why change? As I mentioned before...in my opinion you don't get a tonal difference going from 9 to 10. But go to 11's and you do. Just my 2 cents. I'm sure others have had different experiences.

jeffhef

 

+1 on 11's. The thicker you go, the more noticable the change in tone will be. Definately fattens up an SG, I've owned two as well as a LP Special, and 11's definately push that sound hard!

 

I got 11's on my 335. A G chord rings crystal clear on that girl.

 

10's on my Strat 11's on the LP (and 13's on the Ovation).

 

I've got 10's on both. I raise the action a little on the Gibson to make the feel comparable to the strat.

 

Hey Jeff Good to hear from you man! If playing time has increased, sounds like Fishtrunk is doing well. Very glad to hear it.

As to increasing gauges, even though I have played 9's for years now, I am hopeful that as playing time increases I can move to 10's and 11's. Right now my mittens are just not up to it , but someday.......

 

I played with 9s for years, but have gradually worked my way up to heavier strings. I'm playing with 12s on my 335 now. I really like Thomastik Infeld Be-Bops - they seem to have a higher string tension, and I just find it much easier to play fast lines with heavier strings (plus, the difference in tone is remarkable).

 

Because of the scale of the Gibbys you can go a little heavier with strings and and have the same feel as on your Strat.

Pick the string that feels the most comfortable for you to play. The slight difference in tone with larger strings means nothing if the guitar doesn't play comfortably to you. I can get great tones with 9's 10's or 11's it is all about how it feels.

 

What works great for me is that I play D'Addario .009's (EXL120) on my fenders and they have a .0095 (EXL120+) set that I use on my gibsons. Makes both guitars feel the same to me...

 

Getting some youth gigs. Not a lot & no paying gigs...but hoping it's gonna increase. Money's not really a factor or concern. We tend to rock harder than the youth bands. And the youth groups really like some of the heavier sounding stuff. Guess it's that LZ/Rush/ACDC 70's and 80's stuff coming through. Makes things like Audio Adrenaline pretty easy.

Even without that...since I started playing at Bethlehem I've gone from playing once a week to much more.

I've moved up to 13's on my acoustic. Now I'll admit they are still a little heavy for me. But I'm gonna stick with 'em cos I really like the difference in tone. When I play Wednesday's it's almost always acoustic. And we do some acoustic with FT. I would think my increased acoustic playing is probably a factor as well.

Not too long ago I had what felt like a bruise on one of my fingertips after playing a lot of acoustic. It'd hurt if I held down the string with the wrong part of my finger. I think I may have been squeezing it a little tighter than necessary.

But...if my playing time decreases significantly I can see myself dropping back on the gauge. Probly no lighter than 10's though.

jeffhef