Do you gig with 9 gauge strings?

[markintime]

I don't have a lot of experience gigging, but I used 9.5's on one SE that I sold, but I loved the feel and sound. Now I use 10's on all 3, SE, S2, and Paul's and they just feel completely comfortable. That's what I'll stick with. And, btw, I don't drop tune. And I like the blues.

 

[Boogie]

Not since the '80s have I played 9s consistently. The gauge has steadily crept up to 11s and stayed there. Sometimes I'll put 10s on the Les Paul or Cu24, but 11s make me smile.

 

[drdoom8793]

11s here! 11-49 on my standard tuned guitars and 11-52 when I have one dedicated to drop C or C#

 

[CHARISMAFIRE]

I use 9's on my cust24 and PS 24.......old wise saying, " TONE IS IN THE BONE", that is, in the finger bones! No matter what guitar i play, it always ends up sounding like me. My theory is we all have a sound we chase after, and in the end, thats what tries to come out of us.

 

[gush]

I love the feel of 9s but will break them before first gig is over. That really kills your mojo. 10 s on all except McCarty which is tuned to D and has 11s

 

[Chris Lee]

I play 9's on almost all of my guitars. I even had my HB2 shipped to me set up with 9-42s. I rarely break strings, but 9s aren't for everyone. Some guys are much more aggressive with their attack.

The only guitar I have 10s on is my S2 Standard 22, and it stays in tune insanely well. Dunno if that's due to the setup or not. I've always had better luck with my trem guitars and 10s.

 

[Spikedog007]

PRS used to ship all their CU24's with 9's AFAIK and that's what I used on many a gig. I think the tone may suffer a bit but can be made up for in the AMP settings. My CU24 is the only guitar that still has 9's on it though, I went with 10's for the rest. 9's do seem to be more forgiving and the guitar doesn't fight you as much, at least that's been the case in my experience.

 

[bacosta1972]

I gig almost every weekend, and I use Billy Gibbon's signature strings, which are .007 gauge. It's amazing, I can play for countless hours without any fatigue. Such a light gauge requires some adaptation, however... not for the faint-hearted!

:adore:

I use 8s, have been for the last 4-5 years, I love The Rev's strings. I switched from 9's to 8's, as for as tone, my tone got better, clearer, I've always played with a lighter attack and let the gear do the work!

 

[Ol'Lefty]

My S2 is 10's, and it doesn't feel a whole lot different than 11's to me. But dropping down to 9's just feels a bit too loose to me, which I think the OP is finding an issue too. Heavy handed means you're going out of tune too easily. You can adapt though, just takes time. 10's overall though, is a nice inbetween gauge, not too heavy, not too light. If you're breaking strings though, I think 10s or even 11s might work better for you.

My Acoustic is 13's, and that can be tough to do much with bends.

My S2 SC came with 10's- I was surprised and dubious for me with 25" scale, but I like them.

 

[helmi]

9 1/2's

 

[Spikedog007]

9 1/2's

Forgot about 9.5's! I've tried them and really like em. Just hard to find in all brands.

 

[Ted687]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum. And new to PRS guitars. I've wanted one for a long time and now I have an SE 24 standard. Had it for a week. Great instrument. Love it.

I've played acoustic most of my life, just "messed around" with electric. Now I'm getting' serious!

Over the years, I'd always been advised that anything less than 10 ga strings were useless as far as tone and staying in tune were concerned and that no one used 9s for any serious playing, certainly never for professional playing. So I always used 10s or 11s for my (not so diligent) attempts to play Les Paul or Strat type instruments.

So I found it surprising (and a relief to my fingers!) that PRS guitars come strung with 9s. I have to assume that PRS has good reasons to string them that way at the factory and that the reasons have nothing to do with the intent to "appeal to pimply-faced teens who need to bend every note two and a half tones."

However, I've now gone through 4 string changes in the last week because I keep breaking my high E string. It's due to bad (horrible) technique on my part, as I tend to mash down more than push laterally and the string breaks under my middle finger, one fret down from the fretted note (ring finger). It's happened to me with many different guitars so it's not a problem with the instrument.

I'm unlearning that bad habit and I've had the same set on the guitar 3 days now and the E string is surviving! (I'm using D'Addarrio. I've always liked them. I assume that's what came from the factory as the balls were all color coded.) I know that I can restring with whatever gauge I want (wonder how much I'll have to adjust intonation, string height, etc?) but I'm sticking with 9s for now.

I assume PRS is advocating for such light gauge. They wouldn't string them that way if 9s in an way detracted from the guitar's performance. I understand players such as Santana use very light gauge with no problem.

I'd like to know how many of you actually gig with 9s. I would think that the chance of 9s breaking during a performance is too high to risk it. No?

Rich

Billy Gibbons uses 9-42's. I have started using them due to my well worn tendons along with Ulna nerve issues. I have recently ordered a PRS S2 Custom 24 and waiting on delivery. The main reason for purchasing this guitar was because my Les Paul has that sharp body shape and this body shape can be a reason for Ulna Nerve issues in musicians over the years of playing. I'm a newbie to this forum.

 

[pjdude]

I've been using 9-42 forever. I did switch to 10-48 for a while, but didn't hear any appreciable difference in sound, and the strings were just harder to bend. Back to 9-42 - been there ever since.

 

[Atomic]

OMG U PLYA ON 13'S HAHAHAHA! U R A (non-sensical string of expletives deleted)!!!11! U HAV NO TOEN!

that's what I hear when people go on and on about this whole string gauge thing. do 8's sound different than 11's? yes....maybe.. sometimes.
when someone can sit down and listen to a recording and say with honesty that they can hear what gauge of strings someone is using, and they are scientifically proven to be accurate in their assessment REPEATEDLY, then MAYBE i'll subscribe at least in part, possibly, somewhat, that you cant get the tone you want regardless of what string size you use. IME on the rare occasion that going from 9's to 10's or 11's to 10's affects my "tone" it does so just as long as it takes me to reach down and twist my tone knob less than 1 degree. in fact, I'm pretty convinced that which direction my wife's cat is facing when its taking a dump affects my tone more than changing one string gauge this way or the other.

its all about feel. if you prefer a stiffer feeling guitar, use heavy strings. if you like a slinkier feel, use lighter ones. if you detune significantly from standard, go heavier. if you use alternate tunings then mix your gauge.
IF YOU WANT.
if you want to tune down to H quadruple flat and chug along with .006 gauge strings made of spider webs and Jesus tears.. don't let anyone stop you.

adjust your playing and your amp for tone. thats what those little knobby things are there for man. they don't bite.. and by all means EXPERIMENT. try different gauges. live a little... but ffs if some turdbasket tells you that you cant get good tone because you play XX gauge(or brand or color or shape etc) of strings then just politely smile and nod, and understand that they have no clue what they are talking about, and realize that its kind of like someone telling you that blue guitars sound better than red guitars because blue makes the tone particles swirl better.

as for me I ONLY use 10's because 8's are for WUSSIES!

 

[Boogie]

^ I was going to say the same thing but with more f-bombs. (Spider webs and Jesus tears...bwahaha ha!)

 

[markd21]

I play pretty much every weekend and gig all my PRS' with Ernie Ball Super Slinky 9s. Doesn't matter if it's a 24.5" scale or a 25" scale, my guitars sound thick on chords, and have amazing sustain when playing leads. I have zero tuning issues. In fact, unless I am doing an outdoor gig (ugh) I tune my guitar at the beginning of the set, and while I check my tuning throughout the set, I never have to retune. Granted I am only doing a 45-60 minute set, but the tuning stability is awesome. Usually the guitars are totally in tune coming out of the case!!

 

[shinksma]

Holy Necro Thread!

Anyway, as mentioned in other threads, I play 10s and 11s on my PRS electrics mainly because I play 12s on my acoustics, and I get a more consistent feel.

 

[Atomic]

It's ted's fault.

 

[dogrocketp]

2 hand surgeries, possibly a left forearm surgery coming, and all 9-46 all the time on my PRSI. I played a lot of archtops for years, but 9`s feel good and stress the arms less.

 

[Guitarsan]

I mentioned Gibbons uses 7s, but looks like he may be using 8s now, and sometimes 7s.

Related to this, I always marveled at Rev. Billy's pinched harmonics and wrote it off to unique technique. (How prominent they are.) Well, I'm sure he has great technique but I read this about his string gauge preference back years ago and realized .... duh! The reduced mass of those strings against a big finger is likely what is a big contributor to his artificial harmonic effect. Mystery solved!