String gauge

Hootsmon

Age old question folks but what gauge are you using on your electric solid bodies?

meltedbuzzbox

11s on everything

TA22GT

11-48 except Tele's when it is 10-46.

Fishboy7

11 to 49 D'addarios.  Anything else feels weird. 

Alnico

10 - 52 on my Strat

11 - 52 on my PRS

10 - 46 on my JS100 and Audrey's Telecaster

skunkwerx

Hybrid 9-46 all day long. 

Except on my Tele which has 9’s.. 

richardhomer

10-46 on PRS, 9-42 on my Strat. I also prefer a lowish action.

I’ve been playing for over 45 years and have no hand problems....

jdgm

Nice to see folks going up to 11!

I go 11s on everything electric except Strat and Tele which are 10s.

stratman3142

09 to 42 on my Strats and and Tele
10 to 46 on my PRS and Les Paul

 I keep thinking about going up a gauge on both because I find fast picking easier on slightly stiffer strings, but legato easier with the lighter strings. 

Lestratcaster

10's on standard tuned Fenders
10-52's on standard/drop d/drop c tuned LP
12-56's on drop c/b LP.

OilCityPickups

9-46 on everything electric ... usually down tuned by a semitone. I have a super light touch.

Hyster

There seems to be a lot of machismo involved in string gauge choice, I honestly wouldn't have a clue if someone was playing 8's or 13's from the tone.

I play 10's on a strat and will happily go to 9's the instant my body pushes back against me.

rico

11-54 on Gibson’s and 11–48 on fenders 

punchesjudy

11s on everything

duotone

9-42,, if it’s good enough for John5 it’s good enough for me

thegummy

Hyster said:

There seems to be a lot of machismo involved in string gauge choice, I honestly wouldn't have a clue if someone was playing 8's or 13's from the tone.

I play 10's on a strat and will happily go to 9's the instant my body pushes back against me.

I doubt many people would be able to tell many things about what's going on with a guitar tone when just listening to someone playing music, other than the very basic things like "there is a lot of overdrive" or "it's a strat". If you were directly comparing the sound of the two, though, I think you'd hear a big difference.

Not that I think all overdriven (for example) guitar tones sound the same, just that it's unlikely we'd be able to pick out such specifics.

I personally use 10-46 on everything (just to make things simpler really). I started off using 9's on a Strat and PRS Custom but felt the touch was too light so moved up to 10s and preferred it. When I then got LP scale length guitars I seem to find the feel totally fine with the 10s. Not sure if that works out to still have more "tension" (if I'm using the right term) than a Strat with 9s or if it's just that on that guitar I'm fine with the tension.

If I preferred the feel of 9s I'd definitely use them. If I preferred the feel of 8s I think I'd start to pay attention to what it was doing to the tone before deciding to use them, just because they're quite a step away from commonly used gauges.

skunkwerx

Hyster said:

There seems to be a lot of machismo involved in string gauge choice, I honestly wouldn't have a clue if someone was playing 8's or 13's from the tone.

I play 10's on a strat and will happily go to 9's the instant my body pushes back against me.

True dat in many ways. 

Feel is personal too. 

I remember playing with 10’s on my esp’s and my fingers became so fatigued real quick when I was practicing solo stuff and bends. 

So I tried .9’s and much preferred it. Much easier to play and bend and possibly *slide on the treble strings. 

*not entirely sure about 10’s not feeling as slippy, it was many years ago. 

But on the 9’s I remember they felt too slack up on the bass strings. Fast chugging etc felt not so good. 

In came the hybrid set of 9-46’s and it felt like a great balance! 

Nice tight low strings to chug on and do some fast riffing, and nice light bendy high strings! Perfect! 

God knows if I could percieve any tonal difference. So I stuck with 9-46’s thinking why bother upping the resistance when I can just play these easy! 

Thats in standard tuning mind. 

On my tele I just stuck with its 9-42’s as its not what I’d play heavy rock/metal riffing on so its not so important the bass strings feel so tight. 

I suppose its what you get used to though as well. 

I use a heavy/stiff pick so theres not much give in it, which I imagine might make a string feel looser. 

baldy

When I started playing (8 months ago) I went for 9-42"s as I thought the 10-46"s the second hand LP copy guitar came with were to heavy.
As I improved i changed to 10-46"s on the LP. 
GAS has meant that I now have 2 LP copies & 3 superstrats.
The superstrats have 9-42"s & the LP"s 10-46"s.
I feel I have a heavy touch, partly because I am a beginner & partly because I have builders hands, & when I next re-string one of the superstrats it will be with 10-46"s as I now feel that 9"s are to light for me.
All the guitars are in standard tuning.

pintspiller

10-46 D'Addario on Gordon Smith and Gibson SG

10-46 Ernie Ball on Peavey Rockingham

Neil

Just basic 9's or 10's on Strats and 10's on Gibsons.

skullfunkerry

Standard D'addario 10s on my superstrat tuned to E... when I was gigging with my last band I was tuned to Drop C so I used 11s. I agree with the comment above about machismo: I'm pretty sure you wouldn't tell even in an A/B test which strings I was using... having said that, I'm sure that with someone who uses less gain than me, it might be more obvious