I've just dropped to eights on a Strat....

markr76

I've just moved back up to 11's on my strat. Bought some curt mangan strings as their stand was opposite Thorpys stand at Kempton park guitar show. Where I was helping out. The curt mangan strings feel more slinky than my old strings. More like a set of 10's or 10.5's. They feel really silky too. I'm impressed by them.
Funnily though I prefer a set of 10 to 52 on my R8 even though it has a shorter scale.

ESBlonde

Back when I was a young buck gigging the air bases, 4 x one hour sets was the norm. We discoverred that a well set up guitar with low frets and light (9s) was the secret to being able to play freebird yet again at the end of the night. Modern players who sit in thier bedroom will huge frets and fat strings are a whole other world. I used to believe the hype that Brian Setzer used 13s and a high action, nope just 10s it seems. Why make it hard work? A light touch and a well setup guitar that you can still dig into is the best for my application. YMMV.

Gassage

I'm gay and even I use 10's. Pfft.

ourmaninthenorth

Me old eyes could barely see them to put em on. 

57Deluxe

9 and a 1/2 would be preferable for me but I just go the lighter side of 10s. Also - notice how strings get less pliable as they age? Keep 'em fresh!

Barnezy

Real men play 11’s  

seriously though, I’ve heard a lot of pro’s have moved down a gauge or so. It’s probably much better at preventing arthritis further down the line, plus who doesn’t want a lighter touch? Lowest I’ve played are 9’s back when I started thinking they would be easier. My teacher passed comment about them
being too light and since then always been on 10’s or 11’s depending on scale length. Starting to realise this is all BS and might see what a drop
down does for me, as I notice my touch is a bit strong, especially when playing non-vintage frets. 

vasselmeyer

It's not about "who doesn't want a lighter touch". I don't. I like to really give the strings some welly and I like them to fight back. If I had anything lighter than the 11s I use on all my standard tuning guitars I'd be busting strings several times a night and bending sharp every time.

I don't want to get used to anything lighter because 11s are what I'm used to.

Blueingreen

I used 8s for a long time back in the day on a "fretless wonder" Les Paul Custom before I realised that the low frets were making bending harder.

I've since moved to bigger fretwire and 9s but am firmly of the opinion that claims that light strings will adversely affect your tone are 99% hooey.