How important is string gauge consistency across your guitars?

Jonathanthomas83

I have a few different guitars and over the last few years liked to have kept them consistent across the board at 10-52.

However, I recently got a Charvel and that has .09's on it and I like it. I'd probably get away with .09's on the Custom 24, and the Strats and Tele will be fine too, but I'm unsure about the Les Paul...my OCD will be playing havoc if they're not all the same!

I know this is a daft post, but any comments are welcome.

1. Is consistency important? I find it a bit weird going from the Charvel to the others right now because the gauge's feel different and I'm overcompensating on my bends etc. So I'm thinking that consistency is important, what say you?

2. Anyone else playing .09's on their Custom 24? And Les Paul?

Cheers

tekbow

It's not. I put whatever works for me and the scale length of the guitar.

guitars4you

Different scale lengths immediately ensures a different tension + feel across those different guitars 

Even a floating trem + stop tail will ensure the same gauge will feel different especially when you bend the strings 

I know many players who stick to the same gauge across all guitars - I know others who drop a gauge from say an LP to a Tele

I find modern guitars like a PRS do not need 9-42 - just IMO - as they have such a slinky feel and ease of playability anyway 

However IMO different guitars have their own feel and characteristics - I would not try to play the same song/style on say an LP as a Charvel - As such I might have the Charvel set-up for speed and a slinky vibe and the LP set-up differently

Not a specific answer available

Caffeine_Vampire

I have a custom set of flatwounds after a lot of experimentation.  As above, whatever works for you. 

paulnb57

I buy 10s in bulk and everything gets them (Strats, a Tele  and Mustangs)...

fastonebaz

For convenience I use thr same brand and gauge,  if I break a string I can grab any pack and replace it.  

pintspiller

I have D'Ad 10s on my Gordon Smith Gypsy and Gibson SG. I had Ernie 10s on my Peavey Rockingham. Seemed to work with the difference in scale lengths.

stratman3142

I've got 9's on my Fender Strats and my Tele.

I've got 10's on my Gibson Les Paul and PRS Custom 24 S2.

My gauge choice is based on feel/comfort and what works for string bends and legato. Obviously the Fender vs Gibson are quite different scale lengths so 9's vs 10's feel roughly comparable to me on those guitars.

I think the 10's work on the PRS owing to its big high frets, which is a factor that also facilitates bends and legato.

carlos

paulnb57 said:

I buy 10s in bulk and everything gets them (Strats, a Tele  and Mustangs)...

Doesn't it feel floppy on the short scale?

octatonic

Tension consistency is more of a consideration.
I like a bit of fight, but not too much.

richardhomer

I use 9s on my main Strat and 10s on my DGT. This gives a similar tension on both guitars which makes swapping between them easier.

I have a Strat set up for slide with 10s and a higher action. That will sometimes be in open G or D - for which a heavier gauge might be better, or open A or E - which work well with 10s.

I use 13s on my acoustic (tuned down a full step most of the time) and on my resonator. That’s usually in open G.

I short, I use what works for the way each guitar is used.

chris45

I had 11s on all of mine and I could perceive the difference in feel when switching between Gibson and Fender scale lengths.  I switched to 10s for the Fenders and for me the feel is the same now across all guitars.  I can manage 2 gauges with my OCD!  My taste in music is Classic Rock / standard tuning and all my scale lengths are either 24.75 or 25.5 so I don’t see myself needing to get any more variations.

ICBM

For a long time I used 11s on everything, electric and acoustic - even my 12-string, which is tuned down to D. I don’t really play very differently on electric and acoustic somehow, so it makes it easier if they don’t have a big difference in tension.

I only changed to 10s on my Fender-scale guitar after I broke my elbow - as part of recovering my strength and flexibility I started to learn some more technical stuff, and the 11s were just too tight on that scale.

I’ve also got some low-tension 12s on my acoustic just now, just to see whether I liked them... they must be OK since I’d almost forgotten .

dogload

I tend to just use 10 - 46 D'addario on all my electrics except my Jag which gets 12s.

Musicwolf

All Electrics are strung with Ernie ball's, either 9's, 10's or Hybrids.  I usually buy around 5 sets at a time.

I put a label on the back of the headstock to remind me what is currently fitted.

stickyfiddle

My rule of thumb is 9s on Fenders, 10s on Gibsons. I had 11s on my ES330 for a little while, which sounded epic but were a bit too "fighty" and made it way louder than my others, which I don't like.

I like all my guitars to have similar outputs, so that plays into it too, in conjunction with pickup choice.

Alnico

I fit the strings which the scale and tuning need, here's what we have and what's on them:

Ibanez RG550EX - 9-42

Jackson DK2 - 9-42

PRS SE Cu24 - 10-46
Route '66 Tele - 10-46

Gibson Firebird Studio - 10-46

Epiphone Explorer - 10-52

LTD EC401 - 10-52

They're all tuned to E standard (440hz). The guitars with 10-52 strings handle drop D tuning when needed but I have to be careful with the slightly wayward bottom E (D!) string flapping around. If one of those two guitars proves to be needed for regular drop D tuning I'll replace the bottom string with a 0.056"but while it needs to play both drop D and E standard, a 0.052" is the best all-round solution I've found.

We were going to look for a couple of cheap guitars in the future for dedicated down-tuning:

D standard - 12-60

B standard - 13-64 (Custom set built from single strings @ Strings direct.)

I usually fit D'addario strings however we're very soon going to switch over to Feline Guitars' strings once I've used the stock of D'addario's we have here.

Fez

9s on Strats and See custom 24. 10s on Epi Les Paul and Gordon Smith. 

John_A

10-52 on most things, but 10-46 on superstrats for me, no OCD problem with different gauges on different guitars 

Winny_Pooh

I have each setup in a way that suits its tone & style.
25.5" scale EBMM 9.5s (most shreddy setup)
25" scale PRS Mira 10s
23/3.4" scale ES-330 11s 

Roland

tekbow said:

It's not. I put whatever works for me and the scale length of the guitar.

Basically this. I know the similar tension argument about using 10s on long scale and 11s on short. The two things I’ve found more important are using the tension which brings the guitar alive, and having reasonably balanced tensions across the set. At one point I was using 11s on a Parker  Fly, with suitably heavy G and B, and 10s on a Les Paul.

paulnb57 said:

I buy 10s in bulk and everything gets them (Strats, a Tele  and Mustangs)...

Having focused on Teles in recent years all of my electric guitars get the 10-52 treatment.