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Except on my Tele which has 9’s..
I’ve been playing for over 45 years and have no hand problems....
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.
10-52's on standard/drop d/drop c tuned LP
12-56's on drop c/b LP.
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
I play 10's on a strat and will happily go to 9's the instant my body pushes back against me.
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.
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.
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.
10-46 Ernie Ball on Peavey Rockingham