Hey Alan how's life with you? great minds think alike as, if you read my post above, i've been thinking about changing to 9's on my Clapton strat.

I hate guitar playing to feel like a struggle! i want to make it as easy as i can for myself and heavier strings are just too much extra work and effort, for not much extra reward tonal wise at the end of the day. Unless you've got really powerful hands to handle the thicker strings (which i don't have)

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

hi gary , things are not bad here , and yes i read your post mate , if i was in your boat i would deffo go for it . As i said before , ive been using 10's for donkeys years and never saw or felt any reason to change , it was just a spur of the moment thing and i'm quite glad i went for it and i'll probably stick 9's on the usa strat as well bugger it

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That's true, Gary. It does give you a thicker tone. And As you said, that doesn't necessary mean better tone. Tone is very subjective to each individual. As of now, I have my Am Std Strat strung with 9s and my Lonestar Strat with 11's. If I want that fat Texas tone, then I swap.

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"If it ain't one thing, it's another."

SRV also played Bass guitar before, so he was use to those thicker strings. I think strings are personal and whatever works for you is fine. I use 10`s on my Strats and Teles and I`m ok with that guage.

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That's the best if you can have the option of switching to a different guitar with the heavier guages for that style. There is no doubt the thicker guage adds that extra meat to the sound, compared to light guages. I think the way i'd describe it is that it gives a different tonal color, not necessarily better, but different. That's the joy of having a few different guitars right there Matt; you can have your cake and eat it too

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

It's strange nobody has mentioned output yet, or dynamics.

Pickups create an electrical current (the signal) when they are exposed to a changing magnetic field (according to Lenz's Law, Grade 11 Physics). An increase in the mass of the steel which vibrates and thus creates the changing magnetic field should by rights result in a corresponding increase the strength of the current induced. Something for you to think about. There is a very slight hicup in this line of reasoning but its impact on the final result is not very significant. The hicup has to do with a slight increase in neck relief creating an even slighter change in relative pickup height. I say it is even slighter because of the rise/run formula for a $@!&#. Floating trems will also throw a wrench into the equation. Great brain teaser.

Then there are dynamics. A heavier string will exhibit different dynamics because it is thicker and therefore stiffer and stronger. Something else for you to ponder. When thinking on this aspect consider issues like quack, spank, jangle.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

yup.

I don't hear the SRV tone emerge unless I've got 10's on, 11's hit the sweet spot.

The lighter strings sound really good when you have massive amps (amperage).

The lighter the string, the more delicate your attack needs to be.

Lighter strings with strong amps offer easier, more pronounced pitch based techniques (more dynamics) whereas heavier strings are just more percussive and require a harder attack which yields a different sound, more percussive sound, the SRV sound v. the ZZ Top sound.

Currently, I use 9-42's for concert pitch on strat like guitars, 9-46's for floyd rose and fixed bridge at concert pitch, 10-46's for detuned guitars, ...I'm curious to try 8's, I tried them a long, long time ago, but...it felt like I was cheating because they were so easy to play! It's gonna be interesting to see how much of a difference 8's make decades later, I should be able shred those things smokin' red hot!