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Post subject: Perfect strings for Strat lead playing: 009-046 or 010-046?
Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 10:26 am
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I am driving myself crazy between choosing .009-046 or .010-046 sets on my HSS Stratocaster. I play rock in standard tuning with lots of bendy soloing and feel standard .009 set with light bottom strings are too flappy for tight riffing.

I´ve been been going through these two sets for years and still can´t decide :)

What string gauges do you prefer on your Strats for smooth soloing and tight rhythms?

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Post subject: Re: Perfect strings for Strat lead playing: 009-046 or 010-0
Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 10:36 am
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rexx wrote:
I am driving myself crazy between choosing .009-046 or .010-046 sets on my HSS Stratocaster. I play rock in standard tuning with lots of bendy soloing and feel standard .009 set with light bottom strings are too flappy for tight riffing.

I´ve been been going through these two sets for years and still can´t decide :)

What string gauges do you prefer on your Strats for smooth soloing and tight rhythms?

I use 9's on my Strat and 10's on my SG
mud


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Post subject: Re: Perfect strings for Strat lead playing: 009-046 or 010-0
Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 11:11 am
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I favor the 10-46 set, for both Strats and Gibsons.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Perfect strings for Strat lead playing: 009-046 or 010-0
Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 11:36 am
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I run D'Addario 10-46 on all my electrics (Strat, LP's, Sheraton). They are very playable, rich, bright, sweet, full, and are reasonably priced!

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Post subject: Re: Perfect strings for Strat lead playing: 009-046 or 010-0
Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 12:00 pm
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rexx wrote:
I am driving myself crazy between choosing .009-046 or .010-046 sets on my HSS Stratocaster. I play rock in standard tuning with lots of bendy soloing and feel standard .009 set with light bottom strings are too flappy for tight riffing.

I´ve been been going through these two sets for years and still can´t decide :)

What string gauges do you prefer on your Strats for smooth soloing and tight rhythms?


To be honest with you it does come down to what you prefer, and if you feel that " .009 set with light bottom strings are too flappy for tight riffing." than by all means use 10's, I have sometimes tried a combo of a 10' set and 9 set dependeing on what you like you could go with 9,11,16,26,36,46, or 10,13,17,24,32,42 or any combo you like :idea:
mud


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Post subject: Re: Perfect strings for Strat lead playing: 009-046 or 010-0
Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 12:04 pm
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MusicLaw wrote:
I run D'Addario 10-46 on all my electrics (Strat, LP's, Sheraton). They are very playable, rich, bright, sweet, full, and are reasonably priced!


This, I use the same both on my Strat and Tele, however you can try D'Addario XL125 hibrid set, for easier bending...I liked em but got back on 10's


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Post subject: Re: Perfect strings for Strat lead playing: 009-046 or 010-0
Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 12:44 pm
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A small handful of companies make 9½ gauge strings.
Maybe that's where you will find your home.

DR
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Post subject: Re: Perfect strings for Strat lead playing: 009-046 or 010-0
Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 1:36 pm
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By "bendy soloing", do you mean treble strings, mid strings, bass strings, or all of the above (really all)? Some people only bend the treble strings, and not all the way over, and won't have a problem with heavier bass strings.

On my flatter radius guitars, I use .011 or .012. Granted, I have big strong hands and no real problem bending thicker strings, even if I bend more on the bass side than the treble side.
For the smaller radius ones, I use lighter strings, like .010 (although I have gone down to .008 on occasion).


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Post subject: Re: Perfect strings for Strat lead playing: 009-046 or 010-0
Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 4:16 pm
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I like 008s but you do need to be extremely accurate in locating chords as it is easy to bend them out of tune without care.

Concensus would suggest heavier strings sound better and give greater sustain. So the only advantage of lighter strings is playability. If you don't have a preference based on how the guitar feels then there is no advantage in using the lighter strings.

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Post subject: Re: Perfect strings for Strat lead playing: 009-046 or 010-0
Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 6:30 pm
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I have been using EB 10-46s on my Strats and Esquire for 35 years. I have tried 9's on a couple occasions and didn't like what they did to my finger vibrato. I bend quite a bit and find I have better control over them and my finger vibrato with 10's.

Just my opinion FWIW.

T2

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Post subject: Re: Perfect strings for Strat lead playing: 009-046 or 010-0
Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 9:52 pm
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i use 7's, but if you like bending chicken wire, by all means go with 10's; or 12's, like someone above, if you dig playing rebar :lol: play what suits you. a strat can be set up with any guage to optimize your sound so you dont sacrifice anything, as far as the enduring string guage vs. sustain/tone boogeyman may be a concern. and how your two hands do what they do will be the biggest determinant of how you sound. for example, Yngwie plays ultra flappy 8's but he sounds amazing. if 9's feel floppy, those probably arent for you.


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Post subject: Re: Perfect strings for Strat lead playing: 009-046 or 010-0
Posted: Wed May 04, 2016 1:30 am
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rexx wrote:
I am driving myself crazy between choosing .009-046 or .010-046 sets on my HSS Stratocaster. I play rock in standard tuning with lots of bendy soloing and feel standard .009 set with light bottom strings are too flappy for tight riffing.

I´ve been been going through these two sets for years and still can´t decide :)

What string gauges do you prefer on your Strats for smooth soloing and tight rhythms?


This is even more personal than which p/ups a player likes, rexx! All I can offer is that these things have changed over time with me.

Way back, I used 8-38 tuned to D - a mate said they were like rubber bands! But bending wasn't a problem and I wasn't doing a whole lot of rhythm. No sustain? Turn the amp up! This was probably a reaction to the wire hawsers that were the only strings available for years in England when I started playing, but they felt like heaven!

10 years later I was playing 9-42 still tuned to D. 10 years on, I tuned them up to E flat, and that's really where I still am (on D'Addarios).

However, on my recently-acquired Am Special, I tried 10-46 (still E flat) to negate what I didn't like about the jumbo frets, and they were OK. And although I've now had the guitar refretted back to medium jumbos, I still have the 10's on it, and I actually may stick with them. If this continues I may even go from 9's to 10's on my other Strats.

So my advice would be to play what you feel comfortable with now, and don't worry if this changes! Because you sound like you're going through one of the same transitions that I have!

Cheers - Peter.


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Post subject: Re: Perfect strings for Strat lead playing: 009-046 or 010-0
Posted: Wed May 04, 2016 5:04 am
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Depends on the player.
I prefer .10-.46 or .10-.52 or .09-.38 or .09-.46
I've read Hendrix used F-150's which are .10-.38 and some said he liked .09-.38 and it can safely be said he was a better lead guitar player than me and his tone kicked mine to the curb as well. On that note (pun unavoidable) SRV used .13 -.52, Beck .11-.49, that's Strat players, outside of that: Gatton .09's with a wound G, Page .8's with a plain G on an acoustic. So perfect? Depends on what are you playing.

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Post subject: Re: Perfect strings for Strat lead playing: 009-046 or 010-0
Posted: Wed May 04, 2016 11:20 am
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It somewhat depends on the guitar--mostly, I prefer 9's on most of my guitars---but for some reason, my G&L F100 prefers a set of 10's. I don't know if it's because of the difference in construction, pickups or some other sort of alchemy, it just "feels" and sounds better with the heavier strings.

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Post subject: Re: Perfect strings for Strat lead playing: 009-046 or 010-0
Posted: Wed May 04, 2016 11:43 am
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Screamin Armadillo wrote:
It somewhat depends on the guitar--mostly, I prefer 9's on most of my guitars---but for some reason, my G&L F100 prefers a set of 10's. I don't know if it's because of the difference in construction, pickups or some other sort of alchemy, it just "feels" and sounds better with the heavier strings.


my ASAT plays bad with .09's. Let me rephrase because it's an excellent guitar, I play worse with .09's and it does not like .12/.13's at all (or I don't) Put as set of .10's - .40x and that thing is off to the races.

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