As the title says, I want to change the strings on my 2004 MIA Stratocaster from 9'sto 10's.

I know it is not a massive jump, but will I need to alter the setup on my guitar to cope with the change? My Les Paul handled it fine, but will the Strat?

Thanks for any replies.

The bridge will raise a bit, thats about all that will happen in my experience. You can combat that by taking the 9's off, tighten the 2 tremclaw springs 1/4 of a turn each. Be vigilant about that 1/4 turn, the difference between 9's and 10's is pretty even balance wise. So you can keep your trem tension roughly the same by turning each screw the same amount.

Theres no reason to file the nut at all. They come set to handle 0.12'-0.58's.

You may have to raise the action half a turn of each grub screw. In a couple of weeks check the neck relief. Any change in relief should be slight at its worst.
In my experience all the work is on those 2 tremclaw springs. The other stuff CAN happen, it rarely does though.

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No no and no

Hi 92Fender: yes, you will need to redo the setup.

The heavier strings will exert more tension and so pull the back of your bridge up higher, so you will need to tighten the trem springs round the back of the guitar to bring it back down to where you want it.

Then you will need to reset the intonation. The positions of the saddles are set to compensate for the different masses of each string, one to another. If you change to heavier strings then you have changed all of that and you will need to reintonate each string. Move the saddles (almost certainly backwards) till each string is in tune both open and at the 12th fret, fretted and with the harmonic.

Much less work than it sounds.

Cheers - C

EDIT: oops - written simultaneously to Niki's post, above...

I play 10's on exactly the strat you are playing. It is going to feel stiff to you when you first play it. Don't worry; just keep at it. The tone is better and worth the effort. 9's will seem like jokes to you in no time.

yep they defenatly feel stiff when you change at first, took me about a week of sore fingers, then its fine. just stick with em and you wont look back.

92Fender yes you are going to need a setup because of the trem . I can flip between 9s and 10s on my teles and not have a problem of any kind and thats because of the stoptail which is why you have no problem with the Paul. But the strat is going to go out and need to be adjusted. By the way you will like the 10s a lot more as you have more string even though it is a slight jump up if you always played 9s it will feel as everyone else stated stiff. But a week or so off bending the $@!& out of them will take care of that.

I usually just go stock with what the model came with. I don't mind 10s (LP), but haven't switched the strat or ASAT.

What will 10s do with regards to tone vs. 9s - any noticable diff?

I am also going to put 10's on my Fender Stratocaster. Considering the Fender Bullets 10-46, but may go a little heavier. I am going to take it to the shop and have a professional set-up/intonation (I am kinda funny about adjusting the Truss Rod). My Technician says they will do the set-up for $30 + cost of strings.

I am going to leave the 9's on my Squier. I am going to see which set I like better over the next couple months. If I do not like the 10's I'll go back to the 9's.

RK

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

I switched to 10's on my 07 MIM and had to redo the whole setup. Everything changed, but it was worth it.

[quote="92Fender"]As the title says, I want to change the strings on my 2004 MIA Stratocaster from 9'sto 10's.

10's are standard issue on the so-called 'vintage' guitars for they were so originally equipped. Fender advised, in a reply sometime back, that 9's were thought to be more generic and playable to a wide group and so they were thus supplied to the 'newer' issues.

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"Another day in paradise!"

Hello,

I went from 9s to 10s and never looked back, and now after 6 months I am actually going to 11s soon to get some fatter tone and sustain. Don't forget you can adjust your pickups though, I spent two hours on all three last night and got some of the sounds that I was after.

I have been through DRs, Fender Bullets, Dunlop, JVB, Dean Markleys, D'addarios, Super Bullets plus many more and I just switched to Ernie Ball slinkies. The Slinkies are the best sounding and feeling string I have played for the style of music that I play, I will have to wait and see if they go the ditance.

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Fender Highway One HSS Stratocaster '09
Modified Fender Champ600
Honer Special20 Harmonica

Thanks for all your replies!

New strings are on - I reset the bridge to roughly where it used to be, and I fixed the intonation and all seems well. The neck doesn't look like it needs an adjustment, I really hope it stays that way!