I have been considering switching from 10's on my American Deluxe Strat to a set of 11's. I am looking for feedback from anyone who has done this as well as what brand people like the best.

Hi !

Six months ago I switched from 10's to 11's on my 1988 Stratocaster. It makes a great difference. Now the guitar has better sustain. But with heavier strings it's a littler harder on the fingers. But It's worth it. Since then I have put 11's on my Telecaster too.

I play mostly blues with these guitars, so the longer the sustain the better it is, mostlys when you bend strings, but also if you play clean. The Strat is tuned one half step. It also depend on the kind of gear you use and the style of music you play. I play that guitar through a 1965 Fender Bassman head with a 1964 Bandmaster cabinet with 2 Oxford speakers. Wow what a sound. It's great.

If you change to 11's make sure that you have your guitar tech do the adjustment so you could get the best out of your guitar. That's one of the things I've learned in life (I play guitar for 42 years now). I did some work myself on my guitars and it wasn't always fully efficient.

I think that Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn had 13's on their guitars. So It really makes a big difference on the sound.

Good luck with your experimentation. Excuse my written english, I'm from Quebec city, so english is my second language.

I'm looking to do the same, not so much for sustain, but for a heavier tone. Changing string guages may require the nut to be widened. Some guitars are slotted for 9's, so 11's would surely need to have the nut reslotted. 11's are also a little harder to bend, but I tune down half a step, so its easier. One more note, thicker strings cause more tension on the neck. Too heavy a guage, the truss rod won't work as well as it should....

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"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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Stevie used 13s but Jimi used 9-42s from info I've read over the years,apparently in the days before all the choices we have now in string gauges Jimi used to buy a set of regular guitar strings and use the A string in the E 6th string position and used a .009 banjo string for the E 1st.I have always used 8-38s as I do deep bends and my hands aren't all that big or strong even after playing 45 yrs and now that I've developed arthritis in my hands I have to use a lighter string.Having said all that I've never had a problem getting sustain on any of my guitars as I raise the pups to compensate for the thinner metal.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I also read in the old days, the G string was a wound string unlike what we see today.... 8's are really thin, must feel like bending a piece of string.

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"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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Thats why a lot of players at the time used thebanjo string swap as that made the reg. set B string a plain G as opposed to a wound that universally came on all sets at the time.You're right the 008 E string is real easy to bend,you can do 2-3 step bends like Jimi and Buddy Guy.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Won't you break a lot of strings with such a thin guage? What about the nut? Do the strings rattle being so thin???

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"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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I very rarely have strings break,I did before I switched to D'Addario but I find that can endure the heaviest kind of bending and stay in tune also.I haven't had any problem with string rattle in the nuts either,I don't know for sure but it seems that nut files with a thin V taper must have been used at the factory with most of my guitars so they just sat lower in the nut but not low enough to cause fret buzz.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I just switched from 10's to 12's on my American Standard Stratocaster. I have always played acoustic guitar until I got this Strat, so I'm used to 12's and even 13's. I can strum this thing like an acoustic now...

I put a set of D'Addario Chromes (ECG25) on it. They are flat wound with a wound G, and they sound really really nice.

In my first post I meant tone not sustain. Sorry. Like I said my english is 't that good.

I agree withs bobc2. I think that when you play acoustic on a regular basis it helps when you to put heavier strings on an electric. I play a Delphi Resonator. The firts string is a 13 and the second is a 17. Sure I play in open tuning, but I play also in standard tuning. My fingers get sored, but they get stronger (have you ever looked at Stevie Ray's hands or Jeff Beck's). So when I play with an electric with bigger gauge it's a lot easier because the gauge of the Delphi is such big. I onced put 13's on the Delphi but the tone seemed to thin.

If you play in open tuning, I think the tone is great with bigger strings. You can even play Surf music . I just read an old Guitar Worl Magazine with a poster of Dick Dale's Stratocaster (called The Beast). The strings are 014 - 060.s.

This is one subject matter that is open to a lot of debate and one that has justifiable arguments on all sides.

First I would say what brand string you use as long as it is a quality string is of the least importance. For the last 15 years I walk in and ask for Daddario strings before that it was Fenders but outside of gauge I could not honestly say I or just about anyone else can pick up a guitar and tell you correctly if they were Fenders, Ernie Balls, Daddario's or what ever.

On String Gauge I personally feel there is a tonal difference with heavier gauge strings. But Billy Gibbons said he always believed the same thing until I forget what blues man told him to use 8s (it would be online I guess if someone wants to look)and he has a fat wicked tone. Page, Yngwie and Brian May all use 8s and all have great tones.Vanhalen always uses 9s and guys are still chasing the brown sound. Clapton 10s and Beck 11s. Guitslinger is correct with Hendrix using 9s and Stevie as thick as 13s. I would not advise anyone who was not playing jazz to use 13s then Stevie had humongous and really strong hands.

So you have all gauges and all great tones listed. I would also recommend you go with what your hands can handle. I went from 9s to 10s and that is where I stood for ages until getting hand problems. And since at the present time I cant bend a string it does not matter. But I would advise anyone going to 11s to tune down a half of step and no matter whar gauge you move to have your guitar get a fresh set up especially with a Strat it is a must because of the tension on the trem besides the truss. I used to ho from 9s to 10s on a Tele with no problem and no set up needed.

Also when you work up to a higher gauge ease yourself into them as your hands are going to be soar so I would advise against jumping right in and doing two whole step bends off the bat. I had tried to get a lot of friends to go up a gauge only next time to see they went back as they did not like it. But just rolling back on your tone knob can fatten up your tone. Most important-if it hurts stop!

I did the same thing and was using 12's way back before SRV was even born. IMO, The gains in tone which are really small, aren't worth the damage to the hands. I went Light Top Heavy Bottom. You won't have a problem If you play rhythm, you'll be fine with a heavy gauge, but for lead work, I wouldn't recommend 12's at all. You only have one fretting hand and when you damage the tendons, it get real hard and painful to play.

If you want more bottom end, run a closed back cabinet. Hendrix had tons of bottom end and used light gauge strings. SRV was an aggressive player with huge hands. I can't begin to imagine how many young guys are going to ruin their hands because they thing they'll get SRV's tone using big strings. It's more in the amp, speaker cabs and pup height.

All that said, they're your hands. Don't fall for the hype that people will be impressed if you use 12's. It doesn't impress me in the least and I'm hoping I 'll be playing for another 40+ years.

Just my opinion.

ive used 10's for about 15 years on my strat then the other week i decided to try 9's for a wee change , bad mistake , i just couldn't get on with them at all and the strat wasn't singing like it should , so i've just finished changing back to 10's and i'm a happy camper again , neve tried 11's mind you , and i don't think i'll bother , i'll stick to what i like

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Well, the switch to 11's has been completed and I must say I think I made the right decision. The recommendation from the Luthier was that he would have to open up the nut slightly to accomodate the larger strings and that I would have problems if I ever wanted to go back to 9's. He did a full setup as well.
I definitely notice more bottom end as well some thicker tone and bending has not been affected.