What strings to people use?

[MDV]

E: 10-46 and 10-52 boomers, depending on my mood.

Dont play in D or drop C very much but when I do its 11-53 boomers.

C#/drop B - 11, 15, 19, 33, 43, 62 - plains from the boomer set, wounds from d'addario baritone set. This is my main tuning, hence the fussiness.

B/drop A - same as above or 11-70 boomers if I manage to plan it ahead

7 string - not sure, I think theyre 10 to 58s.

[headtheball]

I was a Ernie Ball 10's man for ages, till I lent my guitar to a mate for recording, and it came back with 13's on it. Now,  I can't take less than that on the Eggle, and 12 s on the tele.

[MrBump]

I do tend to think that lighter gauge strings lend themselves to FX and signal processing - I'm thinking EVH and Brian May.  But I guess that there are always exceptions.

I'm still using the set of 10s that Tim sent to me with my Nailbombs...  Rotosound, I think.  Pretty good.  I've always vacillated between EB 9s and 10s, mostly because I find 9s more comfortable, but the masochist in me says that I should be using 10s...  Because everyone says that they sound better.  I think that you might get better sustain with 10s, but not so sure that the tone is "better".

My mate used to use 8s on his Kramer Pacer in the 1980's.  Whenever I bent the high E string on that guitar, my fingers used to slip off the other side of the fretboard...

Mark.

[Doadman]

I've tried loads of strings over the years. I started out using Dean Markley 9-42 and then Ernie Ball 9-42. Searching for a slightly beefier bottom end I moved to Dean Markley 9-46 and then Ernie Ball 9-46. I stayed with them for years until I eventually switched to 10-46. After so many years using 9-46, the 10s felt a little odd but I soon got used to them and now I find 9s to be very thin. By this time I had my current guitar with a floating trem and started to experiment with other brands that may last longer while retaining their tone. Two brands stood out from the rest as far superior:

Skull strings, if you can get them, are very good indeed. They have a crushing bottom end and last a good time. I found that they went through a stage where the tone started to go  and then seemed to come back for no readily explored reason, then they lasted another week or two before having to be changed. They are a bit more expensive than standard strings but they do last longer and have good tone.

Finally I switched to Elixir 10-46 and that is what I play now. I don't find the bottom end as heavy sounding as the Skull strings but the top end is sweet. They certainly last a long time though a possible problem is that my 1st E string snapped last night and that's never happened to me before. It may be  because I've been using the trem a lot more recently and in some cases, quite violently but I'll keep an eye on it. The strings had been on for about 6 months and when they came off, they felt perfect and still had good tone, though not quite as sharp as a brand new set. Bear in mind that the coating on Elixir strings does make them feel thicker and if you use a guitar like mine, going to the same gauge strings you currently use on Elixir's will require a set up done as the bridge will be too high. It feels a bit like you're moving up another gauge or maybe half a gauge but like everything else, you get used to it. My original motivation for changing to Elixir was purely laziness as it takes so long to restring my guitar but I've found I really like them. They're certainly a lot more expensive than normal strings but they last a lot longer as well and feel like new strings their whole life.

[FELINEGUITARS]

On my strat scale guitars I tend to like 9-42 although 9-46 are good too

On my Gibson scale guitars I go for 10-46 and occasionally I use 10-52

As for brand - no surprises


I used to use La Bella Hard Rocking Steel which were great and I like D'Addario and GHS as well

Do different gauges give different tone?
Yes in my opinion
Lighter Gauge strings have a higher harmonic content whilst bigger gauges give you more fundamental and less harmonics
One of the reasons that old school blues players like the big strings for tone as it sounds deeper.
1970s & 1980s rockers liked the extra zing that the lighter strings gave

[Stringkiller]

I used Ernie Ball Regular Slinky 10-46 for over 25 years now on both Fender type and Gibson type electrics I'm using Elixir 10-46 on Electrics and 11-52 on acoustics.
I only play regular tuning and am amazed at their sound and long life.
Also I find I'm breaking strings a lot less than before :-)
Bruce Stringkiller

[Scotty477]

I'm using Elixir nanowebs right now.

They are excellent strings, which have a very long life and crystal clear tone.

I use 10-46 on my LP and 9-42 on my Strat.

I'm undecided on what to use for my Yamaha SG2000. It currently has 9's but I'm interested to see what a set of 10's would feel like on it. I may even go for a set of 9.5's for it.

On my acoustic (Yamaha CPX900) I use Elixir nano 12's.

[Brow]

I use Rotosound 10s on all my electric guitars, and Rotosound 14s (I think) on my Acoustic guitar.

I used Dean Markleys for years but then tried Rotos and now I'm a convert :)

[MartinS]

I use D'Addario EXL115 - 11-49 on my Gibson 335. I couldn't go back to lighter strings now - the tone is so much bigger. I considered going up to 12s, but vibrato's important to my style and I think I might struggle there.