[jakeskylyr]

Originally Posted by Chris

Well I don't think you could tune 13's to standard without reinforcing your neck with a piece of 3" steel.

Doesn't Dick Dale use 13s or 14s tuned to standard?

[nitelightboy]

I was running .11's on my Ibanez in dropped B and .09's on my other guitars in standard. Never had a problem with .09's.

[forelander]

I've got 10-52's with a 60 for the b waiting to go on my interceptor as soon as this stupid intonation key arrives, about a month late (if ever).

[darren]

I played 9s for probably 15 years. It wasn't until i started playing seven strings that i realized that i needed more string mass to get that thick tone i was looking for. I think i still have one guitar with 9s on it, and it's just too "meedly-meedly-meeeee". I go with either 10s or 11s now.

[shadowgenesis]

Jeff Beck runs 13's in standard tuning. On a strat. Is it just me, or does anyone else think the trem on a strat would probably jump out of the body and slap him in the face for that?? And i know SRV once used 18's, and i believe that was in flat tuning or D, i dont' think lower.

I've been playing 11's in standard on my electric almost my entire playing career. I like how they sound thicker and fuller. Whenever i play a guitar at a music shop, the 9's and 10's they stock feel so thin and twangy. I just got used to the feel of 11's. But i think the artcore (my first decent electric) is a short-scale, so 11's didn't feel as tight as they do on my 7. I just ordered a box (12 sets) of ernie ball power slinky 7's. Unfortunately i recently discovered how much of a dislike the floyd rose on my carvin has for the 11's i'm using. The first time i put the strings on and used the floyd to bend up a tiny tiny bit, an intonation screw didn't hold and the entire saddle jumped up a centimeter or more (this was probably a month or more ago). Then this past friday the winding on my A string seems to have started to come undone right at the bridge and threw everything off in the tension.

hey. any suggestions on that?? I'm starting to wish i'd not gotten the damn floyd rose... Maybe a tremel-no is in order.

[metalfiend666]

I used to have 9's on my RG550 and RG7620 with a 56 on the B and I never had a problem with them. I went to 10-56's for my 7's purely because I can buy them as a set (I'm lazy). I have 13-56's on one of my Roswell Rhoads, but that's in B standard tuning, and the other Rhoads and my Warlock have 10-52's in standard tuning.

I'm gonna use 9's on my scalloped V when I get the time to put it back together.

Originally Posted by shadowgenesis

hey. any suggestions on that?? I'm starting to wish i'd not gotten the damn floyd rose... Maybe a tremel-no is in order.

Yes.

[Drew]

I personally don't believe that the secret to a "thicker" tone is heavier strings - there are SO many factors in play that it's possible to get a thin tone with heavy strings and a thick tone without.

The biggest difference I hear is in the attack - 9's are a lot snappier and airier than 10's or 11's, which in comparison sound a bit more compressed (and thus generally fuller). So yes, a heavier string WILL sound fuller right off the bat relative to a thinner one, but still if you're playing a humbucker-equipped guitar into a dark, compressed amp, 9's can sound plenty thick, and the extra attack you get might actually sound better. Vice versa with a thin guitar into a bright, snappy amp - heavier strings will help tame it somewhat, but only somewhat. And let's not even get into pick guage and pick-hand attack. Really, it's finding the right balance for the rest of your gear.

Of course, the one thing you can't change anywhere else? The feel of the heavier strings. I play a fairly dark setup, so you'd think thinner strings would be nice for the additional attack, but quite simply I just like how heavier strings feel when you dig in. As such, I just keep the gain reasonably low (for a shred-y lead player, anyway) and use thick picks with a heavy picking hand, and I can still get pretty explosive when I want.

[Drache713]

I have a very heavy picking hand, so 9's on a standard scale wouldn't cut it for me. I got 9's on my 7421xl so they're close in feel to 10's, but I'm going to bump up to 10's soon so it'll be close in feel to 11's on a standard scale. I tried 11's before on my 7421xl (with a wound g no less), but that was too much and wasn't playable.

[Mark. A]

Heh, I can't use anything but 9's

[Drew]

Originally Posted by Mark. A

Heh, I can't use anything but 9's

Wuss.