New strings

Rocker

My niece's little boy, age 9, has started playing guitar. He had a short scale electro acoustic but the strings are well shot. Almost zero tone acoustically but are sort of ok plugged in. He has small hands so what gauge strings should I het for his guitar? Thanks

ICBM

I'm assuming steel string?

If it's around 24"-scale, probably 10s.

If it's much under 24"-scale, probably 11s. They won't feel too heavy on that scale length and the thicker plain strings will actually dig into his fingers less until the skin hardens. 12s are usually about the same as 11s on the wound strings but the plains do feel much stiffer.

My experience with my kids is that it's hard to get them to persist with a steel-string guitar at that age though, it's just too uncomfortable on their fingers which are still very soft. Nylon string may be better. My eldest one has taken up steel-string now but she's 15. (And even then it's a Little Martin, which is short-scale.)