I have a few different guitars and over the last few years liked to have kept them consistent across the board at 10-52.
However, I recently got a Charvel and that has .09's on it and I like it. I'd probably get away with .09's on the Custom 24, and the Strats and Tele will be fine too, but I'm unsure about the Les Paul...my OCD will be playing havoc if they're not all the same!
I know this is a daft post, but any comments are welcome.
1. Is consistency important? I find it a bit weird going from the Charvel to the others right now because the gauge's feel different and I'm overcompensating on my bends etc. So I'm thinking that consistency is important, what say you?
2. Anyone else playing .09's on their Custom 24? And Les Paul?
Cheers
Comments
Even a floating trem + stop tail will ensure the same gauge will feel different especially when you bend the strings
I know many players who stick to the same gauge across all guitars - I know others who drop a gauge from say an LP to a Tele
I find modern guitars like a PRS do not need 9-42 - just IMO - as they have such a slinky feel and ease of playability anyway
However IMO different guitars have their own feel and characteristics - I would not try to play the same song/style on say an LP as a Charvel - As such I might have the Charvel set-up for speed and a slinky vibe and the LP set-up differently
Not a specific answer available
I've got 10's on my Gibson Les Paul and PRS Custom 24 S2.
My gauge choice is based on feel/comfort and what works for string bends and legato. Obviously the Fender vs Gibson are quite different scale lengths so 9's vs 10's feel roughly comparable to me on those guitars.
I think the 10's work on the PRS owing to its big high frets, which is a factor that also facilitates bends and legato.
I like a bit of fight, but not too much.
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I have a Strat set up for slide with 10s and a higher action. That will sometimes be in open G or D - for which a heavier gauge might be better, or open A or E - which work well with 10s.
I use 13s on my acoustic (tuned down a full step most of the time) and on my resonator. That’s usually in open G.
I short, I use what works for the way each guitar is used.
I only changed to 10s on my Fender-scale guitar after I broke my elbow - as part of recovering my strength and flexibility I started to learn some more technical stuff, and the 11s were just too tight on that scale.
I’ve also got some low-tension 12s on my acoustic just now, just to see whether I liked them... they must be OK since I’d almost forgotten .
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I like all my guitars to have similar outputs, so that plays into it too, in conjunction with pickup choice.
Route '66 Tele - 10-46
They're all tuned to E standard (440hz). The guitars with 10-52 strings handle drop D tuning when needed but I have to be careful with the slightly wayward bottom E (D!) string flapping around. If one of those two guitars proves to be needed for regular drop D tuning I'll replace the bottom string with a 0.056"but while it needs to play both drop D and E standard, a 0.052" is the best all-round solution I've found.
We were going to look for a couple of cheap guitars in the future for dedicated down-tuning:
25.5" scale EBMM 9.5s (most shreddy setup)
25" scale PRS Mira 10s
23/3.4" scale ES-330 11s
Having focused on Teles in recent years all of my electric guitars get the 10-52 treatment.