Surfguitarist

hi.
i am wondering about string gauges for electric guitars. recently on ebay i got a set of gibson vintage reissue 9-42's for an incredible deal. im wondering before i string my guitar if those will play well (i play a lot of clean as well as some distortion) i am hoping being pure nickel wound they will give me the tone of a better guitar (im using a chep[er] squier strat)

gumbilicious

strings...

try em out. most people prefer whatever gauge they get used to, 9-42's would fall in the 'lighter' range. i do know some guitarists that supposedly played with 8's and others that played with 11's. it's all preference

if you are running some slack tunings then heavier strings will help keep tension.

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SrThompson

It's all preference.

But if you wanna start playing lower tunings (D stantard for example) you're going to need a bigger gauge (0.10 at least, altough 0.11 would be great)

Also if you use 0.9 and 0.11, 0.9 it's going to sound more "brighter" than 0.11. This one it will sound a little more "dark".

GaryBillington

So you already bought them, now you're asking about them?

If we said they're going to be crap, would you just throw them away?

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Surfguitarist

thanks guys for the advice! and gary billington, if you told me they are crap i would NOT throw them away. i would simply put them on a different guitar other than my strat (which i use 90% of the time)

GaryBillington

But then you'd never know how they feel on your strat & you'd never know what you really think of them....

Like the other guys said, it's all preference, you can't know your preference until you've tried something.

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|Long|

Pure nickel strings usually have a round core. They are designed to give a warmer tone and were used back when. So that's why they are 'vintage reissue' strings for the Gibby's.

They also have less tension, making them much much easier to bend. And they last longer.

So, with all that said, these 9-42 will probably feel very loose, but the extra scale length of the strat should tighten it up a tad. Only your playing will make your cheaper guitar sound good, sadly.

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Cathbard

I use 9-42 on my Yamaha SG which has a shorter scale length than yours and I love 'em. My other guitars have the same scale as your strat and I use 9-42's on all of those too. It's all I ever use and I play in standard, drop D and open G. You'll be fine.

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Maineguitarist

Do you like bending your strings? .9-.42's are for you.

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Surfguitarist

thanks guys for the advice, and they are much better with bends

NakedInTheRain

personally? i couldn't play anything under 10s, they just felt too flimsy. recently i tried 11s on my tele and they feel so much better.

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