.011 - .048 on electric Fender scale length
.012 - .052 on electric Gibson scale length
.010 - .046 on electric 12-string (Gibson scale length)
.050 - .105 on bass
.012 - .054 on acoustic

I like the sound and feel of heavier gauges. Yes, .010s are regarded as light gauge.

I've preferred Super Slinky .009s for the longest time, just due to the feel of them. I often play / tune down to D and am quite happy. It seems to work for me. I also used .010 but preferred .009.
Only recently have I started picking up the little downsides of a light gauge (as I learn more about my sound) so I may very well sacrifice my comfort zone feel in chase of a better tone.

My acoustics are generally .010 / .011



*Edit* for accuracy and beginners.

mostly .10's for me ....... used to be a die hard ernie ball fan , but these days i use exl 110 and fender bullets

Hi Alan, I find your preferred gauges very heavy. Did you start with a lighter gauge and progressed to the heavier ones or was it heavy for you from the word go?
I tried 11's on my MIM Strat but it chewed my fingers off - I prefer a medium action.

I started out on .010s and, aside from brief experiments and special tunings, I stayed there for 15 years or so. I tried .011s a few times over the years, but either I or the guitar struggled with them so they never lasted long. Eventually I got the Baja Tele already fitted with .011s and it was just so amazing that I changed on all my guitars overnight and have stuck there ever since. I pick up a guitar with less now and it just feels wrong - they have to fight back to make me happy.

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about string gauges i heard a funny story.... maybe even only urban legend .....but if i remember i read it in a Billy Gibbons(ZZ top) interview years ago in guitar player magazine...

where the story was recounted by Gibbons.... about a concert where they played back to back with BB king...and BB picked up billy's guitar and commented "how the F@#k can you play guitar with such thick strings?" and to that Billy replied "well it gives me a fatter tone"..... to that BB king replied..."Man when i need a fatter sound i just turn up the amp!!!!

Lol, good one Keira. I must say that during my one attempt to play 11's on my Strat it did make a difference to the tone, however it wasn't that much compared to the 10's. Compared with 9's the difference was huge.

Hi MojoJojoe, I will take you up on the invite to go see you guys perform in Nabygelegen on the 21st of March as long as you use the Modern Eagle. I have never held one in real life. (Sorry for interfering with my own thread)

I only have acoustic guitars at present. Generally I find the heavier the string, the richer the tone, so it's a trade-off between tone and feel.

On my Taylor Big Baby I stick to lights - 12 on the top string. I have it strung with phosphor bronze lights, and that's about as heavy as I'll go on that guitar because the construction is a little on the light side.

On the Morgan I have 80:20 bronze mediums - that's a set of .56 to .13. I have done a bit of a journey on that guitar. Started off with mediums, then went to lights. then went to a "bluegrass set" which is basically mediums on strings 6 to 4 and lights on 3 to 1. I went to the bluegrass set to try to get a bigger bottom end, but the tone was a little unbalanced. I went back to lights and stuck with them for quite a while.

Then recently I re-strung it and half way through I realised I was actually putting on a set of mediums that had been bought some time ago. I decided to give it a try and the guitar sounded beautiful. It's heavier built than the Taylor and so I have less concerns about putting too heavy a string on it. I also found the mediums didn't impede me at all - which I think proves my hands have gotten stronger.

At present I am sticking to Elixirs. I used DR for a while. They sounded great, but only for a short time and then got pretty dull. D'Addarios sounded better for longer. I am not convinced yet about the longevity of the 80:20 mediums on the Morgan (though they've been on since sometime December), but the strings on the Taylor are over 3 months old now and still feel and sound pretty good.

I need to analyse if the cost of the Elixirs is compensated by the longevity. Richard Thompson is an elixir endorsee and says he gets about 3 shows out of a set, whereas with any other brand he struggles to get through one show. I think body chemistry has something to do with it - some guys just ooze stuff that attacks strings.

The answer will vary from player to player, and maybe even from guitar to guitar. I would like to stick to one kind of string so as to keep life simple, but the Morgan sounds so good with the mediums and I think the Taylor is going to struggle with that guage so....

You might care to ask the manufacturer as well. I e-mailed Morgan and they said that they build their guitars for mediums though you can go heavier if you want.

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I use 10's on my thinline, find it the best for me, and usually 12's on my taylor acoustic. I just put some 13's on and they sound very good, but i think i'll go back to 12's again - As with the electric a good balance for me.

Oh, only elixir on acoustic, (think everyone should, they expensive, but last 6 times longer and sound great) also didn't put them on elec for same reason as Joe, but keen to try if you say they've changed.

When I started playing the electric I used 9's for the first year or so. I tried the 10's a couple of months ago and realized the improvement in tone was substantial. I'll give it a couple of months and then try a set of 11's.
My fingers are only now really getting used to bending the 10's ?

I also jumped around with gauges on my acoustic. I found that 13's give the best tone, but it was uncontrollable. With 11's I have a lot more control over the acoustic and strings and sound that I want, but alas less nice tone.

I have recently bought d'addario's, the EXP phosphor bronze kind with the coating. I have never felt so happy about my acoustic sound.

Think I'll go a gauge up to 10 or even 11 on the elec

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: .011 - .048 on electric Fender scale length
.012 - .052 on electric Gibson scale length

Alan, what's the comparable scale length on proper guitars (eg. Ibanez)? :dance:

Alan, what's the comparable scale length on proper guitars (eg. Ibanez)?

Ibanez make proper guitars? ?

Depends on the model - most of their "Superstrats" are Fender scale length while models like the GB10 and the Artwood are Gibson. However, many of their Superstrats also have Floyds and skinny necks, so I would probably go a gauge lighter than usual.

@MoJo JoJoe - I love the feel/duarability of the Elixirs. Don't you find that the guitars with single-coils hum more with Elixirs though? I find the coating effectively stops the strings/me from being earthed.

Werner Carstens wrote: I use the following:
On all my electrics = 10 to 46
Accoustic = 11 to 48

0.10 - 0.48 on electric guitar

d'Addario custom light 0.11 to 0.52 for the acoustic guitar... slightly fuller lower tones.
I just like this set of strings very much. ?

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d'Addario .012 gauge strings for my acoustic and normally .009 gauge Elixers (those nanoweb stuff) on my electrics, but switched to .010 gauge.