Transitioning to 11's

For me, anything with a Bigsby gets 11s (plain 3rd, I likes to bend). Everything else is 10s, except my Jaguar which has 11 gauge flats on it. I honestly don't notice that much difference anymore, except the Bigsbies stay in tune better.
 
So I've been playing this guitar for almost two weeks now with the 11's. I don't even notice them being heavier anymore. How the guitar sounds is a different matter. On my gig Saturday night I discovered less of a need to stack overdrives to get certain sounds....the guitar "pushed" the pedals more. I found myself actually able to use the coil splits on the humbuckers for the first time for a few things. The guitar has a faster "transient response", especially on the bridge pickup. Its easier for me to play more accurately because of the lack of give in the string too. I'm putting 11's back on my Les Paul and then maybe even the CV tele to see if that helps make up for whats missing in that guitar since I've done the "remodel". I'll hold off on the rest of the guitars for a while.
 
I recently moved up to 10's on my Gibson-scale guitars, and stuck with 9's on PRS and up. With the extra slack, I don't really notice it as much. Jury's still out on whether the hackneyed, butchered riffs that escape my amp sound any better.

As for the vid, he sounds great. I was a bit in awe of the numerous and effortless pickup/volume/tone changes. I've never developed that proficiency.
 
Highernoon said:
It seems that this is often not being acknowledged in the "Heavy strings vs light strings" discussions.
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I think people freak out about the fret hand issues and forget that there is a benefit for the picking hand with the bigger strings. At least there has been for me.
 
Oh, so in "lack of give" you were referring only to the picking hand?
I thought you were referring to the fact that heavier strings allow you to be a little more heavy-handed before you unintentionally bend a string (with chords or single note lines).
 
Highernoon said:
Oh, so in "lack of give" you were referring only to the picking hand?
I thought you were referring to the fact that heavier strings allow you to be a little more heavy-handed before you unintentionally bend a string (with chords or single note lines).
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There is that too although I try to have more control in that regard with the fret hand.
 
I run 11s on all of my 25.5" scale guitars, and 12s for my 24.75" and smaller scale guitars. Heavier gauge strings help my double picking, since they have more resistance to them. I don't dig in/ hang up as much picking-wise. Oh, and I prefer a wound 3rd string (have for decades).
 
Yeah I noticed more control with picking on heavier strings, it's one of the things I miss playing 10s as opposed to 11s since I'm quite heavy handed.
 
ok...put the 11's back on this one. Much better:

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ellengtrgrl said:
I run 11s on all of my 25.5" scale guitars, and 12s for my 24.75" and smaller scale guitars. Heavier gauge strings help my double picking, since they have more resistance to them. I don't dig in/ hang up as much picking-wise. Oh, and I prefer a wound 3rd string (have for decades).
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Jury is still out for me on the wound G. I understand it and do it from time to time. The thing that bugged me was playing any kind of lead that required say a unison bend or other was kind of ridiculously tough. For straight rhythm/chords/Townshend/easier intonation stuff- GREAT !
 
Mark Wein said:
I think people freak out about the fret hand issues and forget that there is a benefit for the picking hand with the bigger strings. At least there has been for me.
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Exactly... I feel like with the 11's that I can really get to digging in hard with my picking hand. This is the biggest benefit that I can see from the 11's. The tone difference is also quite huge but for me it is all about the fact that I can groove more efficiently with the 11's.
 
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_tom_ said:
Yeah I noticed more control with picking on heavier strings, it's one of the things I miss playing 10s as opposed to 11s since I'm quite heavy handed.
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So, I am not a heavy handed picker at all. I am all about the economy picking and letting the electronics handle the job. That being said when I do dig in on 10's I just feel like they are wet noodles with no resistance. 11's give me the stability without having to be conscious of the strings under the pick.
 
I must be the wuss here. I always used 11's until my hands got a little arthritic and went down to 10's. My hands still hurt with 10's so I tried 9's and they felt too spaghetti like and I found some 9.5's which are good but too hard to find so I stayed with the 10's and just deal with a little hurt.
 
xStonr said:
I must be the wuss here. I always used 11's until my hands got a little arthritic and went down to 10's. My hands still hurt with 10's so I tried 9's and they felt too spaghetti like and I found some 9.5's which are good but too hard to find so I stayed with the 10's and just deal with a little hurt.
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Not really. I imagine 95% of guitarists use 9's and 10's.
 
tstrahle said:
I agree. In the past I've put heavier gauge strings on my Gibbys and extra lights on my Tele. This helps to create an even more different feel from one to another.
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I've noticed that the guitars I've put heavier strings on also seem to sound a little darker but that might be a function of the Gibson Vintage Reissue strings that I use on everything. The slightly darker sound is great with the 10's but I might change to a different string with less nickel content for the heavier stuff.
 
I put 11's on one and thought my fingers died


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