Basically, I have my Ibanez tuned to C#standard with 13-56es on it. On a 25.5" scale guitar, the tension is pretty high. But it sounds awesome with the fat strings on it. My wimpy left hand, however, is used to 9-42s in standard tuning. It's a pretty big difference, tension-wise. Where I used to be able to easily pull off 2 step bends with ease, full bends are pretty hard.


I thought I would share that factoid with you kind folks.

I went from 8s all the way up to 13s in E standard because each bigger set "sounded better".

Nowadays i am back down to 10s, because frankly, i was just playing worse with the really heavy gauges. To a degree your hands get stronger, but i played 13s for about three years, and my hands never got to the point where they could do what they could with the lighter gauges. When i dropped from 13 to 10 though it was fucking crazy.

If there was a simple way to keep my hands as strong as they were with the 13s, but still play the 10s, i would be all over it. Playing the lighter gauges does make your hand get lazier though. I tried stringing one guitar with 13s to practice on, but it wasn't my #1 guitar, so i practically never played it.

But yeah, these days, i get shit sounding as good as i can, but with the strings set at whatever is most comfortable for me to play. It is one of those things to me where: 1. yes, if i A/B the gauges, the thicker ones are going to win, but 2. without that A/B i cannot hear the gauge. If you compare what other guitarists use, it is often surprising. There are a lot of guys who are running 9s and even 8s. I mean, not generally when tuned down to C#, but even still. Without a direct comparison to a thicker gauge, you can't hear it.

Also very much worth noting, IMO, is that a lot of what folks hear as the big strings sounding "better" has at least in part to do with the action of the big strings just being higher, because they are sitting higher in the nut and bridge grooves. A higher action in and of itself is going to increase fullness and sustain. Just as an aside.

Anyhoo.

I can play the fatter strings to a degree where I'm satisfied with them... I even prefer them to lighter strings when it comes to the right hand stuff. Fatter strings are harder to knock out of tune, which means I can hit the strings harder, which means I'm not always playing all reserved-like.


One thing I've noticed is that with an all maple guitar such as mine, the thicker strings are almost required, really. I got by with the 9s, but these strings are a whole 'nother animal when it comes to tone on this guitar. My amps even seemed to have gotten considerably less fizzy as a result.


In my case, the pros outweigh the cons. If this guitar wasn't so damn bright, they may not. I'm sticking to the fat strings until I decide that this tuning isn't my thing anymore, or until one of them breaks and severs one of my fingers off. Whichever comes first.

I use a hybrid set usually. I guy a 10-52 sedt then buy a separate .54 or 55 for the low E because I like the thickness for drop d. One band tunes E natural, one is Eb. This leave me able to bend the top 3 pretty easily and the lower string taught for rhythms.

10-52 or 11-52 with an unwound G in standard is, IMO, the way to roll. You get the benefits of both. I tend toward high action, low output pickups, beating the hell out of the strings, and loud maps though. YMMV may vary depending on style.

I also use .11s, and usually lean towards sets with heavier bottoms, in standard, drop D and open D.

I'm really heavy handed though (and sloppy), and when playing rhythm stuff (easily 80% of the time) I tend to really pound on the strings. If I had more finesse, I'd probably drop down to .10s.

I currently use .12-.56 on a 24 3/4" guitar tuned to Drop C# for tight metal rhythms and whatnot and .11-.52 on a 24" scale guitar that I like to use more for solo shit and more precise vibrato versus raw off the cuff tendon snapping bullshit where fighting the strings tension really lends well to what I'm doing sonically.
I'd stick a .56 in there instead of the .52 but the nut's too big and I'm scared of fucking with it..