Putting 10’s instead of 9’s on a Floyd Rose for fuller sound.
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Mikael Dez
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It’s not a bad idea or brilliant, it’s just something you can do. Standard tuned 9s or 10s are the two most common standard tuning gauges
Sascha Franck
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The sound will possibly make less of a difference than what you might expect. It's largely a feel thing. There's a video of Shull/Beato somewhere on YT where they are comparing string gauges and their sound.
KingsXJJ
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Thanks for this. Except for one Les Paul, I use ESP guitars. Their factory specs on almost all 6 strings are 10’s on hard tails and 9’s on Floyd Rose equipped. I was switching between my Horizon NT and ST-2 noticing the difference and wondered about standardizing on 10’s. Mainly for consistency in feel and perhaps a slight difference in tone. It’s important for me to hear that the tone is likely not very different.
Chocol8
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The heavier strings add a bit more low end…which is more often than not a bad thing, but that is very situation dependent.
Sascha Franck
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Not really. Watch the video mentioned. In case there'd be more output, that'd be true for all strings. In addition, they needed more "impact" to produce that higher output. So as long as your picking stays the same, pretty much nothing will change. You can of course try it for yourself. I did.
KingsXJJ
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Thank you and @Chocol8 for the input. It’s too bad because this is, I believe, the only one of my guitars with a Basswood body and I was secretly hoping the 10’s might add a little low end grunt that my mahogany bodied axe’s seem to have more of. The ESP E-II has some custom Dimarzio pickups from some guy that seem to be very tight and articulate but possibly lacking a little low end compared to the others. Some of this is just speculation though.
Sascha Franck
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You could still just try them out. In case it's just a testrun, there'd be no need to adjust your trussrod, either.
Sascha Franck
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Billy Gibbons plays 7s and has a thick and juicy sound.
SRV played 13s and had a thick and juicy sound.
SRV played 13s and had a thick and juicy sound.
KingsXJJ
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I just ordered another precision ruler as I don’t have one here. It’ll be here tomorrow. I’m going to start with pickup height then go from there. Part of the reason I asked before just switching the strings to see is that it’s a Floyd Rose. Not my favorite to deal with for sure.
I may be expecting too much from a bolt-on shredder guitar. The Horizon is a different guitar and it just sounds so damn good. It really is an amazing guitar. I’d like to get the ST-2 as finely tuned as possible so there’s less of a gap even if they do sound a bit different. I’ll do pickup height and pole adjustment as needed and go from there. I do appreciate the input for sure.
I may be expecting too much from a bolt-on shredder guitar. The Horizon is a different guitar and it just sounds so damn good. It really is an amazing guitar. I’d like to get the ST-2 as finely tuned as possible so there’s less of a gap even if they do sound a bit different. I’ll do pickup height and pole adjustment as needed and go from there. I do appreciate the input for sure.
Mikael Dez
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It may be my unpopular opinion but I think use the ruler as a guideline but not gospel. Your fingers and your ears are the ruler - that’s why different specs are for different folks. I haven’t measured anything on mh guitars in a long time.
KingsXJJ
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Agreed totally. I just use it for a starting point mainly. Then adjust by ear. Measure where I end up and make a mental note of it.
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Personally, I find thinner strings to have much more punch and moving up in gauges adds a dull midrange while reducing the snap of the initial transient and with that the top and bottom end are reduced. I first heard it when jumping up to 11's on a Strat that despite how I tweaked the neck, there was no tension on the strings and I'd bend them out of tune nonstop. Blocked trem, too. I absolutely hated how the G and B strings sounded with the 11's.
Then a few years later when going down the bass string rabbit hole, trying to find the right gauge to tune to drop C on a 34" bass I confirmed that's what was happening after spending over $400 in bass strings in 2 weeks. The thicker the string, the boomier the strings were, creating a silly sub frequency on the low C that was so out of balance with the other strings it drove me nuts and was entirely useless.
Obviously, how you dial in your tones and what your preferences are can make all that a perfect situation, but for me it just made me realize that I'd prefer playing with 9's if I wouldn't bend them out of tune so damn much and confirmed if I want to tune lower than I do on a 25.5", I need to move to a 27" or 29" guitar so I can still use thinner strings. The initial transient/attack of the string is the most important part for me, the 'perfect' version of that is balanced between the top and low end and a slightly scooped midrange, where I'm not using the amp's EQ to make up for anything the strings are not delivering. If you strummed any of my guitars acoustically and then plugged into one of my amps that'd make a lot more sense, but I basically want the same thing I'm hearing acoustically to come out of the amp, just louder and distorted.
Then a few years later when going down the bass string rabbit hole, trying to find the right gauge to tune to drop C on a 34" bass I confirmed that's what was happening after spending over $400 in bass strings in 2 weeks. The thicker the string, the boomier the strings were, creating a silly sub frequency on the low C that was so out of balance with the other strings it drove me nuts and was entirely useless.
Obviously, how you dial in your tones and what your preferences are can make all that a perfect situation, but for me it just made me realize that I'd prefer playing with 9's if I wouldn't bend them out of tune so damn much and confirmed if I want to tune lower than I do on a 25.5", I need to move to a 27" or 29" guitar so I can still use thinner strings. The initial transient/attack of the string is the most important part for me, the 'perfect' version of that is balanced between the top and low end and a slightly scooped midrange, where I'm not using the amp's EQ to make up for anything the strings are not delivering. If you strummed any of my guitars acoustically and then plugged into one of my amps that'd make a lot more sense, but I basically want the same thing I'm hearing acoustically to come out of the amp, just louder and distorted.
Chocol8
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He also changed to lighter strings (9’s?) later when he was having tendinitis issues.
Mikael Dez
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I tend to favor 9’s or 9.5 for standard tuning on a 25.5” scale, PRS 25” scale I like 10s. I’m actually a lot pickier about the gauge of the 4/5/6th strings because a thicker gauge just tends to give me more percussive palm mutes and I seriously dig in when riffing lol
I usually get along with packs that advertise themselves as “light top/heavy bottom”
Mikael Dez
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@strings2000 what’s your take on this?
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I gotta try some 9.5's, they might be a perfect situation for me. I use 10-52's for D standard/drop-C, that's pretty much been my gauge/tuning of choice since 2002. I recall it taking me a while before I felt comfortable with the tension once I started going down a whole step, but I quite dig it these days.
