Do Most Guitarists Play 9s?

[rank]

I started with 9s, then moved to 10s, & have 11s on my Jaguar to see how they feel. I am thinking that I like the heavier gauge strings. I agree with the aformentioned sentiment that 9s just feel too loose & floppy to me...I am also not sure I would refer to myself as a guitarist though.

[bessieboporbach]

When I was first learning to play 22 years ago, it was assumed that electric guitar players used 9s. Everyone I knew then (literally everyone!) who played guitar played D'Addario or Ernie Ball 9s. The standard guitar pedagogy of the time involved a lot of "boomer bends" and whammy bars were the province of shred type players with Floyds, which assume the use of 9s too.

I dutifully followed instructions and bought a set of 9s with my allowance. I had my brother string my guitar up and went to work.

I strummed G and C chords for a few hours and presently lost 3 strings.

So the next week I took my allowance to the store and bought 11s. It wouldn't be accurate to say that I never broke a string again, but it became a much rarer occurrence. Eventually I moved over to 11s with a wound G and this was where I settled for many years until I took a chance on flats.

I currently use flatwound 12s for scale lengths less than 25", and half round 11s for 25"+.

[offabit]

I love 9's

[Shadoweclipse13]

Man, I always thought that 10-46 was the standard. It certainly was almost all of what I saw when I started playing in the early 2000s. I had a guitar teacher buy me a set of D'Addario .095-.044 one year for Xmas, and I loved them. They were my standard for years, but I got tired of having to hunt for them. I always start a new guitar with 10-46, and then move from there. Obviously acoustics are heavier (don't remember the gauge, should probably change those strings ), but my JM is at least an 11-48.

Side note: I've got a little binder for information on all my guitar stuff that I want to be able to quickly reference (and not have to remember!), so I cut out the front of the box of strings I use on whichever guitar I use them on, so I can remember what to buy for it next time.

[JSett]

I ran this poll in January to see if much had changed here over the years. String choices have got a touch lighter overall - I would guess that's partly due to members maybe getting older and more n00bs coming in with the recent offset popularity wave.

I checked the old polls on here and 11s were king a decade ago. Current voting suggests 10s (on 25½") currently are the most popular.

[panoramic]

most gibson/strat dudes play 9's yeah.
I use 11's on my jag and strat and 10's on my mustang. I like 12 flats on Jm's and flat 10's on duo-sonics and MM's.
I got some of those nashville jawns to use on my shit strat next

[Tafarel]

10-52s on my strat, JMs, Gibson LP Special, Eko 500, etc. Virtually anything other than resonators and acoustics.

[s_mcsleazy]

nope. all my 25.5 guitars have 11's in standard. all my short scales have 12's or 13's

[pacemaker]

I don't know if most guitarists play 9's, but in my experince a bit of experimentation with string gauge is a worthwhile undertaking.

I played EB Slinkys (10-46) on all my electrics for decades. Just a few years ago I started experimenting a bit, and now play 10s on my Teles, 9s on my Strat, 11s on my LP and ES-330, and flatwound 11s on my Duo Jet and Harmony H-74.

It blows my mind how much different the Strat and Duo Jet in particular sound and feel using something beside 10s. I was about to move the Duo Jet along, and simply switching over to the flats made it a keeper.

[Lost In Autumn]

I started out playing 9's, but in the late 80's, as a shredder, I'd switched to 8's. by the early 90's, I'd switched my approach and tones, more clean, less distortion and drive and changed to 10-52. I've been playing that ever since.

[X-Ray Spex]

nope. all my 25.5 guitars have 11's in standard. all my short scales have 12's or 13's

Exactly the same with me, haven't broken a string in years.

[JVG]

I don't know if most guitarists play 9's, but in my experince a bit of experimentation with string gauge is a worthwhile undertaking.

I played EB Slinkys (10-46) on all my electrics for decades. Just a few years ago I started experimenting a bit, and now play 10s on my Teles, 9s on my Strat, 11s on my LP and ES-330, and flatwound 11s on my Duo Jet and Harmony H-74.

It blows my mind how much different the Strat and Duo Jet in particular sound and feel using something beside 10s. I was about to move the Duo Jet along, and simply switching over to the flats made it a keeper.

Yes! This is spot-on.

It blows me away that many players will spend big money on new guitars and/or new amps in the search for a ‘better’ sound, but wont consider straying from the same gauge/material of string they’ve been using since way back whenever.

[Maggieo]

Quine and Billy Gibbons had/have 8s on their guitars.

[JSett]

Quine and Billy Gibbons had/have 8s on their guitars.

The Billy Gibbons thing is funny because he famously uses multiple rack graphic EQ's and processing so that every guitar he uses sounds almost exactly the same as his favourite guitar. Strings are basically irrelevant.

Rig info at 8:40

[shoule79]

I started with 9’s back in the early 90’s, but found I broke too many strings. For some reason 10’s don’t break on my and still feel slinky. Aside from the 11’s on my jag and 9.5’s on my Guild S100 (it’s my “shredder”), all my guitars are 10’s.

For awhile string size was a dick measuring contest. I still know guys who think if your not using 13’s you have junk toan. Glad that seems to be dying off.