old wives tale to feel that 10's are magical for Gibson. Nobody at Gibson would tell you that if you called them.



Actually my custom shop Les Paul came with a 9-42 set as I remember, I found that surprising.

I used to say real men played a 10 set, only GIRLY MEN played 9's.

Then I became a Girly Man. Which is why I always am skeptical of anything I say, from experience I know that fkalich says one thing one day, and opposite the next day.

I still say real men play Les Pauls. Although I bought a Parker last year from OC's rec, and like it. And have other types. But I am only real manly when playing the Les Paul, I wear a blond wig when I play the others.

I thought Real Men played on 10's because:-


I think it's because they're scared to go to 11 like Nigel Tufnell!!!!

I don't know much about him. But my suspicion would be that he does not use his pinkie finger as much as Emir Hot or someone like that does, or play a lot of complex Neoclassical fingerings.

Dude, just out of curiosity, nothing do with this topic, how old are you fkalich?

Jones, it`s hard to understand what he really means by that actually


Cool vid

This post has been edited by AlexLion: May 7 2009, 06:17 PM

Here's Nigel going to 11!!!!!

That's spinal tap? Right. I have that movie, but never got past 10 minutes. I am confused, but nothing new. I looked up stuff by your first link, 80's metal band. I like metal, techniques, pretty much hate what metal bands do with it though. But I like the techniques. They hurt my ears.

What I was saying was, really, guys like Emir or Muris are far better guitarists than a lot of these metal guitar Gods. And guys that really play well, I mean real well, like Yngwie, or Gilbert, Batio, just about none of them use heavy strings. It is just to restricting to do the real high precision stuff. In a metal band you have all the noise, you can get away with imperfections. But guys that want to play to standards like are held for a Concert Violinist, well, just hard to do that with heavy strings I think.

Never ask a lady his age.

True....

But you are not a lady!

Cool, I like all the feedback and how everyone has a different opinion on the matter, makes me feel much better. I guess it all boils down to what you want your guitar to feel like. Right now I want my SG to play like butter. Like my strat does, only with more balls due to the humbuckers & thicker neck.




+1 on the girly man here. Then again next month I might regret it and have it set-up to 10s again. Who knows.
At least I know that the "Gibson with 10s" rule is a myth now.




That one is awesome, laughed so hard first time I watched it.

The first part of my post was a Joke as that Manowar song is called 'Real Men play on Ten'!!!!

It is! In the film he had Amps that went all the way to 11!!!!
Which was really the point of those two jokes!!




You are quite right here, with one exception which is Stevie Ray Vaughan. He was renowned for using heavy gauge strings. (13-56 if my memory is correct!!)


This post has been edited by Sensible Jones: May 7 2009, 08:43 PM

I agree that SRV is great. But that is for SRV style, which is very unique, other than all the SRV impersonations in the world.

I have a pretty select list of lessons that I would on. SRV is in the 100 I have learned, and I have another SRV in the 50 that I have in queue.

I should mention David. And some others that are newer here. We really have some world class players. How many guys in the world know all the stuff that David knows? I don't has as much interest in all the modes (although I do have some) as he has, but he still is great. I doubt very many that have 20 million views on youtube videos can do half of what he can. I am sure he uses 9's. I have a Parker, you have to get special springs if you use 10's.

0.9 is good and much better than 0.10 , i use 0.8 to my strat and its working very nice

All string gauges are fine if they fit your fingers. Saying '10+ rawks' is a pretty ignorant statement IMO.
Also, let's not forget that higher string gauge changes the tone of your guitar. This is a preference. + gauge doesn't equal better tone. I have actually contemplated going frmo 10 to 9 because I feel my bass strings are too deep in tone.

This post has been edited by kjutte: May 7 2009, 10:00 PM

For the record, I finally have my SG equipped & set up with 9s, and I'm really happy!

I used to play much more with the strat lately but now the SG plays like butter too (almost, neck is thicker!). Two were the reasons: action was a bit high & the 10 gauge was too hard for my liking. Now it "feels" right, comfortable.

What's the point of having a guitar set-up wrong just because? I rather feel the urge to play it! And sounds really good too, I don't miss the 10s at all.

That`s nice to hear that you properly set up your instrument for your own needs! Keep picking!

Exactly that!!!!

Agreed. Ive got a strat and a gibson, both with 10's and they feel completely different (Less scale length=more tension across two fixed points=harder to bend) a gibson with nines will feel like a strat with 10's, if you like 9's on a strat then a shorter scale length guitar will have more tension and resistance with the same guage strings.

Maybe that's why my Gibson with 10s felt like a strat with 11s then?
It still feels a bit tighter thatn the strat with 9s, but it's not a huge difference really.