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9s or 10s on your Les Paul?

Steven K

Active member
Joined
Mar 28, 2022
Messages
104
Great post gitmo Gibson's generally are shorter scale necks than Fender. Easier to play "slightly" heavier gauged strings.
 

Hiwatts-n-Gibsons

Well-known member
Joined
May 10, 2024
Messages
745
It's an interesting list, but doesn't unfortunately (as noted above) take account of things like scale length, tuning or simply what were available "packaged sets" at the time (the Hendrix 10-38, for example, was the then common Fender F150 set) - at the end of the day a lot of these (variables allowed for) are going to come out at the sort of tension you'd get with 10/11 high E sets on a standard Gibson scale I suspect.
I have went as high as 11's on my Strat before, but settled on 10's for both Gibson and Fender scale instruments set up in E std. The slight increase in tension is more than made up for in both the ease of digging in on a Fender neck and in the case of Strats the give of the traditional spring tensioned vibrato.
 

Wilko

All Access/Backstage Pass
Joined
Mar 11, 2002
Messages
21,010
It's an interesting list, but doesn't unfortunately (as noted above) take account of things like scale length, tuning or simply what were available "packaged sets" at the time (the Hendrix 10-38, for example, was the then common Fender F150 set) - at the end of the day a lot of these (variables allowed for) are going to come out at the sort of tension you'd get with 10/11 high E sets on a standard Gibson scale I suspect.
We know what instruments most on the list are using. I editied out a lot of specific info as it's mostly superfluous.
 

Chronomariner

New member
Joined
Dec 20, 2023
Messages
28
Guitars like an LP with the same scale length and bridge, I always use 10s.
Anything else with a tremolo I use 9s.
I tried 8s for a while but it just felt like slapping wet noodles. Well maybe not that bad but I didn’t like it 😅
 

Tsongas

New member
Joined
Jun 8, 2024
Messages
14
Got my first Les Paul recently and it came with .010-.046. This is the gauge I use on my Telecaster, which is what I have always played, and so far it is working well on the Les Paul. I'm tuned down 1/2 step because that is what works best for the vocalists I perform with. I used the same gauge on my Telecaster in the past when in standard tuning.
 
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