What string gauges does everyone use?

I'm presently sporting a fine set of DR NEON Hi-Def MULTI-COLOR Mediums 'cos I's got class.

I play bass so I really don't seem to fit in here... But I do around 56-11 on guitar and anything from 90-45 to 175-85 on bass.

Edit: I usually run Rotosounds on my basses and Ernie Balls and my guitars.

I use 9's or 10's on electric, nothing too heavy. On acoustic, I use 11's or 12's.

Rick Beato has done a thorough comparison on the subject since the OP Does size matter?

and Rhett Schull does his own follow up I Was DEFiNiTELY Using The Wrong Guitar Strings

I presently have 11's on my Pawnshop series Mustang (twin splittable HBs; shortscale) mostly for a stiffer action/steadier tuning under my Action Man™ gripping hands! However after hearing the comparisons I reckon I'll ease back to 9's in future on my electrics.

I would imagine acoustics to be another matter with string gauge and tension more likely a significant factor tonally depending on individual guitar structure, wood composition and personal taste?

I've been telling people this stuff for over a decade.... but it takes rick beato to sell the world on the truth.

Who here enjoys playing both long and short scale guitars; do you use the same guage strings on both or do you go up a gauge on the shorty? Does anyone prefer certain gauges between humbuckers or single coils? How anal do we all get here?

Well I play bass and am currently using Dunlop 45-105, they sound great and are really warm and bright.

Can't argue with Rotosound.

Everything I do is D'Addario. I started off on 11's, because I was moving from bass to guitar. Bending on guitar on anything lighter, I found I would break strings far more frequently.

Now that I've got the never damage, I'm using 9's. TOTALLY different world. Can't really do many bends either. Relying much more on my tremolo tailpiece guitars. The hands just don't work the way they should anymore.

On my electric, I am playing D'Addario EXL115 11-49 s and I think they are great. But it really depends on what genre you play and how you play. If you play a little on the heavy side, as I do, then you take a little heavier string gauge: 11-49/11-52/12-54. If you play very light and like to bend a lot then take lighter gauge strings like 10-46 or even a set of 9s.

On my acoustic, I use all kind of medium gauge strings. I'm trying through materials (Phosphor Bronze, 80-20-Bronze and even Nickel Bronze). But here again, if you play on the heavier side: Take 12-54 or 13-56 If you play on the lighter side: Take 11-52s

And then it also depends on the body size of your guitar: If you play a guitar with a smaller body size then I would choose a slightly lighter gauge. If you play a bigger guitar like a Dreadnought, a Jumbo or anything similar you can take a string gauge a little heavier.

And again it depends on the genre of music you make and on how you play: Pick or fingerstyle.

11s

For electrics, I've only used Ernie Ball Super Slinky (9-42) on Fender-scale length guitars and Regular Slinky (10-46) on Gibson-scale length guitars. Though I recently won the Know Your Gear/Stew Mac contest for the ultimate restring toolbox, so I was inspired to try something different and got D'Addario EXL110+ (10.5-48) and EXL116 (11-52). Figured I'll try something new since the very first new pack of strings I got when I was 11 years old were Ernie Ball, and I liked the way they sounded so I never tried anything else. I'm still waiting for my toolkit to come in before I go through the string changes so we'll see how that goes. I may also order a pack of Stringjoys in the future to see how that goes, but that might be a while since I have these new packs and still plenty of pack up EBs.

For acoustics, I was the opposite and would try all kinds of different strings. Basically anything and everything I could get my hands on. I've gone through all the sizes between 10s to 14s from all kinds of brands. The ones I'm currently using are Martin Acoustic SP Custom Light (11-52).

Yeah, I'm going to switch back to 12s on acoustic when I use up my last few packs of 11s. I think at the time I switched again and bought a bunch of 11s, I was using 13s before that, and they were feeling a little tough, and the 11s felt like such a relief. Now I'll split the difference again.

for madmen only

Madmen and Rocksmith Players! 😱 Those Neon's have since served their purpose and are long gone now 😜

I'm presently sporting some Rotosound blues (Heavy Bottom 10-52) which have been fine on my shortscale Mustang. I'm not sure what if anything the heavy bottom set offers however and since my touch has been getting lighter I now have a set of Ernie Balls 9.5's on order. (9.5, 12,16,24,34,44). I seem to have a particularly bright sounding G string so am still tinkering with string gauge and pole height in order to tame it a bit - still learning here!

I use 11 gauge on my tele squire and they are especially useful compared to the 10 or 9 I used before.

never much cared for short scales either tbh

never much cared for short scales either tbh

So how's it going with your Mustang and Violin Basses then ? 😛