strings for Squire Mini?

I bought my daughter a used Squire Mini strat, do I need special strings for this? or maybe light strings like 009's trimmed to size?

thanks,

Bottom line is that because of the shorter scale, all other things being the same, the mini's strings will have 20% less tension. So I recommend using 10's, and it will already have much less string tension.

A bit more

A 10 has tension of 12.9 lbs on the squier's 22.75 scale, and a 9 has almost the same tension (13.2) on the regular 25.5" scale. 9's on the mini will feel like 8's do on the regular ...

String tension varies as the square of scale length, so that means that if you take a string from a regular strat, tune it to the same note, the tension will be (22.75/25.5)^2 times the regular tension. That's around 0.80.

There's a handy calculator here (http://wahiduddin.net/dance/guitar_string_calc.htm). I know already (or from looking at the d'Addario site) that on a scale length of 25.5, with a 0.01 string, the high E string will have a tension of 16.2 pounds. To test this, if you put in a scale length of 25.5, note of E, octave = 4, and tension of 16.2 pounds, and click, you'll find it says you'd get that with a 0.01. You can fool around by putting in more values.

I don't believe there are special strings for this size guitar. I have a Mini and I put regular .10's on it (trimmed to length) and it feels too loose for my tastes. This might be good for a beginner though--to ease the pain on the finger tips. For now, I tune mine up a full step so the tension feels similar to my full scale electrics. Eventually, I'm going to try .11's on it and try standard tuning.

thanks guys! I've got some 10's laying around so we will get it fixed up today...