9's to 10's

[derrellgore]

I have an MIM standard Tele. Came with 9's on it. If I put 10's on it will it need nut filing or should I be OK. I read somewhere is you just move up one size adjustment might not be needed.

 

[joealso]

You should be ok with the nut. It's possible that the truss rod and intonation may need some adjustment, but those are easy adjustments to make if they're necessary at all.

 

[8barlouie]

I’ve gone to 11s on all my electrics, all of which were 9 or 10s originally. Simple setup is all they took.

 

[derrellgore]

Yes I was expecting everything else....I just don't have the tools to do anything to the nut.

 

[Synapse2k]

The nut will be fine if you’re going up to 10s from 9s. You’ll need to adjust the truss rod immediately to avoid any twist in the neck forming. After that the saddle height and intonation will need to be adjusted and lastly the pickup height

 

[beninma]

The nut will be fine if you’re going up to 10s from 9s. You’ll need to adjust the truss rod immediately to avoid any twist in the neck forming. After that the saddle height and intonation will need to be adjusted and lastly the pickup height

I've been curious to try this for a while, I even just got a free set of 10s. I have all the tools but if you really end up having to adjust everything, I may pass. That's a lot of stuff to end up upset about when the guitar is just about perfect with the 9s on it. I don't really want to "do a setup" to try the 10s unless I'm going to be blown away cause then I'd need to redo it if I didn't like it and went back to 9s.

 

[Synapse2k]

I've been curious to try this for a while, I even just got a free set of 10s. I have all the tools but if you really end up having to adjust everything, I may pass. That's a lot of stuff to end up upset about when the guitar is just about perfect with the 9s on it. I don't really want to "do a setup" to try the 10s unless I'm going to be blown away cause then I'd need to redo it if I didn't like it and went back to 9s.

You’ll need to do a setup not only when you change string gauge but even when you change brands because different brands’ strings have different tension. It is a pain in the arse which is why I stick to d’addario 09-42 and don’t temp myself to try new strings.

Either way, a telecaster is a pretty easy and straight forward guitar to setup. I highly recommend you learn to do so. It’s all very simple once you get the hang of it.

 

[Macrogats]

Good thread - thanks for that. I use 9-42's on all my guitars, but been thinking of trying 10's on a couple. I don't have tools for nut adjustments, but am ok to set everything else up.

The comment about sticking to one brand is one I hadn't considered before. I chop and change like the wind! Time to choose one and stick to it.

What's thoughts on Ernie Balls?? They're usually what I use, but have tried D'Addarios.

 

[Simpleman73]

I just put 10’s on my new Tele with no problems. It’s a MIM standard too.

 

[beninma]

You’ll need to do a setup not only when you change string gauge but even when you change brands because different brands’ strings have different tension. It is a pain in the arse which is why I stick to d’addario 09-42 and don’t temp myself to try new strings.

Either way, a telecaster is a pretty easy and straight forward guitar to setup. I highly recommend you learn to do so. It’s all very simple once you get the hang of it.

I know how to do it.. hence the "I have all the tools" thing in my previous post.

Adjusting the truss rod for a little bit of tension is no big deal but I don't really want to have to mess with the bridge a ton, and I swapped the pickups on my guitar and there is some weirdness with that combo of pickup + screw + bridge and I don't have much (if any) room to lower the bridge pickup if needed. More just the 10s would have to be hugely better to be worth the effort I guess. (And I have a lot of sets of 9s on the shelf too)

And if 10s are just going to hit the amp harder I don't really want that either.

I am basically always looking for something to get chords to be clearer and have more note separation but there is a lot of technique & amp setup in solved in that too.

I have 12s on my acoustic and there is pretty much nothing I can do on my Tele with 9s that I can't also do just fine on the acoustic so I wouldn't be worried about the 10s on the Tele actually being hard to play.

 

[Milspec]

I prefer 10's or even 11's on the telecaster. It just depends on your playing style, being an acoustic guy much of the time, I like a lot of string tension on my electrics as well. The only thing about the 10's that you will notice over the 9's will be the tension...the feel rather than the tone on an electric. IF you want to test it out just use a Cappo at say the 3rd fret and see if you like the added tension. If so, give the 10's a try.

 

[boris bubbanov]

In Texarkana, chances are if the truss rod was "right" with 9s, it will still be fine with 10s. If you find yourself making an adjustment, give whatever adjustment you make plenty of time to soak in - if you were on the cusp of needing an adjustment with the 9s, then now would be the time to make it happen.

Same sort of thing on the nut slots. That MIM comes with a nice hard nut made with polymers and bone dust. This nut is IMO the #1 reason why a MIM is nicer than the Classic Vibe (CV nut is soft plastic; they vary, Squiers from other sources can be way softer and really bad).

The thing is, could be your nut slots could be improved on this MIM, even staying with the nines. Check out the set of 3 dual sided Uo Shikyu nut files. I'm lost without my set.

 

[Ira7]

Some of you think that you definitely need a truss adjustment going from 9 to 10?

I ain’t no Clapton, but I’ve never seen the need for this.

 

[JL_LI]

I think the first thing you'll notice going from 9's to 10's is the improvement in intonation. I can't play 9's in tune. PRS's and some Fenders in shops drive me crazy because of that. The strings are so floppy that I too easily push them sharp. Only pressing straight down on the finger board will even come close in tune and that's awkward for me. I have two shorter scale guitars, an SG and a Gretsch Anniversary, and I use 11's on them. The truss rod adjustment was easy to do and a flatter neck was possible with heavier strings. I was able to drop the string height off the finger board a couple of 10ths of a millimeter. I rarely bend more than a half tone so playing in tune does more for me than being able to push a string half way across the neck. You may want to look at nut slots for another reason. It's always more difficult to play in tune if the string is high coming of the nut. Filing the nut slot can help with action and intonation and keep the string from sticking with no negative consequences if not overdone.

 

[Lobomov]

Nut will be fine with both 10s and 11s .. but you may want to give the trustrod a nudge and/or lower action a whif. Have fun

 

[FenderGuy53]

I ALWAYS swap out the stock 9s for 10s and have NEVER had to file the nut.

You WILL have to check/adjust the neck relief, string height and intonation.

Go for it!

 

[beninma]

I'm going to respond again here rather than starting my own thread about this.

I threw on the free set of 10s that I got a couple nights ago. The truss rod maybe needed a teeny tweak. Nut was totally fine, but I had previously filed my nut with the Stewmac gauged files, and this may have resulted in my slots being a teeny bit wider than a stock fender nut.

I found bizarrely that my saddles needed to be tweaked a teeny bit to keep everything the same height at the 12th fret as with the 9s. Intonation didn't really change at all and I didn't see any difference in whether I was fretting things sharp or flat, vibrato wasn't any harder. The truss rod needed a little tweak but that didn't seem to have a big effect on feel.

I took the 10s off this morning. For whatever reason I just didn't like the feel, and the sound wasn't doing anything for me either. Lots of people here seem to imply the bigger strings have more tone or hit the amp harder or something. For me they seemed more balanced maybe, but it seemed like there was actually less output if you played at the same intensity. Cleaner sound cause you seem to need to hit the strings harder due to more tension? Definitely less "twang" and "bark", it feels like the 9s have more character. The positives for me are it seems like the 10s make it easier to keep the bass strings under control, while also taming the treble a little. The higher tension/mass seems to keep the low E from ringing out as much from sympathetic resonance, and if you don't properly mute the bass strings it seems like you can get away with it a little more. Also I think open/cowboy chords sound a little better with the 10s on my guitar. More note separation and clarity particularly for clean sounds. Hammer on/Pull off and Trills maybe suffer a little on the 10s. Also the 10s seemed more resistant to rattles and such that you would hear when the amp is not turned up loud, but those don't really affect your sound anyway.

No trouble bending or anything but I was finding barre stuff annoying. Not just 6-string barres but also the little mini barres you do when playing triads. (I'm doing a lot of this right now for lessons). It was just enough to be annoying and cause my arm to be a little tired at the end of an hour of playing.

I'm kind of wondering if my guitar just really wants to be on 9s. The feel on the Tele with 10s is seemingly harder than my acoustic with 12s, and the total tension on the acoustic is considerably higher. (IIRC the Tele with 9s is 84lbs, Tele with 10s is around 102lbs, and the Acoustic with 12s is 152lbs.) Who knows what the heck is going on. My Acoustic is a 24 7/8" scale Taylor with a 1 11/16" nut (same as Tele) and the neck and fretboard don't feel that different but acoustic has a flatter fingerboard radius. (15" I believe). The Acoustic with 12s is not as hard/finicky to barre as the Tele seems to be with 12s.

Who knows, maybe I'll try them again in another year but I think I just like 9s. But maybe it's also that I just don't want to take the time to adjust. The other thing I guess is I mostly play D'addario strings. Neither set of 10s that I've tried were D'addarios. Maybe there is something in that, but the gauges were the same.

 

[boris bubbanov]

Some of you think that you definitely need a truss adjustment going from 9 to 10?

I ain’t no Clapton, but I’ve never seen the need for this.

Normally, I wouldn't expect to need such a change. I think too many people fiddle with the truss rod and most of the time it isn't needed.

But, if a guitar was already on the cusp of needing an adjustment with the nines and then you amplified the issue with a string change, yeah, this is when the time is right to read up on these adjustments, make sure the nut is not frozen and you're using the right wrench, "help" the maple in the direction you're wanting to go and most of all, turn it the correct direction to achieve the right result. I like a half drop of light oil for something like a trombone or trumpet, not so thin that it will migrate off and soak into the walnut and maple, applied to that rod adjustment nut.