New EII/MII String Gauge change

Updated
Christopher  Perry

So I've been digging my new EII MII Black Natural Fade. Sounds great and the action is fantastic. My issue is bending on these 10's coupled with the longer scale. I'm used to my Fender Jim Root Tele (9's) and my Charvel which is easy to bend. I'm wondering if going to 9's from 10's would make a drastic change and help me. I'd hate to mess up this perfect set up but bending past the 12th fret is challenging after a while. My Jim Root Tele is the same scale length but it plays much looser for bending. I can only speculate its's the string gauge. Anyone else deal with this issue? I will say I love this guitar and have played it non stop since I got it yesterday. Tapping has been a breeze and motivating to get better at it.

metalhobo

big bends on a 25.5" guitar in standard tuning with 10's is indeed notably difficult unless you've trained yourself to be used to it. switching to 9's will assuredly make this easier. the alternative to lowering the gauge is to practice practice practice to build up your finger, hand, and wrist strength. srv used to play 12's in Eb.

in addition to adjusting the action after switching strings you will likely also want to adjust the intonation and possible the truss rod.

one more tip: you might try a 9-46 string set. the bottom three will be the same gauge as you have now, but the top three will be as from a standard extra light set. this would mean you'd have to adjust the guitar less so, and the playability of the bottom three strings should not change much.

Christopher  Perry

Thanks for all the great info. I’m gonna hang in there with 10’s and see how well I adapt. 
Thanks again. 

Post to Thread