In between

If you are a frequent visitor here, you'd notice that I have a thing for these gauges. Unlike those hybrid gauges where they offer thinner top end strings and thicker bottom strings, these are standard increments. The 9.5 sits nicely between 9 & 10 while the 10.5 sits between 10 & 11. I refer to these as the in-betweens for obvious reasons.

Why do I bother? My PRS guitars are sporting a 25" scale length. Despite a small difference between a PRS & an Ibanez RG (25.5"), I can somehow feel the tension difference, so that why I bothered. The 10.5s go into my Jaguars which are 24" but people told me to use 11s instead. Since I am in standard tuning, the extra tension offered by 11s won't do for me. I'm more comfortable with 10.5s in there. I also have 10.5s in one of my Les Pauls since I tune it half a step down so that pretty much compensates the tension. There is no hard & fast rules stating a certain guitar sporting a certain scale length should be equipped with a certain set of strings of a certain gauge. It's all about feel. Jimmy Page has 8s in his Les Paul, Malmsteen does 8s for his Strats as well. Stevie Ray had 11s in his Number One Strat all those while but we shouldn't go with their flow if it feels all wrong after trying. We have no obligations to copy because we are not these people. Our needs are different.

There are some interesting observations after using these gauges for quite a while & it's strictly personal. Thicker string gauges lose lots of warmth & midrange appeal in humbucking guitars, active pickups would rectify this anomaly. Also, thicker gauged strings sound so darn good with single coil pickups with moderate to low amounts of gain/ drive. 

The D'Addario 9.5s are available at Davis GMC, the 10.5s you see there, I bought them online. However, Swee Lee has the EB 10.5s you see here in store since March 2020 & that would mean the end of my purchase of 10.5s online. I don't fancy EB strings but domestic purchases would me saving shipping costs. Anyway, only 4 of my guitars need those. 

Hope this entry propels you to try these gauges not because you are obliged to but because you know you need a (slightly) thicker set of strings without embracing something out of your comfort zone.