An interesting reason for me to want to try 11's

[Zach Trowbridge]

I think I want to move up to 11's on my PRS, but not for the usual "wanting a thicker sound" reason that most people seem to do. I actually just want to stop making all of my damn bends sharp.

Affter having been playing my acoustic with 12's on it every day for almost the last month, I grabbed my electric and played unplugged for a while. First thing I noticed was bend after bend being sharp. I think now I'm used to the increased tension.

Anybody else ever decided to do this?

[Michael Jackson]

Never moved to 11's but I agree with the theory. My bends are always flat on my acoustic.

My friend who is mainly a bass player but an aesome guitarist has to play 12 or 13's just ebcasue of what he is usedto and finger strength

[Doug Lewis]

You're a good man Zach. Myself (wanting to make as little effort as possible) would put 9's on the acoustic to solve the problem ;)

[Erik]

You're a good man Zach. Myself (wanting to make as little effort as possible) would put 9's on the acoustic to solve the problem ;)
LMAO!!! :D

[darial]

I think I want to move up to 11's on my PRS, but not for the usual "wanting a thicker sound" reason that most people seem to do. I actually just want to stop making all of my damn bends sharp.

Affter having been playing my acoustic with 12's on it every day for almost the last month, I grabbed my electric and played unplugged for a while. First thing I noticed was bend after bend being sharp. I think now I'm used to the increased tension.

Anybody else ever decided to do this?
Not to be critical, but I'd say bending to pitch isn't a function of having the right strings or bending the right distace or whatever. if you aproach it that way you'll be out of tune every time you switch strings or switch guitars or your hands get tired. It's really a listening task - you hear when you're on pitch and then stop.

[Jo]

Zach, I've noticed I'm doing the same thing with my McRosie which has 9's on it. I've become so used to the 12's on the AT that when I even play a chord, it's going sharp. :(

So, I'll be installing some 10's on it pretty soon. Maybe I should go up to 11 :eek: :)

[kev]

Everything sounds better at 11!!! Go for it Zach! I made the move 12 years ago (yikes!) and haven't looked back. For reference, I use them on all of my electrics, which are different scale lengths.

Strat
335
175

Alas, no PRS yet, but you better believe that .011s are gonna be on it!

[johnreardon]

Not to be critical, but I'd say bending to pitch isn't a function of having the right strings or bending the right distace or whatever. if you aproach it that way you'll be out of tune every time you switch strings or switch guitars or your hands get tired. It's really a listening task - you hear when you're on pitch and then stop.
I agree with Darial, bending to pitch is not down to string size, it's the ability to stop when you are on pitch.

Thicker strings may give you better tone, but if you do a lot of bending, vibrato etc, you're going to need very strong fingers

[sooner]

I'd say to keep the strings you have on it if you're happy with them. I disagree (somewhat) with some of the other posts. Muscle memory is a big part of string bends, at least for me when I'm playing faster than I can think.

When I switched to a smaller set of strings after playing the same guage for many years, I was bending (and like Jo, chording) sharp for a while. It was just a matter of my ear correcting my fingers, and in a few days everything was okay again.