Question for psarkissian or any other Variax devotees

[Hey_Joe]

I'm, no stranger to the world of Variax. Had an electric 300 and a 600, tried the JTV 89, have a JTV69 and JTV59.

I always used 9s on my strats. After all these years, when I put EB Slinky 9s or Cobalt Slinky 9s on my 69 I feel like I'm breaking the law.

I sounds OK to me, but always wondering if I am really diminishing the ability of the piezos. Should I just stick with the

D'Addario XL 10s?

[brue58ski]

I would. .10's and .11's seem to be the best in my experience. At the very least just to see if you can tell the difference.

[psarkissian]

Yes, 10's and 11's give best performance regarding mechanical to electronics transfer (transduction)

for a good signal.

 

And what brue58ski said.

 

 

[amsdenj]

If you need lighter strings (I've had to do it to address elbow problems), try 9.5. Might be a good compromise. I'm using them now and they seem to work well. 

 

[psarkissian]

What amdenj said.

 

9.5's work fine, just not the EB Slinkys, they stretch to easily. Great on Fender, not on piezos,

they reach that 'dead string' point too soon.

 

 

[Hey_Joe]

Good (new) info for me.

I'll try non Slinky 9.5s out  on my 69 based on you two guys expert opinions.

THANKS

 

Cobalt is why I switched from plain Slinkies

[psarkissian]

Cobalts are good strings.

 

[jzucco]

I just put on a set of EB Cobalt .009 gauge and they seem to work fine.  I had .010's on it and was getting weird transients.  The .009's just seem to work better for me. Why you wanna work so hard??? I also changed out the medium frets on my Variax Standard to medium jumbo.  Plays almost as well as the JTV59 that I had. That guitar was like your fingers were floating on air, even with a chunkier neck, but I'm a Strat guy and Standard fits my style better and I like the thinner neck and lighter weight. Also, I do prefer the 5 way switch. My friend immediately bought the 59 from me! I lost $200 on the deal but it covered the cost of the Standard which I think, on its own, is a great guitar! Sounds as good as my '91 Strat Plus!

[psarkissian]

" I had .010's on it and was getting weird transients. " --- Set-up has to be more spot on than normal passive electric guitars,

due to interaction between magnetic pick-ups and piezos (warbling from pick-up height not adjusted, whistling howl from tuning

or intonation not being spot on). Quirks to be aware of.

 

[Punkyboy]

Hello

I tried the Ernie ball paradigm 46-10 and seem to be  more stretchable !

Sound a little bit darker, but better bends than traditional