I have a rather cheap, cheery but pleasant to play Aria electric that last had a set of strings in about 1998. I’ve not played much in last 15 years but thinking I might pick it up again during lockdown and eldest can play a bit.

I reckon they are probably 10-46 as that seems to be a very common size and I remember (“10s”) being the go to size but I also recall “hybrids” a mix of 9s and 10s maybe.

Is there an easy way to be sure and if I have it wrong will it chuck the intonation out? There’s no tremolo to balance. I know my old Ibanez with a Floyd Rose needed rebalancing when I switched the string thickness.

It was always D’Addario or Ernie Ball that we bought as a kid/teen – are they still ok/a decent default purchase for someone with rather less guitar talent than your average German shepherd?

Hopefully when we can next get together with my parents I can retrieve my other guitar, bass and other amps but for now it’d be nice to get this one playing nicely.

If I can get back into it maybe a nice acoustic for neighbourly harmony!

Just re read that…thinking I’m in danger of n+1 and it’s not come out of the case yet to play 🤔

I used Ernie balls for years, but now use EXL from D’addario. I think they stay fresher for longer.

EDIT: I buy fancy coated ones for my (expensive) acoustic as I think it’s more important on an acoustic

Had a couple of Aria Pro II’s from that era. They always had 9-42’s on. Ernie Ball super slinky I think. Great guitars for the money.

Mine is a Les Paul copy, bought second hand on a whim it’s probably originally early / mid 90s. Bass is an Aria from same era but sadly trapped at my parents place 3 hours away along with my EX series Ibanez. I seem to own a number of guitars that greatly exceeds my talent!

Might be safer to order a set each of 9s and 10s. I can probably tell by feel when I see them alongside the current set. They still seem to be about the same price per pack now online as I paid in a shop in the 90s that’s pretty scary in some ways.

I’m sure more experience will be along in a minute but..

strat and tele type scale length do seem to work well with 10-42..I’m guessing the aria is an s type,

strings do seem to be a bit personal.. I’m not a fan of Earnie ball slinky, and I tried rotosound strings that just felt horrible. D’addario work for me,

if you get the string gauge slightly off you may not mess up intonation but you could change the neck relief. Have a potter around google on how to do setups. Dave’s world of fun stuff is very good I think… it’s dead easy with A bit of common sense!

good luck!

Yeah, it’s mad how strings have stayed the same price over a very long time. As a teenager, it was a major purchase. Nowadays, slightly less so.

I use D’Addario XT 9-46 Coated because I don’t have to change them often and they still sound good; 9 because I’m not a long-time player so the bendy ones bend and don’t hurt my fingers; 46 because if I go for 42 at the E string it bends out of tune on the 3rd fret because I press too hard.
I use Cleartune as a phone app tuner because it’s brilliant and only costs £3 and using it means getting the intonation right is a piece of piss.

I always used preferred a lightly heavier bottom (ooh err missus) on my Tele and settled on Ernie Ball 10-52.

If in doubt I’d suggest ‘Regular Slinky’ which is 10-46 and go from there. Can’t go far wrong with standard 10’s.

garage-dweller

Is there an easy way to be sure and if I have it wrong will it chuck the intonation out?

Lighter strings will more than likely knock the neck relief out. ie lighter stringer, less tension, so the neck will go straighter(you don’t want a fully straight neck, you want a slight bend.)

Regards to intonation, you’ll probably need to set that up anyhow, worth checking anyhow on and old guitar. Set up the string height and neck relief before fixing intonation.

tbh, with an old guitar you should be looking a full set up anyhow I think. It’s easy enough, but confusing if just doing it for the first time.

Is there an easy way to be sure

Micrometer / calliper gauge.

Otherwise D’Addario 10-46 😉

tbh, with an old guitar you should be looking a full set up anyhow I think. It’s easy enough, but confusing if just doing it for the first time.

My son played it a few months back and thankfully it seems kind of ok just sounds a bit dull. If set up is methodical I should be able to manage it – my ear is ok and I’m pretty good at following instructions except “stay out of the bike shop” or “don’t stay up chatting to strangers on the Internet about baby robins”

99% of guitars of the nature of your Aria will be strung 9-42 out of the factory, so if it’s still got the stock strings on, then they’re more than likely 9-42’s.

Personally I’ve played 10-52’s on most of my electrics since the early 00’s. I do like 11-54’s on an Eb tuned Strat if set up properly. Gives you the proper SRV vibe.

Edit, as above….if you want a definitive answer as to what strings it’s got on, then you need a micrometer.

Aye it’s very methodically just need an allen key, a screw driver and a tuner to set up a strat type.

Firstly, make sure the string height is roughly where you want it to be. The check the neck relief. (basically if you fret a string at the 1st and 21st fret, you want there to be a bit of a gap at the 12th when you tap the 12th fret, google check relief, you want a 0.1 to 0.5mm gap in there depends on what you prefer, I like a bit more.)

From there just check the string height is still where you want it. and there’s the correct curve on the strings, google the fender specs, good place to start.

After that it’s just a case of doing the intonation, which you just need a tuner, something that can measure as low as 1 cent. and a screw driver, you are just changin string length, to make sharper or flatter, by measuring the differ between, open string and fretting at the 12th fret.

Rough idea to clue you up, but a few googles on that and you’ll be sorted.

After that you are just looking into pickup hieght.

ps, NYXL 10-46 I’d recommend, go 9s if you fancy lighter, but great strings either way.

Brilliant, thanks all.

Ordered a set each of 9-42 and 10-46, I’ve got a tuner already and found myself a nice you tube video that seems easy to follow.

Should make a nice evening project to clean it up a bit.

Aye it’s very methodical, you just need an allen key, a screw driver, a tuner and a capo to set up a strat type.

Firstly, make sure the string height is roughly where you want it to be. Then check the neck relief. (basically if you fret(or capo) a string at the 1st and fret 21st fret, you want there to be a bit of a gap at the 12th when you tap the 12th fret, google neck relief, you want a 0.1 to 0.5mm gap in there depends on what you prefer, I like a bit more.)

From there just check the string height is still where you want it. and there’s the correct curve on the neck, google the fender specs, good place to start. a bit of a balance between string height and neck relief..

After that it’s just a case of doing the intonation, which you just need a tuner, something that can measure as low as 1 cent. and a screwdriver, you are just changing string length, to make sharper or flatter, by measuring the difference between open string and fretting at the 12th fret.

Rough idea to clue you up, but a few googles on that and you’ll be sorted.

After that you are just looking into pickup height.

ps, NYXL 10-46 I’d recommend, go 9s if you fancy lighter, but great strings either way.

ps edited a couple of daft errors, went by the 15 minutes to edit!

By coincidence this came up on my news feed today. A music Radar guide to setup.

https://futureplc.slgnt.eu/optiext/optiextension.dll?ID=WstWvVFAfgGL%2BQAuTPkAVlOJYDKijF7QJT3ksyLI0n3UfEha5CbtYNgunri_YY0zXknQqV1%2BGLwTA94bxbnxv35YQ9oiW

According to Fender’s custom shop head, the way to set up is TRAIN.
Tune, Relief (truss rod), Action, Intonation, err Noodle – to check if you need to go round again.
But what does he know? His favourite guitar at home is a Squier.

You could always measure them with a digital vernier, to find out what gauge is on there.

The other thing to bear in mind is that if you’ve not played for yonks, you might find tens (and certainly anything heavier) hard on your fingers…

And to confuse/help things, both D’Addario and Ernie Ball do 9.5 and 10.5 ‘in-betweeny’ sets 😎

And to confuse things further you can buy individual strings and make up sets to suit your style. I use 8 – 46 with standard tuning and 9 – 46 on guitars I might drop to Eb or D. 8, 10, 14, 22/24, 36, 46:

I only use Rotosound strings on my guitars, 9’s on the strats, tele, SG and les paul. Made here in the UK and every bit as good as ernie balls.

Just came here to write what chipps did, starting with 9s means you’ll be able to play for longer (which is the main aim when learning) and also encourages you to be gentle with the picking hand not smashing the guitar as this pays dividends for dynamic control

Thanks again, the 9s are here so will give those a go first.

digital vernier

Pedant mode engaged.

No such think as a digital Vernier it is either one or tuther.

Iv’e always used Ernie ball super slinky (9-42)

Slinky 10s

Always, I’ve never tried anything else in 35 years, blinkered, deluded but happy

Note I almost never change my strings as once the ping has gone they stay the same for me for years.