I decided to try a set after people were discussing them in another forum. I started out playing on 0.008"s, and didn't have any problems with them that I noticed, so thought I'd give them a go.
So the Pit Bull SG got loaded up with a set and the guitar was plugged in.
Two main differences to my normal 0.010"s.
1. Obviously the tension is a lot lower, so it is so much easier to bend the strings, and bend them to a higher pitch.
2. There's a lot less metal vibrating over the pickups, so output is lower and the sound is a lot thinner. Very, very thin on the bridge pickup, so much so that I really had to increase the pickup height to beef up the sound and get some bass in it. It did give the guitar a sort of 50s/60s Chicago blues sound though.
I've seen videos where players can't form normal chord shapes on these strings. I didn't find that a problem; possibly because I started on 8s so my basic learned technique was on light strings.
With 10's, though I thought I was bending up a long way, I was often only bending a semitone, especially say down on the 5th fret. With the 7s, I could bend 3 semitones there. More on the 12th fret.
The downside of bending these stings, at least initially, is owwwwww! They might be easy to bend, but the top E string is much thinner and you end up with a lot of pressure on a small area of your fingertips. They really dig in!
I'm leaving them on until a friend can come over and try them out, then I'll step up to 8s and see how they sound. An 8 has 30% more mass than a 7, so the pickup output and sound should be a lot better.
0.007"s will suit a hot bridge pickup and more standard neck pickup combination (like a SD '59 in the neck and a SD JB in the bridge) a lot better than the guitar's current slightly overwound PAF-style pickups.
But I think for me, they are definitely a step too far. I simply don't need the strings to be that loose.
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