need string size advice (bigsby tailpiece)

[clevodrummer]

I recently scored an Epiphone Wildkat...cool guitar, its a hollowbody eppy with bigsby (trmelo bar) tailpiece..

I normally play Ernie Ball extra slinky on my Les Paul, but the high strings will definetly pop with this tailpiece..

any advice as far as string size so I can play something similar to the extra slinky but strong enough to handle the Bigsby tailpiece?

Thank you so much.. Im a home recordist and my primary instrument is the drumset, but I am a decent guitarist, except I am an old fart ( 52 ), and still stick with the strings I used in the 70s...

I am overwhelmed with string choices and need some help!!

Thanks,
clevo

 

[cephus]

I assume that extra slinkies are 9s. I use 11s on my bigsbied guitar, but it is a full hollow body. It had 10s on it when I got it, and I thought they sounded like shit. I don't know how a bigsby would be harder on strings than anything else. I would put heavier strings on so the guitar sounded better.

 

[lpdeluxe]

I've always used .011s for guitars with Bigsbys. The Bigsby was designed before the era of slinky strings, and in my opinion they do not work well with them. It's much harder to keep them in tune.