i believe i know what you are talking about, but from what i remember, running it at 10 on a 120 is not considered "too close" to its max. running it at an 11 would be, as would running it at 12 obviously. could be wrong though
when its that close, it would seem that he could run it at 9 and be fine since hes done it efore and not had problems. plus, he would keep the safety of the vertical release toe on the 120