Strings for downtuning

paulh

I've been given a cheap old Yamaha electric that was surplus to someones requirements. I want to start messing around with tunings a bit but don't want to mess with my main guitar so I thought I might use the Yam. It desperately needs new strings, so should I look for heavier strings for downtuning? Are there any other issues I should consider? thanks.

Fazer

i was going to ask about this myself -
if i move all the strings over 1 place - the E to the A slot, the A to the D slot etc, and then put a heavier B string in the bottom E slot, would i have to have the nut grooves recut a little to accommodate the larger gauges?
i would be using relatively medium/light gauges though

Maynehead

The number one reason for damaged/destroyed guitars in my extensive ebay guitar buying experience is heavy gauge strings. The thing you have to remember is that they put a lot more tension on the neck and are not designed for standard tuning, and you should go no where near it. I've had guitars arrive with bent necks, twisted necks, TOM tailpiece posts ripped half way out of their sockets etc and the common factor was that they all had heavy strings on them.

Now that the obligatory warning is out of the way, there's not much else you need to worry about. Yes the nut slots may need to be widened (you can use folded sandpaper but take care not to deepen them too much), the truss rod adjusted, floating bridge rebalanced and the intonation redone, but that's all basic setup stuff and won't harm the guitar.

I don't know about moving the strings up one slot though... You'll end up with a wound G string which may feel weird and won't be much good if you want to do any bending on it.

BloodEagle

I have used heavy gauge strings (and downtuned) for years and years, and never had any problems with 'damaged/destroyed' guitars - downtuning decreases tension on the neck and slackens the strings, which is precisely why you need heavier gauge ones to take up the slack. What im saying is that no decent guitar will be damaged by heavier strings

FelineGuitars

I devised charts to help gauge sets of strings for downtuning that try to keep the same string tension you may be used to with a certain set of strings in standard tuning .

So if you tune to E and use 10-46 we can look up what you'd want if you say needed a C standard or drop B tuning

Maynehead

BloodEagle said:

I have used heavy gauge strings (and downtuned) for years and years, and never had any problems with 'damaged/destroyed' guitars - downtuning decreases tension on the neck and slackens the strings, which is precisely why you need heavier gauge ones to take up the slack. What im saying is that no decent guitar will be damaged by heavier strings

I think you misunderstood, I meant they were all damaged by people who put huge strings on and then decide to tune to standard at some point for whatever reason. I was simply saying you should never tune it anywhere near standard or you risk damaging the guitar.

BloodEagle

Oh ok fair enough - i withdraw my comment

paulh

FelineGuitars said:

I devised charts to help gauge sets of strings for downtuning that try to keep the same string tension you may be used to with a certain set of strings in standard tuning .

So if you tune to E and use 10-46 we can look up what you'd want if you say needed a C standard or drop B tuning

What would you say for drop B, thats as low as I'll need to go I think,

ICBM

For B, the idea of moving the strings across one position and adding a low B is totally sound because the tension on the neck does not change at all - the five thinner strings are at the same tension as normal, just in different places! I have set up a couple of Telecasters like this as pseudo-baritones, which worked perfectly.

You will need to widen the nut grooves, yes - but if you do it correctly, you can actually still go back to standard gauge string later without replacing the nut… really. The grooves should be smoothly rounded at the bottom, then any gauge string will always sit in the middle of it.

The choice of low string is a bit tricky if you want to go below B - even a B from a 7-string set may not be heavy enough. A bass string will be, but it needs to be small enough to go through the hole in the machinehead, unless you want to drill that out, capable of being bent tightly around the post which are much smaller diameter than normal bass tuners, and if the bridge end takes a ball end, it needs to be guitar-sized not bass sized. I found that a 65-gauge *double ball end* (Steinberger) bass string with the *large* ball cut off so the small one from what would normally be the headstock end worked perfectly, or a 75 with the machinehead hole drilled out slightly, for a low A string.

That was for an A-A tuning with a 15-gauge top A, a 22-gauge wound 2nd (E) string, on a Bigsby Telecaster! And it worked perfectly, including with trem use.

Fazer

so if i took my current string gauges of 44 (poss 46), 34, 24, 15, 10.5, 8.5 and i move them all across to the 'A' slot (dropping the top 8.5) what gauge would be approx for the low B (in the current E slot)?
and i'd have to recut all nut grooves?

Fazer

also would i be able to get away without re-cutting the grooves while i play around at home till i decide on the best low B gauge?

ICBM

Fazer said:

so if i took my current string gauges of 44 (poss 46), 34, 24, 15, 10.5, 8.5 and i move them all across to the 'A' slot (dropping the top 8.5) what gauge would be approx for the low B (in the current E slot)?

Probably about a 60.

Fazer said:

also would i be able to get away without re-cutting the grooves while i play around at home till i decide on the best low B gauge?

No, unfortunately not. Without widening them, the strings will sit on top of the nut and make the action unplayably high at the first few frets. If any of them does manage to jam itself into the groove it may chip or crack the nut as well, which will then mean you need a new one anyway.

Grunfeld

STRING SPAM ALERT

Edit:  I've moved it.  If anyone wants D'Addario EXL 117  11-56 it's here. 

Clarky

concert tuned I like Ernie Ball Hybrid 9's

I mostly tune to D standard and aimed to get a similar tension to the hybrids so after some experimentation I ended up using Power Slinks [11's]

I still wasn't happy with the tension of the wrapped strings though.. they were a little to slack.. so I went on the D'Add website and downloaded their string tension guide..

using that I worked out the tensions for the hybrid 9's tuned concert and then worked through the chart to find the string choices that'd most closely match when in D standard..

I ended up choosing 11, 14, 18, 28, 40, 50.. 

now I order my strings as packs of individuals.. works a treat