[Ibanez_fanboy]

thanks for the input guys, im gonna go with a 0.66

[bostjan]

Good Luck!

I'd say it's a good decision!

[7stringninja]

Originally Posted by marton

You use some heavy strings there. Go for something more like 10's. I use 9-56 in standard and have no problems.

"Standard" being the key word in your post. This guy is down-tuning.


My best advice, is to buy a quality string (like EB or similiar) and try out various gauges. Make sure to at very minimum adjust your Trem when changing string gauges. You want it to sit very close to parallel with the body.

I preach 9's to everyone and their mother. But that's for standard. I've never tried tuning down (other than drop-A/D) and that still seemed ok with my .52 B-string.

[eleven59]

Ug, I could never use a .52 B-string... :shudder:

[marton]

Right right right....

But tuning down doesn't make a huge mega-difference. 12's are 33% thicker than 9's and D is only about 10% lower than E. (same as from A to B on the bass side). 10's would be 10% thicker than 9's so I say it's only logical to go there.

I never tried a 52 low B, but I know that 54 seemed a little pasta-esque.

[eleven59]

Originally Posted by marton

Right right right....

But tuning down doesn't make a huge mega-difference. 12's are 33% thicker than 9's and D is only about 10% lower than E. (same as from A to B on the bass side). 10's would be 10% thicker than 9's so I say it's only logical to go there.

I never tried a 52 low B, but I know that 54 seemed a little pasta-esque.

Yeah, 10s for a whole step down works well, 12s are a little extreme. And as far as the low-B, I can't handle anything smaller than a 60 anymore.

[7stringninja]

Originally Posted by marton

Right right right....

But tuning down doesn't make a huge mega-difference. 12's are 33% thicker than 9's and D is only about 10% lower than E. (same as from A to B on the bass side). 10's would be 10% thicker than 9's so I say it's only logical to go there.

I never tried a 52 low B, but I know that 54 seemed a little pasta-esque.

Nice logic on the %'s. They are accurate, but remember, you are speaking of a single string. When tuning all the strings down, the tension will be reduced on each string individually, making a large deduction in tension on the neck as a whole.

There is a direct relation between tuning and tension. (These #'s I'm about to use are just used for example. They are not accurate).

A 440hz 15.0
- - -
B 392hz 12.29

Those are supposed to be fractions. This is very basic math, and if you are missing one of the four #'s, you could easily figure it out using cross multiplication.


One tension/math related question I have is this: If you down-tune all the strings, is the overall tension deduction simply the sum of each individual tension-deduction?

It seems as though the neck might have some spring-type characteristics. For instance, if you tune down (or more drastically - remove) a string, it seems as though the tension on all other strings will increase (even without floating bridge), just because of the neck itself. This amount of increased tension may be so small that it doesn't really factor in, but it seems to me that it would happen. Anyone know for sure?

[that guy]

Originally Posted by 7stringninja

Nice logic on the %'s. They are accurate, but remember, you are speaking of a single string. When tuning all the strings down, the tension will be reduced on each string individually, making a large deduction in tension on the neck as a whole.

There is a direct relation between tuning and tension. (These #'s I'm about to use are just used for example. They are not accurate).

A 440hz 15.0
- - -
B 392hz 12.29

Those are supposed to be fractions. This is very basic math, and if you are missing one of the four #'s, you could easily figure it out using cross multiplication.


One tension/math related question I have is this: If you down-tune all the strings, is the overall tension deduction simply the sum of each individual tension-deduction?

It seems as though the neck might have some spring-type characteristics. For instance, if you tune down (or more drastically - remove) a string, it seems as though the tension on all other strings will increase (even without floating bridge), just because of the neck itself. This amount of increased tension may be so small that it doesn't really factor in, but it seems to me that it would happen. Anyone know for sure?

yes becuse if you loosen you truss rod ti where it just barely is fighting the strings and break one , the other strings go out of tune a bit (#) ..this might not happen so drastically with smaller strings but on the larger gauges it happens a lot

[bostjan]

Dude, you guys are taking this too seriously. 12-66 will be fine. A little truss tweak never killed anyone nor their guitar. If he wants ultra-heavies, let him use them. If it works out, maybe I'll go 11-68 and tune down two whole steps GCFBbEbGC

[EverDream]

Originally Posted by bostjan

Dude, you guys are taking this too seriously. 12-66 will be fine. A little truss tweak never killed anyone nor their guitar. If he wants ultra-heavies, let him use them. If it works out, maybe I'll go 11-68 and tune down two whole steps GCFBbEbGC

well I'm using a 10-66 set for A tuning, and about 2 months ago I had 11-70 tuned to G#, and that gave a tension on the low strings similar to a .046 E string, so if you wanted to tune to G I would try using 12-74, 68 would work but it would be pretty floppy, I have my 10-66 set tuned to A like I said but right now I have it in Drop G (just the last string dropped) and it's pretty loose, it's ok for a one finger powerchord but imo if I wanted G tuning it would be way too lose for me (this is with my 66 I'm talking about), and so 68 is only 2 gauges higher, so well at least for me that would be way too loose for G tuning (2 steps down from standard B). But yeah maybe you'll have to just try it out and see what you think, lol. I'm loving A-tuning with a dropped G though, it seems to be perfect for me, I can add an instant bass note to any of the usual chords that have the root on the 5th string. I also have my bass guitar tuned the same way (but in all 4ths of course), I actually can't stand hearing a guitar a bass play the same note, so bands like Meshuggah that do that, it drives me crazy, I love the sound of the bass guitar adding the lower octave effect, and so it doesn't matter how low I tune my guitar, my bass lines I will always tune 1 octave lower! Anyway back on topic, yeah I recommend 74 for G, go to http://www.juststrings.com they have the biggest selection in strings I've ever seen, and I've been buying my strings from them every time now, the combination of this string tension calculator http://www.pacificsites.net/~dog/Str...ionApplet.html and http://www.juststrings.com, and I've always ended up being totally satisfied with the string sets I make and put on.