# Tuning a baritone to drop c.... help



## thor von clemson (Apr 11, 2006)

I have been told I can tune a baritone guitar up to drop C. I am going to attempt to do this if it is possible. What are some things I should know before I do this? The guitar is a 27" scale baritone with a hardtail bridge. I am assuming I have to use a very light gauge string.. Anything else I should know?


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## noodles (Apr 11, 2006)

Scale length is going to effect the gauge of strings that you use. Other than that, a good intonation setup shpuld be all that it needs.


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## Metal Ken (Apr 11, 2006)

i tuned to A Standard (evereything down 1 step) with a set starting at 10- going to 68, on a 27" scale. Dont assume that cause its baritone it's gonna add like 10lbs of pressure to the strings.. It only adds about 2. i'd go with a set of 10s and go from there.


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## thor von clemson (Apr 11, 2006)

noodles.. it is a 27" scale.

I have been thinking about this. I currently have it tuned to drop A using 10-60 gauge strings. The high 3 strings (b,g,d) seem pretty loose to me while the low three strings (in this case, a,e,a) have lots of tension. Now it makes sense to me that if I go to a lighter gauge string like 10-48 or 10-50, I would be able to tune the low 6 strings up to c, d, and c and the tension would be ok..

am I totally ass backwards on this?


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## Metal Ken (Apr 11, 2006)

Here, use this to calculate the string tension:
http://www.pacificsites.net/~dog/StringTensionApplet.html
Set the len to 27" and change the string guages to the ones you want to try out. make sure to change the PB to NW though.


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## thor von clemson (Apr 11, 2006)

alright.. so it says 14-66 roughly.... does this seem right?

Again I would think a lighter gauge string would provide more tension.

Is it actually the case that (with my particular guitar) the higher you tune the thicker the strings need to be so as to even out the tension?


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## eleven59 (Apr 11, 2006)

thor von clemson said:


> Is it actually the case that (with my particular guitar) the higher you tune the thicker the strings need to be so as to even out the tension?


Absolutely not. The higher the pitch, the lower the guage of string to keep the same tension. The lower the pitch, the higher the guage of string to keep the same tension. For a 27"-scale tuned down a whole step (drop-C) use the same guage you'd use on a 25.5"-scale tuned to standard (drop-D).


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## Metal Ken (Apr 14, 2006)

I'd generally shoot for around 12-14 lbs for the higest string, to about 20 on the lowest. a 10 in D will give you bout 13-14 lbs of tension on a 27"...


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