# Stephen Carpenter's 7-String Gauges



## afxwinter (Aug 29, 2011)

Hey guys I recently bought my first 7-string from a fellow forumite here.
It's an LTD SC-607B. It's been so much fun that I haven't picked up my 6-strings in weeks. I'm still trying to figure out string gauges and how I want to tune it and for now I've got it setup in drop-F# with some 10-70 gauge strings. The low F# is a little loose but definitely playable.
I sent a few twitter messages to Stephen Carpenter's guitar tech and found out that Stef has his 8-strings setup like this: F#,B,E,A,D,G,B,E with 69,59,49,39,28,18,14,11 gauge strings. Seems like similar tension to what I'm doing on my 7.
He also told me that all Stef's 7's are using 59,49,39,28,18,14,11 string sets.
Stef uses drop-F# for most of the Saturday Night Wrist material and I couldn't imagine the F# being anywhere near playable with a .059 on. Seems like it'd be floppy as hell.
What do you think?


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## Interloper (Aug 29, 2011)

The .059 is his B string which at 27" would be more than sufficient. Not sure about a .069 for F# but Steph is not exactly speed picking on that string so he can get by just fine without a lot of tension.


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## vampiregenocide (Aug 29, 2011)

Doesn't he use like 5 different tunings?


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## afxwinter (Aug 29, 2011)

vampiregenocide said:


> Doesn't he use like 5 different tunings?


Yeah he does. Well, with the 8-string I'd say it's 6. That's what I found shocking about the single gauge for all his 7s.

As far as I know his live tunings are:
8-string: 
DE - F#,B,E,A,D,G,B,E
7-strings:
SNW - F#,C#,F#,B,E,G#,C#
ST - G#,C#,F#,B,E,G#,C#
WP - C,G,C,F,A,D,D
ATF - C#,G#,C#,F#,A#,D#,D#
Adrenaline - E,A,D,G,B,E,E

That would be a HUGE amount of tension difference between all of those, even though I'm fairly sure the higher tunings wouldn't be baritones.


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## Guitarman700 (Aug 29, 2011)

He uses drop E on his 8's.


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## afxwinter (Aug 29, 2011)

Guitarman700 said:


> He uses drop E on his 8's.


I'm pretty sure it's F# standard. He was joking around in an interview about the low E when he was getting the 8s made.


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## Kamikaze7 (Aug 29, 2011)

afxwinter said:


> Yeah he does. Well, with the 8-string I'd say it's 6. That's what I found shocking about the single gauge for all his 7s.
> 
> As far as I know his live tunings are:
> 8-string:
> ...



From last I seen them live a short while ago, he's all 7-string now, and all of them - both his 7's and 8's are all baritone.


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## Floppystrings (Aug 29, 2011)

All of those tunings make my brain hurt.


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## Buddha92 (Aug 29, 2011)

Kamikaze7 said:


> From last I seen them live a short while ago, he's all 7-string now, and all of them - both his 7's and 8's are all baritone.


he does. except for some of the Adrenaline stuff he uses the six's sometimes. it usually depends on the night and time and all that. but when i saw them it was 7 string for SNW, WP, ST, and the 8's for DE and the 6 for Adrinaline and ATF.


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## Stresspill (Sep 2, 2011)

On my 607B I just put 11-59 sets on and that holds self-titled tuning (Ab standard) just fine. When I drop the Ab down to Gb for SNW tuning it's a wee bit floppy but it doesn't go out of tune or anything, just makes it nice and chuggy


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## afxwinter (Sep 8, 2011)

Stresspill said:


> On my 607B I just put 11-59 sets on and that holds self-titled tuning (Ab standard) just fine. When I drop the Ab down to Gb for SNW tuning it's a wee bit floppy but it doesn't go out of tune or anything, just makes it nice and chuggy


I could see those working fine for Ab but definitely not Gb.
Isn't the self-titled G# standard and SNW is the same but the low G# is dropped to F#?


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## idunno (Sep 8, 2011)

He has 400 (Edit: DOPE ASS) guitars. Id wadger different strings for the tunings probably. Could be wrong though..


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## DoubleEdgedSword333 (Apr 27, 2013)

WOW. You guys use such light strings, My favorite gauge Ab tuning 12, 16, 22w, 34w, 46, 60, 80 on a 25.5" scale 7 string! :O Well, Different strokes for different folks i guess


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Apr 27, 2013)

Holy pointless necrobump.


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## MA77 (Apr 28, 2013)

I'm not even sure Stef is the most knowledgable and or logical person when it comes to his setup. That's just the feeling I get from his interviews.


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## hand amputation (May 8, 2013)

I am interested in a SC 7 or 8... But I am curious..

How does a regular scale guitar hold up to 8 string tuning? I have an RG8 and even in F# tuning it can be a bit floppy...

I was thinking about picking up a 208 and modding it. I love the way it looks, but I am curious.


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## jephjacques (May 8, 2013)

I have a hard time imagining how anything smaller than a .74 would work for a low F# even at baritone scale, not for playability but just in terms of tuning stability. But if it works for him it must be doable!


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## jephjacques (May 8, 2013)

hand amputation said:


> How does a regular scale guitar hold up to 8 string tuning? I have an RG8 and even in F# tuning it can be a bit floppy...



This could just be my imagination but I think the strings through body combined with the steeper angle over the TOM bridge leads to tighter strings than you get with an Ibanez or Hipshot style bridge. Which isn't to say that those are inferior, it's just a slight difference.


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## hand amputation (May 8, 2013)

jephjacques said:


> This could just be my imagination but I think the strings through body combined with the steeper angle over the TOM bridge leads to tighter strings than you get with an Ibanez or Hipshot style bridge. Which isn't to say that those are inferior, it's just a slight difference.



I could see that, in theory.

I have noticed that the less expensive SC models do not have a TOM bridge. I wonder if that makes a difference in tuning and stability...


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## wyldweasil (Feb 7, 2014)

yeah I know, necro bump. 
I read he switched to the 80's for the drop E tuning on the 8 string.

Also, for the life of me I don't understand why people think he used drop D on adrenaline.


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