Drop tunings and small acoustic guitars

[Wayne27]

Is it pointless to do drop tunings on small acoustic guitars? I heard you can only do them on medium or large gauge strings which large acoustics like dreadnaught and jumbo can only handle.

[DavidRavenMoon]

Drop tunings are lower tension. Look at the medium gauge strings most acoustics use. Just tune them down. I often have my acoustic a step or two down. I see no reason why you can’t do that. You might not get as much low end, but you don’t need that on an a guitar.


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[Bogner]

Define small acoustic guitar. It all comes down to tension. String gauge can help vary tension as well. Are you chasing a sound or a pitch? Guitar woods can vary the sound so consider that if it is a "sound" you are chasing. In summary, you can detune anything so long as it is reasonable.

[GuitarStv]

Smaller bodied guitars won't produce as much bass, so may not give you the effect you're looking for with the lower tuning. If you're dropping the tuning you're lowering the tension, so can probably fit heavier strings than are recommended for the guitar.

[Mincer]

There are fingerstyle players who exclusively play baritone acoustics, and it is amazing. The California Guitar Trio plays in a 5ths-type tuning, CGDAEG, and it is really wonderful.

[Benjy_26]

There are plenty of classical pieces in drop-D tunings. My little Yamaha classical handles the tuning just fine.