What guage strings for down tuning?

[Van Noord]

Re: What guage strings for down tuning?

Man you guys use thick strings... I need at least some degree of elasticity, otherwise things just get too blunt and stiff sounding.

I only play in 2 x tunings; a half step down Drop D & a whole step down Drop C.

10-48/11-48/11-49/10-50 for C#G#C#F#A#D with 24.75" & 25.5"

11-54/12-56 for CGCFAD with 24.75" & 25.5"

 

[Gransen]

Re: What guage strings for down tuning?

Man you guys use thick strings... I need at least some degree of elasticity, otherwise things just get too blunt and stiff sounding.

-My B Standard guitar is an oddball to me, tight strings clean up mud.

-I've got one running 10-52 "light top/heavy bottom"

-One has acoustic strings, pretty manageable at 10-50.

-Then there are three with 10-46...two of them seven strings with a 52 at low B.

For me, it's not just the sound, but the ability to bend strings. I don't need to wiggle 'em around much playing metal, but rock/blues stuff doesn't work for me over 16-17 lbs or so per string. Not enough harmonics going on, and too stiff to bend.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: What guage strings for down tuning?

^ that’s the beauty of the world, different things working for different people. That’s also the beauty of most manufacturers offering every size string from .007” to .090” or whatever.

 

[Gransen]

Re: What guage strings for down tuning?

^ that’s the beauty of the world, different things working for different people. That’s also the beauty of most manufacturers offering every size string from .007” to .090” or whatever.

Agreed! After you find the gauges that work, then it's which brand based on tone, playability, and longevity. That last one is HUGE for me.

Off topic: If you want to save money on strings by extending their life, just buy another guitar and play them both the same amount of time. Now your strings will last twice as long! The math on this one is REALLY SUPER EASY to follow.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Re: What guage strings for down tuning?

-tight strings clean up mud

I disagree. I feel it's the other way around. I like my strings to feel as tight as possible, but I also don't want the blunt boomy sound that comes from strings too heavy. I find 12's is a happy medium for me in Drop C. I would go lighter if I could, but I also don't want strings flopping around too much.

 

[Gransen]

Re: What guage strings for down tuning?

I disagree. I feel it's the other way around. I like my strings to feel as tight as possible, but I also don't want the blunt boomy sound that comes from strings too heavy. I find 12's is a happy medium for me in Drop C. I would go lighter if I could, but I also don't want strings flopping around too much.

Yep, right on. When going up in gauge to clear up "garbled mud," you can reach a point where you end up with "dull blunt sounding mud." That blunt mud isn't good, but garbled mud to me is worse. 20-21 lbs per string, and I'm done. I wasn't thinking in those terms, and you're right on.

17'ish lbs per string is my wheelhouse (10-46 on a 25.5" scale). I fumble with 9's, but Angus Young doesn't on a 24.75" scale. Hendrix played 10-38 on a 25.5" which is way to wiggly for me on low E.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Re: What guage strings for down tuning?

Yeah, but then again, neither Hendrix nor Angus are/were playing fast gallops and palm-muted tremolo picking, lol.

 

[Gransen]

Re: What guage strings for down tuning?

Yeah, but then again, neither Hendrix nor Angus are/were playing fast gallops and palm-muted tremolo picking, lol.

You can add me to that list...(and now I can compare myself with Angus AND Hendrix!)

After I posted that one, someone came to mind: Stevie Ray Vaughn. I read somewhere that he played something like 14's in standard tuning, because it just didn't feel or sound right to him unless...LITERALLY...it made his fingers bleed. When they started bleeding, he'd have to go down to 13's or 12's.

When I think about his tone, I'm like, "Yep, there's that dull thud instead of a note."

 

[Demanic]

Re: What guage strings for down tuning?

I find 10 to 54 sets to be just perfect.

Sent from my Alcatel_5044C using Tapatalk

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: What guage strings for down tuning?

You can add me to that list...(and now I can compare myself with Angus AND Hendrix!)

After I posted that one, someone came to mind: Stevie Ray Vaughn. I read somewhere that he played something like 14's in standard tuning, because it just didn't feel or sound right to him unless...LITERALLY...it made his fingers bleed. When they started bleeding, he'd have to go down to 13's or 12's.

When I think about his tone, I'm like, "Yep, there's that dull thud instead of a note."

Stevie use an 11 set with a .058 low E and sometimes a .012 or .013 for the high E. He used the heavier strings when he was always trashed, and went back to an .011 after he cleaned up. That's according to Andy Aledort, who just wrote a book on him, and got that info from Stevie's guitar tech. He also tuned down to Eb, had a healthy amount of relief, and used huge frets. I've heard a lot of people talk about playing #1, and how it surprisingly easy it played.

As far as the dull thud instead of a note... Can you give a single example of anything he played that makes you think that? To my ears, his tone was always super clear, and often kind of bright. Can't think of a single instance in which he sounded dull.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: What guage strings for down tuning?

You can add me to that list...(and now I can compare myself with Angus AND Hendrix!)

After I posted that one, someone came to mind: Stevie Ray Vaughn. I read somewhere that he played something like 14's in standard tuning, because it just didn't feel or sound right to him unless...LITERALLY...it made his fingers bleed. When they started bleeding, he'd have to go down to 13's or 12's.

When I think about his tone, I'm like, "Yep, there's that dull thud instead of a note."

In reality they were close to 11’s with a 12 or 13 for the high E and a 58 for the low E, tuned to zen. I hear nothing close to dull thud with SRV.

EDIT - haha double post JB...

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: What guage strings for down tuning?

In reality they were close to 11’s with a 12 or 13 for the high E and a 58 for the low E, tuned to zen. I hear nothing close to dull thud with SRV.

EDIT - haha double post JB...

Haha... thank god somebody else knows that

 

[bldrst]

Re: What guage strings for down tuning?

If you want to try something out of the ordinary...
Flatwound 13's tuned down a 4th.
I used that for about 2 years, through a plexi clone on a Gretsch.

 

[Gransen]

Re: What guage strings for down tuning?

As far as the dull thud instead of a note... Can you give a single example of anything he played that makes you think that? To my ears, his tone was always super clear, and often kind of bright. Can't think of a single instance in which he sounded dull.

Cold Shot...not the jangley stuff, but the bass line...what's that even called, the 12 barre blues or whatever...if it's even that. To me, it just sounds "plain." All of his stuff sounds either "plain" or "jangley" to me...and sure, all in the same song.

Let me explain...

In the early 1990's, his style took over every "non-metal" radio station I liked. Not just his own personal music, but his style. EVERYONE got on the blues bandwagon. I'm not a blues fan. I love "bluesy rock," but not the blues. To my ear, it all sounds like a giant cliche that every blues fans often call "the most complex music to ever learn how to play on guitar." That might be true. And I just don't like it. I'm sorry, but I just don't like it.

If a person doesn't like heavy metal, and I make them listen to Toxicity by System Of A Down 180 times in a row (which happens to be my personal record), they're gonna start nitpicking.

The whole arrangement of the blues doesn't work for my ear. It all sounds like a tired old cliche.

I have called Stevie Ray Vaughn's death "The Day The Music Died." Officially, the day the music died was the Buddy Holly plane crash. NOPE! Not to me!!! It was the day that I said, "Who's Stevie Ray Vaughn...???" That - to me - is the day the music died. Starting that day, it was EVERYWHERE. I was in the army when it happened: Fort Knox Kentucky, and they started playing the blues in Louisville radio stations. Then I got sent to Germany, and only listened to CD's. Then I got sent to Fort Polk Louisiana, and it was back to singing the blues. Then I went home to Minnesota, and my favorite rock radio station was throwing A LOT of that stuff into their song rotation.

I hated turning on the radio. I actually hated it.

I started seriously not liking the tone that I was hearing from SRV's songs. It was the TONE, combined with the riff's that did nothing for me. I can actually imagine someone saying that the low notes in Cold Shot are "SWEET" sounding. I could actually see where they're coming from. I hear NO harmonics. The "sweetness" is coming from the pickups and amp, not from the strings. That's my take on it. Can you argue...??? Absolutely you can!!! Am I wrong...???

NOPE!

Why not...???

Because I do not like the blues, and it's way too easy for me to get hyper-critical. Not only do I not like the blues, I don't like what happened next. It ruined my "music experience" when I was in the prime of my life. Never got over it, and pretty much don't plan to.

Layla, the acoustic version...??? Now I can't even listen to the original. He RUINED it. Sure, it was his song to ruin; but it's my brain that says he's wrong for having done so, and I'd LOVE to see someone try to fix the glitch. Ain't happening.

*******

I just looked it up, and I was wrong...

So what gauge strings did Stevie Ray Vaughan play? According to Stevie’s tech, he most often played GHS Nickel Rockers (and sometimes Boomers) in the following gauges:

.013 – .015 – .019p – .028 – .038 – .058

If his fingers were aching, he would cut back to a .012 – .058 set, but for the majority of his career, his famous Number 1 and Lenny strats were strung up like this.

Here's a link to the article...

https://www.stringjoy.com/stevie-ray-vaughans-guitar-string-gauges-3/

...which agrees with you that SRV played in Eb. Do the math: 25.5" scale, 13 gauge string, tuned to high Eb...how many pounds of tension...??? I just came up with 24.37 pounds.

TWENTY FOUR POUNDS!!! Now we're heading into BASS STRING territory...!!!

NO HARMONICS!!! HOW CAN THERE BE...!?!

If you tell me that SRV had a "sweet" sound coming from his setup, it was the pickups and the amp/effects. There were no harmonics going on. HOW COULD THERE BE...!?!

AND YOU JUST TOLD ME THAT HE RAN 13's PLAYING Eb...!!! I agree with you, and I'm saying, "NO HARMONICS."

This is why I HATE the blues. It's not that I don't like the blues, the end. The problem is that I can't tell a blues fan/player one fact about the music that they love if they don't want to hear facts.

DULL THUD INSTEAD OF A NOTE.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: What guage strings for down tuning?

Maybe it’s because you refer to your opinion as fact. Also that your high water mark for “metal” is System of a Down’s Toxicity.

 

[Adieu]

Re: What guage strings for down tuning?

SRV? Clapton? System of a Down???

I can with utmost honesty say I can't remember a damn thing any of em played, and feel neither remorse nor sense of loss at the fact


PS i do recall that they all look EXTREMELY punchable, and System and Clapton had record-obnoxious voices to boot

 

[InbredJunk]

Re: What guage strings for down tuning?

Could you imagine how strong Stevie's left hand was? Holy cow, I used to use those guage strings in drop b lol.

That dude from Incubus used super heavy strings too, I think it messed his arm up though.

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[Gtrjunior]

Re: What guage strings for down tuning?

Could you imagine how strong Stevie's left hand was? Holy cow, I used to use those guage strings in drop b lol.

That dude from Incubus used super heavy strings too, I think it messed his arm up though.

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I saw a SRV documentary on Netflix a while back. In addition to the heavy strings, his action was a mile off the board. I couldn’t even fathom playing his setup.
Clearly it worked for him!!

 

[Van Noord]

Re: What guage strings for down tuning?

SRV's string gauge was;

13-15 -19p-28-38-58

If his fingers were aching, he would apparently cut back to a 12-58 set, but for the majority of his career, his famous Number 1 and Lenny strats were strung up with 13-58

Also remember that he tuned down a half step, so that eleviated some of the tension.

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: What guage strings for down tuning?

READ THE ENTIRE THING BEFORE YOU LOSE YOUR MIND AND COMMENT

As someone who has mic'd countless electric guitars through amps and direct in professional recording studios -I can tell you without a doubt, larger strings have some slight tonal advantages.
That said, (before people lose their minds) -a great player whose used to 8's or 9's is worth more in tone gained from their technique and performance than trying to move them and perform the same performance on 10s or 11s. Make sense? Performance usurps all other considerations....

Also, there is so much else in the tone equation that has more bearing on the final recording -pickups, processing, amplifier, mics, pre amp, studio processing, format compression etc. So while there is real and very slight difference when you scientifically record on 10s or 11s and compare them to 8s or 9s at the at the same volume in on reference monitors -that string size difference is incredibly negligible in the grand scheme of things -choosing larger strings for inherit tone is really not a reason as much as choosing string size for playing style, playing comfort, tactile response/reactive etc.

Plus as other instruments are mixed into a recording product and placed into the stereo or surround spectrum, that incremental difference in strings size becomes even less of a factor, then in mastering even less so. Ultimately you have real difference that should not factor into most decisions for recording. Hell, string type and brand has more bearing.

For live tones? honestly -I don't think the differences can be appreciated by most anybody who's in the audience -maybe just you.

SO if you can rip a line on your guitar on 8's or play more comfortably or effectively that you can on 10's -that should be worth everything to you.

That said -I play 10s and 11s because of the style and feel I play.