Anyone set up a guitar for stupid-low tunings?

[PeteeBee]

By the way I like my strings you'll be fine for C but probably a little goosey for B. Others might think it's just fine though.

[waltdogg]

I might have missed it but what gauges do you use? IIRC my old roommate used .013s for B or Bb on an SG. If I could get to Bb I'd be happy.

[gunslinger_burrito]

I've tuned to drop Bb for years and my go-to has been d-addario baritone lights (13-62). The low Bb is about as loose as I can stand, but I like more tension in my strings anyway. I usually get a set of 13s and buy a single string for my low, typically something around .70

DR makes some decent drop tuning sets : http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessor ... ar-strings
BUT the low 42 and 56 on that set are real damn heavy unless you're going all the way to drop A or lower.

[waltdogg]

A# or F# would work for me. Hmm... D'Addario .012s felt like Ernie Ball Super Slinkys in C standard to me. Which is a little too loose. D'Addario .013s felt just right in D standard. This on Gibson scale guitars. But really a .060 or bigger for the low Bb/A# or F#?

[gunslinger_burrito]

If you want to go all the way down to F# I'd go with something like that DR set and get a heavier string for the F#

I've played with all kinds of weird and super low tunings and a lot of the time I had to make a franken-sets out of strings to get the tension I liked.

For the higher strings, you can usually get away with 13/14, 17/18, 26/30
and for the the lower strings 36/40-ish, 46/56, 60/70+

The only thing I'd watch out for is your intonation. With a Gibson scale tuned that low, it'll be funky. I used to have a 28" scale baritone and I still had to play with the intonation if I went super low. But, as this thread has shown, it can be done (Bongripper shows this)

[waltdogg]

Okay, this is making more sense now.

I'll start with a set of .013s, get an extra low string, and see what happens.

[Faldoe]

I've tuned to drop Bb for years and my go-to has been d-addario baritone lights (13-62). The low Bb is about as loose as I can stand, but I like more tension in my strings anyway. I usually get a set of 13s and buy a single string for my low, typically something around .70

DR makes some decent drop tuning sets : http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessor ... ar-strings
BUT the low 42 and 56 on that set are real damn heavy unless you're going all the way to drop A or lower.

I'm also using the DA Baritone Lights on my 27'' scale baritone. Drop A tuning. Wish the 6th string was a little thicker. I'm not sure where I can find single strings for sale.

[Chankgeez]

I know juststrings sells single strings. Other online string retailers probably do as well.

[waltdogg]

I was gonna order a set of these and use the six middle strings for drop A#

http://www.jimdunlop.com/product/8-string-nickel

Good idea, bad idea?

[gunslinger_burrito]

Dunlop's page refuses to load for me at the moment.
If it's these:


Then yes, you should be good. You might even be good using the .74 for your low string, depending on if you like the .64 or not

[waltdogg]

Yeah Dunlops page doesn't want to seem to load all the time for me either. But it is those. Sweet.