Newbie question on string size

[Guz2]

This has probably been asked a billion times before but string size is a mystery to me. They guages just seem to be a set of random numbers...Any help? What would be the best guages to play downtuned in? (say, D Standard and C Standard )

Thanks in advance

[knuckle_head]

Normal E comes in at .100 to .105

I usually suggest .112 to .118 for D and .118 to .124 for C

[RickenBoogie]

My current D standard bass was tuned up from BEAD. Still wearing a .125 D string. Previous D standard tuned bass strings I've used were a normal heavy 4 string set, with a .110 E, or D string. Bigger is usually better, within reason.