Rotosound Drop Zone Plus. Advice Need.

[Zee Low Ender]

Hey guys!

Im planning to get a set of drop zone and wondering if its suitable for drop A tuning on a Ltd F414FM.

Drp Zne Plus Specs: 85-105-135-175

[BassmanAd]

Yes but you may find you need to get your nut slots widened to accommodate those guages and adjust your truss rod so the neck doesn't bow under the increased tension. You can pretty much put any strings you want on a bass within reason but to go from a set of 45's to something that heavy will need some work. If in doubt, take it to a tech to do it.

[BoomingBass]

According to the Rotosound website, the Drop Zone Pluses are made for Low F# tuning while the regular Drop Zones are made for low B tuning. From that, I think you should use the regular Drop Zones.

[ixlramp]

Originally Posted by Zee Low Ender

Im planning to get a set of drop zone and wondering if its suitable for drop A tuning on a Ltd F414FM.

Drp Zne Plus Specs: 85-105-135-175

It's certainly not suitable. DZP is for F#BEA tuning. At AEAD the 135 105 and 85 are tuned a fourth above intended pitch and will be at almost double the tension of a standard set. This will damage your instrument and break strings

DZ is 65 80 105 130, this is also unsuitable for AEAD since a low A needs a tension of at least 30 pounds (extra light tension) to have good tone and not be extremely floppy. A .130 at A has 25.1 pounds of tension.

That low A needs to be at least a .145, this sounds big but has barely enough tension to work well.

I recommend building a set from singles .145 .100 .075 .055, or buying a purpose designed drop-tune set from Circle K Strings (unfortunately they are closed for 2 weeks). D'Addario make an excellent ProSteels .145.

[knumbskull]

yep the DZPs seem to be for F#

that will bork your neck good if you put them in A!

[knuckle_head]

You want a .150 for A

[christw]

The regular drop zones will be just fine. I used regular ones for CGCF for a while and they sounded great although the tension was a bit high. (Duh! I tuned them 1-3 half steps up!) They sound great for BEAD though. I might recommend a .150 as mentioned above for an AEAD setup. The tension was pretty low at BEAD.