Tuning and string HELP..

Eliakim · #1 11-23-2012, 01:57 PM

A friend and i have been jamming in just about every other tuning and we've recently fell in love with drop B (B,f#,b,e) I have a five string Ive been playing on and iv been up tuning the E A and D string to that tuning and i know its putting unnecessary stress on the neck so i was thinking about getting a 4string and just buying a lowB string and putting light gauges to tune up for the rest of the tuning and i was wondering if this would be alright for the neck or if there's any easier/other ways to achieve this?? And also what the better strings would be to use?

Thnx,
Eli.

knuckle_head · #2 11-23-2012, 04:33 PM

A decent set for this tuning is .135 .090 .065 .050 or so - if you use standard gauges.

SLaPiNFuNK · #3 11-23-2012, 04:33 PM

String type will depend on the type of tone you are looking for.

For that tuning .130 .095 .075 .055 would be nice gauges.

SLaPiNFuNK · #4 11-23-2012, 04:34 PM

knuckle_head · #5 11-23-2012, 04:35 PM

Well, ya know . . . . .

SLaPiNFuNK · #6 11-23-2012, 04:37 PM

Would be nice to have that many more options to offer but... ya know

ixlramp · #7 11-23-2012, 10:09 PM

Ha ... traffic jam of good advice.

Eliakim, design a custom set using a tension chart such as http://circlekstrings.com/CKSIMAGES/...nsionChart.pdf then buy single strings in your brand of choice by rounding the gauge to the nearest .005. Use the chart to discover what tension you like then choose gauges that give you that tension on every string in drop B.

EDIT http://www.bassstringsonline.com/ is an excellent place to build a custom set.

Alternatively Circle K Strings sell 'drop tune' sets here http://circlekstrings.com/store/stan...4-strings.html that are purpose designed to have equal tension strings in a drop tuning.
You could also tune your 5 string to BF#BEA to retain the higher notes http://circlekstrings.com/store/stan...5-strings.html