Heavy Gauge Strings and what is too heavy for standard?

[PERDZOMBIE]

I have a four string bass I want to put in standard with super big shaging strings specifically a .120, .100, .80, .60 will it tune to E Standard or is it a waste.

 

[JW56789]

IF . . . . .

a) these gauges will not bind in your nut slots or bridge saddles (or they may have to be enlarged a bit), and

b) your truss rod will allow the bass to be adjusted properly to these higher tensions,

. . . . you should be fine.

Not the first to consider this:La Bella Strings

 

[PERDZOMBIE]

My suggestion is don't go over 0.110" for E & 0.045" for G

What about Eb

 

[PERDZOMBIE]

I'm using 0.45" - 0.105" on my Eb bass (Ibanez BTB) & I can still downtune it to D Drop C, so I can't imagine using anything bigger.
The only thing 0.050" - 0.115" is good for is C# standard or lower, IMHO

BTW, all this goes out the window if you a have graphite reinforced neck, or quarter sawn neck, but on a neck w/o reinforcement I wouldn't push my luck.

I'm just going to stick with d'addario 55-110 maybe buy a 115 single d'addario

 

[HaphAsSard]

I have a four string bass I want to put in standard with super big shaging strings specifically a .120, .100, .80, .60 will it tune to E Standard or is it a waste.

Take a closer look to your proposed gauge increases (I'll assume a specific, normal set of round figure gauges for simplicity):
100 to 120 is a 20% increment;
80 to 100 is +25%;
60 to 80 is 33.3̅ % more;
40 to 60 is a whopping 50% increase! To a thin string, to boot. In this case - 1.5 times the gauge, which gives 2.25 times the volume per a given length unit (volume of the cylinder formula) - you should expect 2.25 times the tension, assuming identical construction: from 33~38 lbs to 74~85 lbs, which in practice the string will not reach because it will break first.
IOW, you can't just add a fixed amount to different gauges without expecting different and very probably fatal increases in tension

I've never seen larger Gs than the .055" in Ernie Ball "Power Slinky" sets (I've never tried one myself, so I'm not even sure folks use it for standard tuning): I'd keep that as a hard limit, and also avoid going heavier than the .075" D found in the same set.

Assuming, and it's a big ass/ ahem, if, your neck and truss rod can (be set to) take the total tension, you could be bolder with the A (a .100 might even work, since it would have about the same tension as the .075 D) and E (in theory you could use an even larger gauge than .120, but don't take my word for it), because they're likely to have larger cores than that .075" D.

Now, will your hands like it? That's a whole other question.

 

[michael_t]

For the standard tuning, 50-70-90-110 would be the heaviest I would be comfortable with.

 

[ixlramp]

^ What HaphAsSard wrote.
.120, .100, .80, .60 is very top-heavy so it's better to build an equal-tensions set if you want to max out the tension of every string.
.130 .095 .070 .050 at your own risk to strings, bass and eyes.

 

[ixlramp]

The heaviest sets for EADG i know of is La Bella flatwound .052 .073 .095 .110 and D'Addario roundwound .055 .075 .090 .110.
I would take those to be the highest total tension and divide the total by 4 to choose gauges for each string.
By shiftng tension around .050 .070 .095 .130 in roundwounds seems a rough equivalent.
The advantage of equal tensions in a heavy set is less strain on the bass caused by the imbalance of a top-heavy set.
Note the EXL230 set Invalid Link Removed has 33lbs more tension on D G than E A.

EXL230 total 217lbs, divide by 4 gives 54lbs per string. Using their String Tension Pro .130 .095 .070 .050 in XL Nickels is around 55lbs per string so should be ok depending on the strength of the bass.