String gauge for Eb?

[eropt07]

To be honest, I'm as stupid as a fish when it comes to strings on bass so I'm here asking for help. At the moment I have my bass set up for Eb so I can still tune up to E and tune down to C# comfortably, and I've got no idea what string gauge I have, and I don't know how or if I can find out, also don't even know what strings I have!

Tone wise I love the dangle and I've heard steel strings are best for that, but I'm thinking of just getting Ernie Ball Slinkies which I think are nickel and steel.
I prefer a higher tension when tuning up to E, just feels natural when I'm in Eb or any lower tuning. Whenever I tune down to C on my current set it feels to floppy, but C# feels just right.

 

[Nebadon2000]

I played with Band that tuned to Eb and used 45-105 Hex core [Slinkys are Hex core]

PS: I never went to C OR C# so maybe 50-110 but my guess their going to be stiff and put a lot of tension on neck when tuned to E or Eb
but hopefully others who have tuned 'down low' will be able to offer jnfo

 

[eropt07]

I played with Band that tuned to Eb and used 45-105 Hex core [Slinkys are Hex core]

PS: I never went to C OR C# so maybe 50-110 but my guess their going to be stiff and put a lot of tension on neck when tuned to E or Eb
but hopefully others who have tuned 'down low' will be able to offer jnfo

i was thinking 50-110 too, I prefer higher tension in E but I don't want it to stuff up my neck and trus rod.

 

[eropt07]

I played with Band that tuned to Eb and used 45-105 Hex core [Slinkys are Hex core]

PS: I never went to C OR C# so maybe 50-110 but my guess their going to be stiff and put a lot of tension on neck when tuned to E or Eb
but hopefully others who have tuned 'down low' will be able to offer jnfo

found a caliper and measured my strings, I got a set of 110's on so that's what I'm going to buy again, Going to see if I can try close this thread now.

 

[Geri O]

If I had that need to regularly tune to those fairly different tunings, I would (and did) get something along the lines of an HX Stomp and have transposition settings for those keys.

The Stomp saved me a lot of headaches because of one artist preferring we tune to Eb. Same bass, same strings, same feel and action setup. The transposition is 99% accurate, only very small artifacts when playing thirds on the D and G strings past the 9th fret. Not much of that in country music anyway….

I haven’t tried a setting past a 1/2-step change. And thank goodness I haven’t had to.

 

[2saddleslab]

I have 3 basses all tuned 1/2 step down, 2 solid, one hollow body, and all sport TI flats.

 

[gregmon79]

I normally play in Eb now. I use D'addario Pro Steels more times than not and I use the 105-50 set. Works great for me. Even on my P bass in D standard I use 105-50 but I just started using the Ernie Ball Cobalts. Those are some really great strings IMO. Very powerful and not stiff yet not floppy at all. Really been diggin those.

Long story short, I think you'd be fine with a 105-50 set.

 

[Derry Murbles]

Another alternative is only replacing the E string with a slightly thicker gauge and leave the rest your normal gauge. This only works if you're comfortable transposing on the spot when needed or learning your current songs with the new E string tuned.

I do this in my cover band to cover songs from Eb to C#- Leave the A, D, G strings as they are and pop on a 105 or 110, or something in between from Kalium or something.

 

[bigswifty1]

I must have done hundreds of gigs with a band that tunes to Eb (semitone down). I tried a bunch of things, some worked well, some didn't, many were ok.

But my end solution was one of the simplest things I tried - basically just using Sadowsky Black Label Nickel strings in standard gauge. Although they're standard gauge, they are a little stiffer than most strings, so they work well for the semitone down. Also they are a little brighter than most nickels which I prefer when at Eb. They are not *too* bright though, and easy to control. I used then for all my Eb basses for years.

 

[iiipopes]

I use GHS Boomers 50-65-85-110 which I purchase as singles for my old band; the lead singer wants to tune down. The Boomer cores are a little larger that other NPS strings, so they have a little more tension to keep the strings from going floppy. Essentially, a 45-60-80-105 set taking up one gauge to go down one half step.

 

[HaphAsSard]

PS: I never went to C OR C# so maybe 50-110 but my guess their going to be stiff and put a lot of tension on neck when tuned to E or Eb

Oh, you'd be surprised.

There are a number of reasons why 110 is the largest commonly-used 4th string in sets (and significantly less so than 105, at that). Tradition/habit, comfort, tone, inharmonicity.
However, tension on the neck is *not* one of them.

Take for example the D string in standard tuning: many players use a 060 for it. Do you know how thick a string must be to match the tension of a 060 D, but be tuned an octave lower? The math (assuming proportionally constructed innards, only scaled up - which isn't necessarily true, but never far from the truth either) is simple: it needs to be double the diameter of the octave-up D, i.e. 120. Yep, that's right: any string thinner than 120, tuned to low D, has less tension than a bog-standard 060 "high" D, a gauge which countless of us have used many times, never once wondering whether the neck could withstand its tension.
Now, perhaps even more players actually use a 065 for their 2nd string. Want to know how thick a string must be in order to have the same tension at octave-down D? Same principle: it must have double the gauge - in other words, a 130. Yup. One can - even though few do - use a 125 low D, and not reach the same tension of one high-D gauge that thousands of players use every day without a second thought.
I could go on. Personally I've never tried it, nor do I have any desire to, but both Ernie Ball and D'Addario have a 50-70-85-105 set in almost all of their product lines. You know by now what I'm getting at: if one uses a 070 high D, their neck has nothing to fear from a whopping 140 low D.
Finally, let's take a hypothetical Steve Harris fan, who uses Steve's signature bass (essentially, a P bass with a baseball-bat neck) and signature string set. If they - and said neck - can cope with a Rotosound flatwound 075 as their high D, by the same token they could a 150-gauge low D, because anything smaller, no matter how subjectively huge, will nonetheless have less tension than that 075.

Again, there are more than valid reasons not to pick these bridge-cabley gauges. Just know that the neck would be fine even if you did.
And sure, picking gauges so that all four strings have the same, high tension may well end up being really taxing on a neck; however, nothing would prevent one from using a gigantic low D but low-tension high strings, making the total pull (which is the only thing that matters to the neck, unless tension is so asymmetrical that it twists it) a wash. Why you would want that, and end up with a very poorly-balanced set, tone-wise) is another matter. But you definitely could, and the neck would be perfectly safe.

 

[Aledal]

I've been using a heavier gauge set of LaBella flats (Olinto Signature Flats) for a year or so and the 107 'E' string feels to me like a nice compromise of strength and sound, holds up nicely to an Eb setup so went hunting for some round wounds with the same gauges and ended up with Thomastik 'Powerbass' Nickel set (107/80/68/47) with a Magnecore (I have no idea what the magnecore is made of)...they're expensive but sound great and have a very similar tension/feel to the LaBella's. I'm about 30 hours of sweaty playing in with the first set and they've held up really well, have taken both basses from E to Eb and back maybe 20 times in that time and have kept consistent tension/tone etc without tweaks.

 

[DaveParker39]

In Eb I do 45-105, I could probably benefit from a 107 but the 110 is too heavy.

 

[Aledal]

In Eb I do 45-105, I could probably benefit from a 107 but the 110 is too heavy.

Defintiely worth a try, I was a bit worried about the change but will not be going back to 105 for the foreseeable future. One downside I didn't mention is that I 'think' the 47-107 sets have made the nut slots a tiny bit bigger so now I'm (maybe necessarily) worried that a 105 might have a bit too much space in there.

 

[MartinB]

I 'think' the 47-107 sets have made the nut slots a tiny bit bigger so now I'm (maybe necessarily) worried that a 105 might have a bit too much space in there.

You should be fine - I've been up to a 145 on a B string, and 110 on the E string, and had no problems going back down to 130 and 105 respectively.

 

[Aledal]

You should be fine - I've been up to a 145 on a B string, and 110 on the E string, and had no problems going back down to 130 and 105 respectively.

Good to know!! Thanks!!

 

[burgerdj]

I’ve been very pleased with DR DDT - my band tunes down a half step and the DDT are great, even on the B. I use both 40 and 45 - the 45s are my favorite for down-tuning and the 40s are great for standard. I’ve also used EB Cobalt Flats (45) and Pressurewounds for down tuning.

 

[Ggaa]

Daddario nickel 45-125 work fine dropped a half step without changing setup. A full step would probably need a new setup.

 

[edr]

seconding GHS boomers, at least for Eb standard the medium gauge works great for me, and you can always get bigger.
Most strings should take Eb standard as long as they aren't super light, though. (assuming long scale)

 

[Dave TB Killer]

I have been tuning down to DGCF for many years now. I use Chromes mainly. 55-75-90-110. I have a Bass with some Ernie Ball Cobalt flats in the same gauges but dont really know if I like them or not. They seem brighter and have more texture to them but they seem to break due to a brittleness to them. And recently have been using a capo on the 2nd fret which is something I had never even considered before. I prefer a sort of high action and relatively strong attack. So all this meshes with me. Now thanks to TB I want to try a 5ths tuning if I can muster up the nerve to make the necessary set up modifications on one Bass to try this.