Any problems with going from thick strings to normal strings?

[Pxz]

I have this guitar that i really like how it's sound. I'm using it in various tunings.
Usually changing from D tuning ( 11-54) to drop B tuning ( 12-66 ).
I've heard that doing that affects the nut, making the change from thick to thinner strings a mess because the individual string space in the nut is now deeper and wider.
Any experience with that ?

 

[UncleBob]

The intonation will most likely be out as well.

 

[Jan___]

Within reasonable bounds I never had problems with that. I have one (six string) guitar where I had the nut filed for a seven string set when we played in B (i.e. 5 half steps down) and the B string was a 59 I think. That guitar I now play tuned to D with 11-52 strings and it works well, no problems at all. If the discrepancy is even larger, yeah in theory the nut could be "too wide" for the strings... but I personally never had that problem.

But yes, for sure you will have to adjust the intonation and possibly the truss rod.

 

[Deathell]

Yes, re-intonation like what the two guys above me mentioned..
My story is I screwed up my old six string guitar.. was tuning way low like A standard/G standard with 70 gauge being the 6th string.. of course I had to enlarge the string hole on the string post and file the nut but I wasn't so careful when I filed the nut and when I switched back to thinner strings I had this horrible buzz on the 6th string which there was no way to correct that without changing the nut.. Lately I found out that the best filer for the guitar nut for this application would be the string itself, simply cut a piece of that certain wound string and see-saw it in just enough to fit into the nut slot.

 

[Slicklickz]

As mentioned above you will probably have to set the intonation and adjust the truss rod.You'll also probably have to raise the pickup height to keep the volume the same as the smaller string mass will produce less pickup output.You might also have to raise the bridge or bridge saddle heights.