Gibson Explorer down tuned to B?

[gibbed]

So I guess I have higher string pressure then you(I have adjusted my guitars for maximum stringpressure.).

you tuned them up a step?

 

[Decimator]

Wow.. I thought I used thin strings (11-052 in D-tuning). But of course the strings should be choosed by the playing style.. I know few guitarists that use 008 set and they don't sound out of tune.

But anyhoo, I tried the Not even slinky set in C-tuning on my Jackson git a while back. The plain g-string was horrible. It didn't stay tune all that well and I think the tension wasn't enough to even straighten the string And the sustain was like in those banjos .. Well, the guitar ain't that good either So too thick plain strings are bad.. But I have 022 plain g-string on my epi les paul and that seems to be ok.. go figure, I guess it's the higher tuning then (standard-d).

I ordered a 7 string few weeks ago. Should arrive in few days. That's gonna be in standard tuning and I need to find a set fot that. I thought 10-60 or 70 might be good? I guess I should check those string tension calculators..

 

[Jaymz]

I use Not Even Slinkys on my SG, 56-12, tuned to drop C.
Works great, the G string is a bit weird though 24p, a bit too solid.

Exactly! Im glad im not the only one with the weird g string :Smokin:

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

I dont know what kind of crappy stringpressure youve had in your guitars, but 52 should be thick enough to play in B.
I play with the same kind of attack in my righthand as Wylde, so I can guarantee you that I strike the string REALLY hard.

I have one of my guitars strung up with DR Tite Fit 46'ers, and i have that tuned in C and it works great(Id upload some clips if it wherent because the strings are really old now.).
So I guess I have higher string pressure then you(I have adjusted my guitars for maximum stringpressure.).

I don't listen to Wylde's CDs so I can't really reply to this, my bad there. Though I do not recall a lot of forum users here asking, "How can I get Zakkkk Wyldde's tone? It's so great man, ya dude ya!!!"

 

[slashvanyoung]

Exactly! Im glad im not the only one with the weird g string :Smokin:

I really like sets with a g string that's wound, too. Used this mainly with a D'addario Jazz-set. Chords just sound a lot better with it.

But recently I'm always using the ZW-Lo with the .70 for b standard. They give me the best balance for such low tunings. But I always have to smash the end of the string with a hammer to fit it in to my Floyd on my Dean From Hell.

 

[JBroll]

Anyone here got experienced in this? How will it work with string gauges like a 7-string guitar?

.013, .017, .030w, .044w, .052w, .060w
Strings tuned to B, G, D, A, E, B or maybe the G should be Gb....

Will it or uke:

I would go with the latter. Your preferences for string gauge aside, the 44 and 52 are completely out of whack compared to the 60, so either you'll feel like your A and E are tight as a fat nun or like the 60 is a rubber band that took the wrong train. A 44 in A sits around 30 pounds of tension (right in my territory), a 52 in E will be at around 20 pounds, and that 60 will only hit somewhere in the ballpark of 15 or 16 pounds of tension - these are back-of-the-envelope rough calculations (bit of a headache, don't feel like any more mental math) but you can be fairly certain that the A will have about twice as much tension as the B. Fuck that. If I were to match the low strings to the E's tension, I'd go with something like a 38 for the A and a 68 for the B; for the B's tension, I'd go with a 46 for the E and a 34 for the A; I'm just going to assume that you don't want to match that 30 pounds of tension on the A because that gets you into the ballpark of a 90 for the low B.

And yes, I may be masochism incarnate, but even those of you who don't eat your own skulls from the inside out for breakfast will appreciate having matched tension on the low strings so that you aren't constantly knocking the B out of tune on power chords. Also, as a general guideline, any given string set will probably be completely out of whack because asshats the world over don't feel like changing the arbitrary and nonsensical 'traditional' string gauges because people are already used to them and have fallen under the impression that it's a good idea.

Jeff

 

[Notuern]

you tuned them up a step?

No, I have all my guitars tuned in D, except for one guitar which im trying different tunings on right now.
And that part about stringtention you said is partially true, and also stringtention varies ALOT on different brands of strings.
For one, roundcore strings have higherstringtention compared to thickness then hexcore strings.
And you do not need fat strings to get a "tight" feel in the sound, just listen to Dimebag, he used 08-46 on all his records, except the Damageplan one where he used 56-10.

Depending on the class of the material in the guitar, and the hardware, and the setup of the tremolo and the headstocks angle, you will get lots of different stringpressure.

 

[Notuern]

I don't listen to Wylde's CDs so I can't really reply to this, my bad there. Though I do not recall a lot of forum users here asking, "How can I get Zakkkk Wyldde's tone? It's so great man, ya dude ya!!!"

Well, lets just say that there are no modern guitarists that whack the strings as much as he does.

That might be because about 75% of the active members of this forum is in to more modern metal(Mostly Melodic Death).
But I know that a hell of a lot guitarists chases after that tone Zakk had on "No More Tears"(Although the later tones sucks ass.).

 

[gibbed]

Depending on the class of the material in the guitar, and the hardware, and the setup of the tremolo and the headstocks angle, you will get lots of different stringpressure.

none of those matter, unless you're thinking of scale length

headstock and trem angles change the pressure on the headstock on trem

And you do not need fat strings to get a "tight" feel in the sound, just listen to Dimebag, he used 08-46 on all his records, except the Damageplan one where he used 56-10.

gate in front of his amp, gate in the loop, standard to half step down tuning

 

[JBroll]

Right. String tension depends on scale length, frequency, and string gauge; nothing else comes even remotely close.

Jeff

 

[Notuern]

none of those matter, unless you're thinking of scale length

headstock and trem angles change the pressure on the headstock on trem



gate in front of his amp, gate in the loop, standard to half step down tuning

They do matter, ive tried 2 different les pauls, with the same width on the neck, the same scale lengt, and the same strings, and yet there is a huge difference in how hard it is to bend the string. Are you saying that this has nothing to do with the tention that is being put on the string?

He played D most of the time(Exception made for the period between 84 and 91.), and he only used a gate between the preamp and the poweramp sence he used such an insane amount of gain.
And he still had that fat tone on the Damageplan record.

I agree that fat strings give a fatter tone, but its far from the biggest part in gaining one.

 

[gibbed]

They do matter, ive tried 2 different les pauls, with the same width on the neck, the same scale lengt, and the same strings, and yet there is a huge difference in how hard it is to bend the string. Are you saying that this has nothing to do with the tention that is being put on the string?

the huge difference is due to differences the height of the action, which affects the force you need to use with your fingers to fret and bend the note but does not affect the tension on the string in an unbent state

 

[Notuern]

the huge difference is due to differences the height of the action, which affects the force you need to use with your fingers to fret and bend the note but does not affect the tension on the string in an unbent state

But all the guitars have had the same setup, sence i was the one who did the setup.
And it might be that we are talking about different things, im getting the sort of feeling that ive made some mistake in the words, sence im from Sweden.
Is stringtention and stringpressure the same thing? Otherwise i might have made the mistake there.
I am talking about how hard it is to move the string because of the various forces that affects the strings with different kinds of setup, and thus also making it able to compensate with adjustments to the guitar when downtuning instead of changing the strings(atleast to a certain degree)..

 

[Noumenon]

Is stringtention and stringpressure the same thing?

Not the same. String tension is how tense the string is, string pressure is how hard you have to press down the string in order to fret it. When you fret a string, you are in fact bending it a bit, the higher the strings are set, the more bend and thus harder to do any "real" bends.

So, identical guitars, same scale length, same gauge and tuning, but different action equals different feels. In my opinion, the difference in action can be ridiculous little for me to feel it.

Btw. Bb tuning here. 10-52 and a 70 for the low Bb

 

[EdwardPayne]

Wow this became a hot topic.
Anyway. I put the string on the guitar last night (see first post). And I dunno if it's the strings or the guitar.. But the B and E strings seem bad somehow. They sound in two different tones. Impossible to tune.. I can also add that the 060-string is too thick to fit fret zero. (dunno the name for it but you know what it mean). And since it's not my guitar I can't just make the notch (right word for it?) bigger with a file.

So I'm gonna buy 009-058 string today and try them.

I got the crunch sound I'm looking for with the thinner strings (A, D, G) but the thicker just sounded indistinct. But this can relate to the problem I described as impossible to tune..

This have never been a problem with my 7-string Ibanez. I'm using the same strings on that one i'm trying with the Explorer.

 

[Noumenon]

Isn't the Gibson scale shorter than the scale that the 7-string Ibanez has?

I want me a baritone 7-string. 27"

EDIT: I was right, Gibson uses 24.75" scale length, while most Ibanez use 25.5"

 

[Notuern]

Not the same. String tension is how tense the string is, string pressure is how hard you have to press down the string in order to fret it. When you fret a string, you are in fact bending it a bit, the higher the strings are set, the more bend and thus harder to do any "real" bends.

So, identical guitars, same scale length, same gauge and tuning, but different action equals different feels. In my opinion, the difference in action can be ridiculous little for me to feel it.

Btw. Bb tuning here. 10-52 and a 70 for the low Bb

Ok, i might have meant stringpressure, in Sweden you use the same word to describe both of the phenomenon(But you talk about to different types of "tension".).

Well, those guitars had the same action to, as I said above, the better the materials in the guitar the better the stringpressure.
I changed the nut on my guitar from a plastic one to one made of brass, and i got more stringpressure, and that is what i was talking about before.

Anyways, my old Les Paul could be downtuned to Bb with 52-12 strings and i could do some easy adjustments to get it to feel just like the same as when it was in D.
I belive I could have done the same with my roundcore strings, but i didnt know they existed back then. ;P

 

[EdwardPayne]

I just put D'Addario XL EJ21 on the guitar.. A bit sloppy but I finally got to hear the guitar in B. It sounds pretty cool. I'll try some more in the rehearsal room and compare it to my Ibanez (RG7-620)..

The D'Addario set is:
.012, .016, 024w, .032w, .042w, .052w
So I had to play loose like a girl but I could hear the tone anyway.

Skål för fan...

 

[EdwardPayne]

Isn't the Gibson scale shorter than the scale that the 7-string Ibanez has?

I want me a baritone 7-string. 27"

EDIT: I was right, Gibson uses 24.75" scale length, while most Ibanez use 25.5"

So a shorter scale don't need as thick strings as a longer scale?

 

[Noumenon]

Ok, i might have meant stringpressure, in Sweden you use the same word to describe both of the phenomenon(But you talk about to different types of "tension".).

Well, those guitars had the same action to, as I said above, the better the materials in the guitar the better the stringpressure.
I changed the nut on my guitar from a plastic one to one made of brass, and i got more stringpressure, and that is what i was talking about before.

Uhm, no we don't? When I talk about the string tension I talk about string tension (hur spänd strängen är), when talking about pressure I talk about pressure (hur mycket tryck som krävs för att trycka ner strängen).

The better material, in your case, the nut, results in less friction.

So a shorter scale don't need as thick strings as a longer scale?

The other way around. The shorter the scale, the more mass is needed from the string to create the same tension.