<-- Guitarnoob wants to know about low tuning..

[Chryst Krispies]

Your tips are appreciated guys, I'll pay it back to the forum in the future. Perhaps another pack of 600+ samples of... something?

How bout you send me that WoW girl.

In seriousness though.

I'd like to know a nice string set for drop A# or A# standard.

 

[Erkan]

How bout you send me that WoW girl

What, you mean my avatar? That one is from the demotivational poster thingie. "Hope - Because she just might want to hear about your 12th level paladin". But there is something special about my avatar..... can you figure out what?



I painted her I took the original image and used it as a reference to blow her size up to an A4 @ 300 DPI, and painted as close to the real thing as I could in Photoshop. The background is still from the original image though.

But lucky for you, I just finished the whole thing a couple hours ago, with a forest background type of thingie. In case you want it, I've uploaded it Here.

My first attempt ever in my life, at painting something in a realistic style. Although the background isn't quite good but who looks at the background anyway?

Now back to topic!

 

[JBroll]

Thanks Jeff, and everyone, for pointing this out. A friend of mine who plays the guitar recommended the ZW set for me, and given the fact that I don't know much about the ins and outs when it comes to strings, tensions, saddles, truss rods and whatever (just the same way as a guitarist who doesn't know shit about drum-tech), I went for what he said and got that set.

I do feel it's important to have a balanced set though, so Jeff or anyone could post recommendations of string gauges for a Csus4 (or even darker, like A# F A# F A# D#) tuning here in the thread instead of a PM. This way, everyone can see it and there might be someone else who benefits from the tips, or there might just be nice discussions about strings

WestCoastCrush: Yeah of course thicker strings are going to be muddier, but too thin isn't really my thing either. Although I do like that djent tone that comes from thinner strings, I prefer something inbetween. I know pretty much nothing about what string gauges to use, as I said, I'm not a guitarist but I just recently bought my own guitar and just practise to be able to advance and make my own music. I've already learned tons from this thread though, and hopefully I'll learn about gauges too and then I'm good to go.

Your tips are appreciated guys, I'll pay it back to the forum in the future. Perhaps another pack of 600+ samples of... something?

Hey, let me know what plain and wound string you most like the 'feel' of (I'll use these to determine the other gauges) and I'll set that up.

Yeah, you can post your response to my PM here, Jeff, that'd rule!

If there's one string gauge you particularly like, or you'd like something between two strings, that's what I'd use. If you want something like a 54 for the low C, I'd run 12-16-22-30-40-54 to start with; if that's a touch too light on the last two strings, try 12-16-22-30-42-56.

The Eb will be quite a bit tighter than the rest of the strings, so if you wanted everything perfectly even a 20 would work there - I can't stand really fat plain strings, but your mileage may vary. With this string layout everything but the Eb sits around 16 pounds of pressure (the Eb is actually closer to 17 or 18 pounds of pressure), and the tuning and tone will be more consistent across strings.

Let me know how these work out.

Jeff

I wouldn't use the same strings for open CSus4. For roughly 16lbs of pressure on each string in open CSus4 I'd use 9-13-17-28-38-58 (last string can be replaced with a 56 if too heavy); in A#Sus4 (with all else held constant) I'd go for 11-15-19-32-44-64. Note that after around the 6[] gauges guitar strings behave differently as they're wound twice, so experiment with those and try different brands.

I'm currently enjoying the ZW 11-70 set in AEBEAD, if you want to try another oddball tuning - the lowest two intervals are fifths and the other three are fourths, which makes more stretched-out chords easier on the lower strings.

Jeff

 

[Erkan]

Hey, let me know what plain and wound string you most like the 'feel' of (I'll use these to determine the other gauges) and I'll set that up.

Ehmm.. this is embarassing... I don't know what you mean "most like the 'feel' of", do you mean what gauge I want on the lowest and highest string, and then you will figure out what strings should be inbetween? If so, I think I would like a slightly thicker than avarage string on the top, and something not too thick on the bottom so I can avoid mud. Perhaps 12-56 would suit me if I go for a Bsus4 instead of Csus4. But yeah, I have no idea what the gauge should be on all other strings.

Frankly, I'm not really that picky when it comes to strings, my first priority is a good sound and sustain out of the strings, the rest I can just adapt to.

For roughly 16lbs of pressure on each string in open CSus4 I'd use 9-13-17-28-38-58 (last string can be replaced with a 56 if too heavy); in A#Sus4 (with all else held constant) I'd go for 11-15-19-32-44-64. Note that after around the 6[] gauges guitar strings behave differently as they're wound twice, so experiment with those and try different brands.

Thanks for the tip Jeff! I'm tempted to go as low as A#sus4... hmm

Where do you guys buy your custom strings by the way? And what brand is considered good, when it comes to custom gauges? I reckon my local music store won't have everything I need, and it feels kinda dumb to order just strings from Thomann and pay 15 Euro for shipping :| Maybe the local music store will order them for me though... would be nice.

 

[Metaltastic]

Thanks a ton for all that Jeff! Time to get crackin'!

 

[Metaltastic]

And by the way Jeff, you say the .22 wound Eb will be quite a bit tighter, but I tried this set with a .20 plain string there, and it was WAYY too loose and twangy for me - do you think that's because the Bb next to it is a .32 in that set, rather than the .30 that you recommend?

 

[Metaltastic]

Oh, and Gojira, strings are of course personal preference, but I love D'addario myself, way more than Ernie Balls (which I found lost their tone so fast), but tons of people like EB too, so really I'd say try 'em both! (or go for the one that has the guages you need). And in the US, the place to go is www.juststrings.com, though I'm not sure if they ship internationally.

 

[WestCoastCrush]

Metaltastic has a good point there. String brands do have their own nuance in terms of timbre. Some other good mentions would be the new Dunlop strings and of course, DR strings. I'd also like to take the time to mention Kerly strings (www.kerlymusic.com) as they are ridiculously long lasting and come in a variety of heavy gauges (they make a mean set of .13-.56 )

 

[JBroll]

Gojira__, as far as the feel... if you like the way one wound string plays, bends, sounds, feels, or flosses your asscrack more than the others I can have the other strings match its tension. If you don't have a favorite, just start with that set and let me know what you want after that.

Jeff

 

[Erkan]

Gojira__, as far as the feel... if you like the way one wound string plays, bends, sounds, feels, or flosses your asscrack more than the others I can have the other strings match its tension. If you don't have a favorite, just start with that set and let me know what you want after that.

Jeff

Thanks alot, for now I'll just go with what you posted for A#sus4. It's gonna be really interesting to adjust the guitar specifically for that tuning and trying out those strings. If I'm lucky, a friend's dad who works at a music part factory can hook me up with a custom set. Hope they have the right gauges!

Gonna give an update when I have gotten the strings and made all adjustments... gonna take a while though. I'll upload a clip too

 

[JBroll]

ProjectGuitar.com might be very helpful. If you can't get a custom set from your friend's dad or a local guitar store, ask around for good online string retailers - if you were in the States I'd recommend JustStrings.com but I don't know what shipping to your side of the pond will cost.

Jeff

 

[Erkan]

ProjectGuitar.com might be very helpful. If you can't get a custom set from your friend's dad or a local guitar store, ask around for good online string retailers - if you were in the States I'd recommend JustStrings.com but I don't know what shipping to your side of the pond will cost.

Jeff

I got the strings from him, although the brand is nothing spectacular. They're made in china but they say they've been delivering the same high quality for over 10 years now so they're happy with 'em. Well, I figured it wouldn't matter too much since I just wanted to try the gauges and damn, they're fine Jeff! They're slightly different than what you posted because it was hard to find 'em he said, so I have a 65 instead of a 64 and a 20 instead of a 19, but the rest are the same.

So now I've changed my strings, adjusted the neck accordingly to this new tuning and intonated the guitar. The intonation went very good except for the fourth string (counting from thickest), which kinda ran out of adjustment so 12th fret is 3 cents higher than open string, but still. God damn do I feel good about myself now or what... a drummer who can actually pull off guitar-tech stuff! Incredible! Must be a new species!

Thanks for all your help!
Although... I could use help with one last thing. After intonation, the little metal things that "hold" the strings at the tune-o-matic, one of 'em has started buzzing quite a bit. When the string vibrates, it makes the whole holder piece vibrate and create this annoying buzz. I can get rid of it if I nudge it from side to side a bit, but sometimes it comes back. What can I do to fix this? Buy a new tune-o-matic?

 

[JBroll]

I haven't tried their own brand, I usually get GHS myself.

Is the buzzy saddle the same one that isn't going far enough to intonate? If I get buzzy things I usually just pad them with some kind of foam (for lightweight stuff) or with a bit of plastic, credit card shavings, or whatever (heavier stuff).

Jeff

 

[Erkan]

Hmm no, the buzzing one is the third string from lowest (A#2). Oh I see, that's some nice tips. I thought of maybe breaking a piece of a razor and sliding it under if it's possible, but I thought this kind of solution is not so elegant for a guitar, but if plastic, foam, whatever is a common way to solve it, I'll try to get it done today.