54 gauge for a low B, am I finally losing it...

[Legion]

....or am I just growing old

IDK man I've been having RIDICULOUS fun going from a 60 to 54 on low B. It's much tighter, but somehow chunkier? Like the bass weight is there but the sub-bass woofiness is gone.
And its SO much easier to play, this is probably just me being "I'm old now and I'm not going to work as hard as I used to when I was 20"

Anyone else dropped to crazy light gauges for low tunings lately?

 

[Shask]

People using ginormous strings was always ridiculous, lol.

I used to use super light, but I would have issues with the tuning being stable because of how much the string would vibrate, so I have went up in gauge slightly. I don't like it so heavy you cant bend them though.

I tend to basically stick with what a normal 46 on the top tuned in E or Eb would be equivalent to in whatever tuning I am in. I think that is the sweet spot between sounding too thin, and being too much work to play.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

No, you just finally saw the light lol

I started lowering my gauges about 10 years ago and never looked back. Plus I can actually bend my strings lol

I was watching a rig rundown with Scott Ian and he said the same thing. He would go up to 11s in standard D#,. Butdecided to go back to 9s and his tone just got so much better. It was pretty horrible when he was running 11s.

Edit: hell I actually went a lighter gauge on some guitars as well just recently. I went down to 8 - 42 in standard and 9 - 46 in d#

 

[TheInvisibleHand]

9s for life. Why people want to actively make guitar playing more uncomfortable is beyond me.

 

[SalsaWood]

I use 10 sets for everything and always have. Outside of minute tonal preferences there isn't a practical difference, except most folks seem to think you need greater gauge to drop the action further (not true, all a lie). I use my ears before asking my fingers what they think, but both tend to agree that any string made well is going to sound better than any string not made as well regardless of other parameters. Harmonics are a big point personally, and that tends to be the biggest single deciding factor for me.

It's funny how many folks will swap out hundreds of dollars in pickups before considering changing their 0.30$ pick and 9$ sets of strings out for ones their ears actually prefer to hear. I just say mess around with it and see what you like with whatever it is.

 

[GunpointMetal]

I prefer as light as I can get away with for the tuning. Usually easier to intonate and chords are cleaner.

 

[jco5055]

I've recently discovered my favorite 6 string gauge is 9s...on a 24.75" scale lol so I feel these thoughts

 

[budda]

Yep my doom pauls are 12-54 in B, yet my prs se cu24 and ltd mh1000 were 12-60. I was over a decade younger at that point.

 

[Crungy]

I learned that from mostly being a bassist for nearing 30 years... Thick strings lose definition and get woofy. I never cared for it on bass so I figured guitar would be the same.

I usually go with Ernie Ball Cobalts, either set for 7 string. I love them for B standard all the way down to drop G on 25.5" Ibanez 7's. I don't think I'll go any heavier than those.

Standard 7 sets from EB and D'Addario are good too but I prefer the Cobalts for their tone and longevity.

 

[Shask]

9s for life. Why people want to actively make guitar playing more uncomfortable is beyond me.

I tend to find the 42 too metallic and not chunky when palm muting. Something about that gauge just bugs me, so I tend to use 9-46. That is my baseline, and others are based around that, such as using 10-48 in D.

 

[Legion]

I agree with the bulk of the points here

I do think there's such a thing as "too light" a gauge, like a 42 would not fly with me for....anything. For D standard I usually go D'Addario 11-49, drop C I go D'Addario 11-52, and drop B I use EB 11-54 (I might try D'Addario 12-60.

I tune down a lot because I find that top strings I need at least a 11 for it to not sound plinky and thin, and I tune down to compensate for tension. Looks like the bottom string has a sweet spot for me: between 48 and 56 at the most.

Interesting discovery lmao.

 

[TheWarAgainstTime]

I've eased up on some of my gauges over the years as well, but not by as wide of a margin. Like Legion said, it clears up some of the sub-bass on the bottom strings and sounds tighter.

I'm generally in drop B or lower, but I like a relatively light feel for the plain strings, closer to a 9-46 set in standard or 10-52 a full step down as far as tension goes.

 

[Matt08642]

Heaviest gauge strings I ever used on my 7 were 11-64 and I took them off within like a week lol. Next time I need to tune down a half step I think I'll try D'addario 9.5-44 with a 59 for the Bb or something, even 10-59 feels shitty and tight a half step down.

 

[PuckishGuitar]

I try to base my overall tension on 9-46 or 10-46 25.5” scale in E standard, then adjust from there. My favorite setup for a long time has been 10-52 25.5” in D standard.

I’m probably going to change my C standard 24.75” from 12-60 to something like 11-54 or something, the 60 just keeps flubbing out and isn’t doing it for me.

I have another guitar that is I think in C# with a set of 9’s, great fun on its own but forget trying to stay in tune with other instruments.

 

[Jon Pearson]

I like about 15lbs or less of tension on each string across the fretboard. Now of course, no string manufacturer produces a set that is ACTUALLY balanced at any tuning - there are some that are close for some tunings on some scales though. It gets even harder at lower tunings. I can mostly deal with 9-42 for a 25.5 guitar in standard. On my drop C guitar I like an 11-49, but then I have to fix the low string from flopping around, so that gets a 54. Still not perfect - the 4th and 5th string are a little stiff, but not too bad.

When it comes to 7 strings? Dude, forget it. It's as if string manufacturers pick a size for the 7 at random. It seems like a pretty straightforward exercise to calculate the gauges that would balance out for different tunings on different scales, or at least get close, but apparently that math is an alchemy far too advanced for D'addario or Ernie Ball.

to answer the OP though - light strings are the way to go. Better sound, easier to play, easier to set up.... There's no point is buying any larger a string than is needed to kick things from rattling around.

 

[ATRguitar91]

I used to use 11-49+70 on a 27' 7 in Drop A, which is just absurd really.

These days I'm running a 10-46+64 on my 25.5 7 in Drop A and it's much better. I run the same gauges on my multiscale 7 and it's perfect. I'm not much of a lead player so the bends aren't a huge deal, but there's a noticeable tone difference.

 

[Kyle Jordan]

Nah, not crazy.

Went back to 9-42 after decades of 10-46 in E and 11-49 in Eb on 25.5”. Just sounds better.

I run 9-42 + 54 and 64 or 68 on my 8 strings. Two 27” and one 26.5-28” multiscale.

 

[STRHelvete]

I used to be stuck in this "thicker strings means heavier sound" mindset and it's still hard sometimes to get out of that. What I learned from recording is that a lighter gauge actually chunks more when the guitar is set up right but depending on tuning you just have to listen to what sounds best instead of just choosing a set based on personal "logic".

Meanwhile Zakk Wylde and Karl Sanders have 10-60 and 8-70 signature sets. Go figure.

 

[ezboarderz]

depends on the scale length. For 25.5", i personally use a .059 but for my 27" 7 string, ill use like a .056 or a .062 for that low A. It really comes down to how hard you pick and how much fret buzz you can tolerate. A .054 is quite light and i use that for C# standard on my 25.5" 6 string.

 

[Dumple Stilzkin]

For 25.5 7 strings I like 9-54. I don't consider that to be a crazy light gauge by any means. I like to be able to bend.