Looking for a advice on a guitar/setup.

[Vince Caruana]

I'm either goin to be buyin a hellraiser with a 26.5 scale or an esp ltd delux H-1007 with a 25.5. I'm looking to have this guitar set up to do drop a, drop g# and Bb standard. I am used to using a 25.5 scale with a set of 10-52s on the 1st 6 with a 70 on top. I was thinking on switching to a 10-46 set( and possibly 68 if I go with the hellraiser) because I'm getting sick of having some of my lower strings with so much more tension and would like something more even and balanced. I'm more than sure this will be fine for drop a on a 25.5 scale but I'm not too sure about drop g#. Id personally much rather buy the h-1007 but I hear the 26.5 is a lot better holding the lower tunings. Does it make that much of a difference? Feedback would be awesome.

 

[TRENCHLORD]

A one inch scale increase will only raise the tension a bit over a pound per string, so you're not going to be able to reduce gauge by much at all and hold the same tightness, and you're wanting to reduce tension anyways, so just go with the 25.5" (which would be the better choice IMO) and reduce the string sizes by a small amount.

 

[TheWarAgainstTime]

A one inch scale increase will only raise the tension a bit over a pound per string, so you're not going to be able to reduce gauge by much at all and hold the same tightness, and you're wanting to reduce tension anyways, so just go with the 25.5" (which would be the better choice IMO) and reduce the string sizes by a small amount.

^this.

A 68 will hold G# just fine, but a 66 or 64 should also be ok if you're looking for less tension.

 

[Vince Caruana]

Do you think a 68 would work out good with the 10-46 on the 1st 6 for drop tunings?

 

[Cobhc221]

my friend plays in double drop D and uses 70-13 guage. and he holds tension just fine.
Jake Bowen of Periphery uses a guage 64-11 for drop Ab. so i think you'll be just fine with a 64.

 

[Damus]

(ignore any spelling mistakes disclaimer, im lazy)
Umm not sure if I agree with the above.
I beleive you will get better results from a longer scale neck if down tuning, which allows you to use thinner strings not the other way around, a shorter neck will require thicker strings. That being said there is no hard and fast rule on exact gauge as its user preference but if I had to give out a guage based on the above id say go the hellraiser 10-48 then a 66 but thats just an opinion on your situation, its really gonna end up being a trail and error thing.

 

[Vince Caruana]

I've used 64s and I think they're good in Bb and A but I def prefer something a little heavier than that for g# etc. Thanks for the output guys.