Maximum gauge for a Schecter string-thru guitar?

[Sgroh87]

I'm planning on picking up a Schecter C-8 Hellraiser next week, and I hope to downtune the guitar to EBEADGBE (drop E tuning). I like my low strings to have a fair amount of tension, and this particular guitar has a 26.5" scale, so I think I'm going to have to bump up the gauge of the lowest string from the .74 that comes in the Ernie Ball/D'addario packs. I was thinking about something in the .80-.84 range, but this is my first string-thru guitar and I wanted to make sure that I would be able to fit these strings through the ferrule.

Any idea what the max gauge that will fit through a string-thru Schecter guitar is? I'm gonna try to give Schecter a call tomorrow and see if their techs can answer the question for me, but I thought I would just ask you guys first.

 

[Nile]

If it doesn't fit, enlarge the tuner hole. .84 isn't too extreme.

 

[Sgroh87]

If it doesn't fit, enlarge the tuner hole. .84 isn't too extreme.

I'm not talking about the tuners, I'm talking about the holes in the body where the strings go through. But if .84 goes through the tuners then that makes me more confident that it'll fit through the body as well.

 

[BIG ND SWEATY]

you might be able to get up to a .094 through the body but you're not going to get anything bigger than a .068 through that tuner without widening it.

 

[Go To Bed Jessica]

I have a ~100 (it's a ZOG set and Alex is very secretive about his string gauges) on my C-8 Hellraiser Special and it runs through the body just fine.

I have previously used a bass string, which left the ball end protruding from the back of the guitar - and I also had to unwind the top of that string to get it through the tuner. The ZOG string is tapered quite conveniently and slips right in to the tuner.

Not sure whether CircleK strings are tapered at the tuner end or not, but it certainly makes life a bit easier.

 

[Sgroh87]

you might be able to get up to a .094 through the body but you're not going to get anything bigger than a .068 through that tuner without widening it.

Not sure that's true since it comes stock with a .74 string. I guess the Ernie Ball/D'addario strings might have a taper at the tip, though...

 

[shawnperolis]

Not sure how different the guitar body holes are, but on my Agile Intrepid I have a .98. I tried a .106 and it didn't fit through, but apparently a .102 will. I imagine the body holes are somewhat standard on guitars, but they could very well be different.

edit: I did have to widen my tuning peg with a 7/32 bit to get that string to fit though.

 

[knuckle_head]

You can drill out body ferules to .125" and have the ball ends hold securely.

 

[NoMod]

Large guage D'addario strings are double wound - there is about 6" of just the inner winding at the machine head end that allows it to go through the tuner...

 

[chromaticdeath]

nothing a power drill can't fix

 

[zachyl]

I use an 84 on my schecter blackjack c8 and it fits through the string ferrule but I need to unwind the string to get it through the tuner.

 

[knuckle_head]

If need be Hipshot guitar tuners can be drilled out to .110 . . . if you can live with a mixed set.

 

[Sgroh87]

Update: I got my guitar and ordered some strings from Circle K (9-86), and we ran into a small problem on the 86 string. According to the tech doing the setup, the 86 was about three mm too thick to fit through the tuner, and he didn't feel that the tuner was capable of being reamed out to fit without making it significantly more fragile and prone to breakage. We ended up unwinding the tip a little bit and putting an extra wrap around the tuner in order to minimize the chance of it unraveling. If you're not comfortable with unraveling the tip, I would suggest going with an 80-82 for the low string.

 

[shawnperolis]

Update: I got my guitar and ordered some strings from Circle K (9-86), and we ran into a small problem on the 86 string. According to the tech doing the setup, the 86 was about three mm too thick to fit through the tuner, and he didn't feel that the tuner was capable of being reamed out to fit without making it significantly more fragile and prone to breakage. We ended up unwinding the tip a little bit and putting an extra wrap around the tuner in order to minimize the chance of it unraveling. If you're not comfortable with unraveling the tip, I would suggest going with an 80-82 for the low string.

I wonder why he thought that the tuner wasn't capable of being drilled out. I'm pretty sure that is how most people do it. I drilled my tuner to fit a .98 and no problems here.

 

[8stringnewb]

not to hijack this thread because i know its about the through-body end of the string....but exactly waht is the biggest string that will fit in the schecter locking tuners(i have the sis c8 blackjack that came with 74's)

 

[groovemasta]

I have a blackjack c-8.For my lowest string im using a .80 string tuned to f#, i didn't have to widen anything but i think an .80 is about the biggest you can get without modding.

Depending on how much tension you like an .80 could maybe work for an E, i like them medium-high tightness which is what an .80 feels like tuned to f#