Picking a guitar to down-tune, based on pickups

[imalrightjack]

I have two guitars in E standard and want to put one of them in D/drop C with 11s (from 10s).

I can't decide whether it should be an EBMM JPXI with Crunch Lab/Liquifire or an EBMM Majesty with Illuminators.

Any experience or suggestions on which might handle low-tuning and gain better?

 

[Neon_Knight_]

Based on the pickups alone, I would suggest down-tuning the one with Illuminators - purely because that's supposed to be the brighter of the two sets (I've never used them).

I would definitely consider the overall tone of each guitar though, rather than making assumptions based on one part of them (the pickups). Some guitars naturally sound bright / tighter or warmer / muddier than others, even if they are built to the same specs.

For D standard tuning, I'm in complete agreement with your intention to go up one string gauge (11s instead of 10s). However, you might want to consider a "light top / heavy bottom" set, if the guitar will spend a lot of time in Drop-C. Basically, you need to decide whether you'd rather have a slightly floppy low C (Drop-C) or a slightly tight low D (D standard), compared to 10 gauge strings in E standard.
I use 9-42 for E standard, 9.5-44 for Eb standard, 9-46 for Drop-D, 10-46 for D standard, 10-52 for Drop-C, 11-52 for C standard etc. If I was regularly switching one guitar between standard and drop tuning, I would choose the lighter gauge option (i.e. regular set, rather than heavier low strings), but plenty of people would go the other way.

 

[budda]

Downtune the one you want to play in that tuning, sort out dialling it in after.

 

[bjjman]

Based on the pickups alone, I would suggest down-tuning the one with Illuminators - purely because that's supposed to be the brighter of the two sets (I've never used them).

Have Illuminators in one guitar at the moment and have owned a Crunch Lab in the past. I'd definitely recommend using the Illuminator out of the two for down tuning.

 

[imalrightjack]

Cheers, guys. The majesty definitely seems brighter. I likely will go heavy bottom too, just for tightness.

 

[Emperoff]

Never base the choice of a guitar on something you can easily change

 

[Neon_Knight_]

Never base the choice of a guitar on something you can easily change

Very true, but the OP already owns both guitars...just needs to choose which is more suited to each tuning.

 

[imalrightjack]

Very true, but the OP already owns both guitars...just needs to choose which is more suited to each tuning.

Correct!