String gauge, too thick?

[Kinzoku]

Is this putting to much pressure on the guitar or should i be fine with it?
.013|.017||.030|.042|.054|.064|.074
It's a 26.5 scale guitar btw!

 

[Joshua]

Im guessing dropped F# or just F# standard? If so, that should be fine.

 

[Kinzoku]

Im guessing dropped F# or just F# standard? If so, that should be fine.

Woops, forgot to mention the tuning. I'm playing in dropped A

 

[erotophonophilia]

That's a ridiculous amount of tension for the guitar and your left hand. Nile uses .070s for drop A on 24.75" guitars, and I think that's even excessive.

 

[Vostre Roy]

That's a ridiculous amount of tension for the guitar and your left hand. Nile uses .070s for drop A on 24.75" guitars, and I think that's even excessive.

To each is own

I tune my Hellraiser C-7 (26.5" scale) with a low 70 in standard B, so it might be a little thick but if you like that tension, go for it. I would be more concern about the balance of that tension, going from 64 to 74 for drop tuning doesn't make much sense to me, you'll have crazy tension on the low E and the second A

 

[Winspear]

len 26.5
a1 .074 danw == 21.76#
e2 .064 danw == 37.05#
a2 .054 danw == 46.53#
d3 .042 danw == 50.64#
g3 .030 danw == 48.18#
b3 .016 dapl == 25.16#
e4 .013 dapl == 29.6#

Your standard wound strings are insanely tight. Like that of a bass guitar. I'm not sure it's too much pressure as people tend to think (hell, some will say you'll break a neck if you use anything over .050 for E ) - bass guitars take 45lb per string on average.
However you do have seven strings here. The neck isn't so wide as a bass with that many strings..it is quite a lot of tension. I would be cautious if it's any less than a 5 piece neck. Bear in mind I know nothing at all about woodwork or luthiery, just guessing here.

I'd suggest you go lighter as I really can't see any reason to be using the same tension as a bass guitar. I'm fairly picky with tightness/tuning stability/lack of fretbuzz too, but find that the usual considered heavy 26lb (that's like the .054 E string of a 'heavy bottom' set) to be plenty. Similar to a nice tight acoustic guitar set. (I actually run 20lbs but can entirely see the appeal of 26lb and enjoy it more a lot of the time)
Your treble E string must also be fairly near breaking tension I'd imagine.
And your low A isn't very tight. Tight enough and tighter than the floppy strings a lot of people use, but I'm surprised you're happy with it considering your tension preference on the other strings!

I'd suggest you try this as a tight set instead:

a1 .080 danw == 22.95#
e2 .052 danw == 23.77#
a2 .042 danw == 28.42#
d3 .032 danw == 30.35#
g3 .024 danw == 30.35#
b3 .016 dapl == 25.16#
e4 .012 dapl == 25.22#

D'Addario Strings : XL Nickel Round Wound : EJ21 Nickel Wound, Jazz Light, 12-52
Plus part number D'addario NW080.

Much more sensible and still tight by anyones means. If you can deal with a 21lb A string you should be fine with greatly lowering the tension of your other wound strings.

The set you bought is intended for F# B E A D G B (E), and sucks for that too, as even when the bottom string isn't dropped, it's still way floppy compared to the others which are really tight (except for the low B which is just medium). Nonsense set.

 

[Vostre Roy]

^ Listen to that guy

 

[HurrDurr]

+1 to everything Ethereal just said. I too am quite the junky for tighter strings, but I can't see why you'd like your strings to be that tight. Perhaps if you could explain exactly why you're looking for that amount of tension, we'd understand your intentions a bit better.

 

[Winspear]

Perhaps if you could explain exactly why you're looking for that amount of tension, we'd understand your intentions a bit better.

I'm going to hazard a guess that none of the 7 string sets were tight enough for A (understandably, because they aren't) so he bought this and just tuned it up to achieve a good A (which it does) without realising how awkward the rest of the set already is even in the F# tuning it's intended for

 

[7stringDemon]

Did this used to be an 8 string set?

 

[Lorcan Ward]

len 26.5
a1 .074 danw == 21.76#
e2 .064 danw == 37.05#
a2 .054 danw == 46.53#
d3 .042 danw == 50.64#
g3 .030 danw == 48.18#
b3 .016 dapl == 25.16#
e4 .013 dapl == 29.6#

Holy crap!!!!!

That can't be good for a guitar neck.

 

[mongey]

damn .054 for the A on a 26.5

you could hit that with a hammer

 

[edsped]

I have to imagine it sounds and feels very similar to a bass.

 

[The Spanish Inquisition]

It can't be comfortable to play the plain strings under that tension. Either that, or you have a huge growth of callus on your fingers.

 

[Nile]

I've heard of a few people playing 64-13 in standard on Les Pauls and sometimes guitars with 25.5 but 26.5 seems to be stretching it a bit. Especially with a seventh string.

 

[Shredderboy1658]

i use that same string set the but instead of taking out the .10 i take out the .64 so i use 10-13-1730-42-54-74 in drop a on a 25.5 scale

 

[Jonathan20022]

These guys in a local band play 14-74 in Eb on 25.5" guitars, my tech was setting one of theirs up and he let me give it a quick play. Bending was absolutely not rewarding, but there was no fretbuzz whatsoever and the clarity on that thing was insane. All the strings sounded amazing, it's possible man anything is, but with that much tension on the neck you'd have to do what these guys do and get it setup constantly. The neck would shift quite a bit more I'd imagine.

 

[vstealth]

Do what ever you feel comfortable with. I like a bit of extra tension but if I bend a wound string close to the nut and it is difficult/painful to do so then it is definitely too tight.

 

[inactive0909]

It would put tension on the neck, that is a very heavy set for drop a!

 

[FarBeyondDriven16]

Thats too much!!!!!! Get those strings off there before you A) Damage the Truss rod and B) Wear down the nut. I use Ernie Ball 9-46 with 68 for Drop A. I suggest you do the same.