Neck adjustment for drop C?

[KellyFan]

I'm trying to set up and intonate a guitar for a friend who tunes way down to C. (why? I don't know)It's a really nice Les Paul, but no matter what, the strings have some amount of fret buzz, just because the strings are so damn loose. (even though he uses .012s!) Should I put a lot of releif in the neck to counteract that? I'm new to seting up something tuned so low, so any help would be appreciated.

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: Neck adjustment for drop C?

In my experience, nothing beats floppy strings other than going up in string gauge. Nothing you do to the neck or truss rod will increase the tension of the strings so that they aren't floppy any more. Either tune back up to increase tension (obviously not what your friend wants) or go with .013s or higher depending on his tastes. After you get the sucker in tune, adjust the intonation if needed and the truss rod if needed.

Also in my experience, I've played 12-53 gauge acoustic strings in C before, but I don't recall them being as loose as the impression I get from your post. Then again, my acoustic is a 25.5" scale and your friend's Les Paul is a 24.75" scale so the LP might have significantly less tension than my acoustic when tuned down to C.

[GodOfRhythm]

Re: Neck adjustment for drop C?

Imho a long scale guitar and bigger gauges are a MUST for playing in anything of D or down. I already start to hate the flappyness at Eb, which is still quite tight.

[Subvamp]

Re: Neck adjustment for drop C?

Yeah, I agree with Priest...if you're going for really low tuning, especially with a Les Paul at the shorter scale, you'll need to go with at least .012s or .013s, maybe higher if you have a heavy right hand.
Tony

[zeegler]

Re: Neck adjustment for drop C?

When you say drop C, I assume you mean C,G,C,F,A,D. If so, you don't need to bother adjusting the neck. I currently have all my guitars (the ones I play, anyway) tuned to this tuning, and have no problem at all. I use 10-52's, and have both short and long scale guitars.

[toejam]

Re: Neck adjustment for drop C?

What Zeegler said. Drop C is your guitar is tuned to D, which is one step below E, and you just drop the lowest string, D, down to C so that you can play power chords with only one finger. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] I use a set of 11-48s for D and Drop C tuning with great results.

[zeegler]

Re: Neck adjustment for drop C?

It's a pretty common tuning these days. I can think of a bunch of bands off the top of my head who use it, Shadows Fall, System of a Down, Machinehead just to name a few.

[Newc]

Re: Neck adjustment for drop C?

If the fret buzz does not deaden the notes and is not audible through the amp's distorted channels, don't worry about it.

Newc

[Boxcar Willie 84]

Re: Neck adjustment for drop C?

11-48s for Drop C tuning??! How do you guys use these spider webs!

[jazzman]

Re: Neck adjustment for drop C?

Heavier strings should do the trick.

[KellyFan]

Re: Neck adjustment for drop C?

Well, after much trial and error, I'm going with what Newc said. I went up to .013s which made some noticeable difference, but there was still a fair amount of slap/buzz, but not noticeable through the amp, and no dead notes. I guess I'm just used to a good ol' 440 string tension! Thanks for all the replies, it made life a little easier! [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]