Tuning a guitar waaaaaay down - considerations?

[sakeido]

So I'm ditching my 7 string for now, putting my SG silverburst on D standard duty and I want to tune my SLSMG down to B standard/drop A.

What kind of things should I be considering here? I always hear all these teenagers telling me about how putting really fat strings on their guitar messed up the neck and all this shit. Do I even have to worry about that, or can I slap a set of baritone guitar strings (13-68) on it without having to do anything aside from file out the nut and saddles for the fatter strings?

I will probably need to redo my intonation and all that too right? I am not quite sure what all will need to be done because the lowest I've ever tuned a guitar is drop C, unless it was my 7, in which case it was G

[soc_monki]

you dont even need those large strings...i tune to B Standard with 11-50's on my RR3! takes a little getting used to, but its not that bad.

i could see strings that large being a strain on some guitar necks in standard (Ibanez), but tuned down it shouldnt be that bad. those are some huge wires though!

[thetroy]

You'll probably need a new nut if you later decide to change it back to standard, but that's the only concern that I can think of right now. I put a set of 13's on my strat copy once and tried tuning it up to standard... didn't hurt anything at all so tuning down to B/A would not be a problem

[sakeido]

you dont even need those large strings...i tune to B Standard with 11-50's on my RR3! takes a little getting used to, but its not that bad.

i could see strings that large being a strain on some guitar necks in standard (Ibanez), but tuned down it shouldnt be that bad. those are some huge wires though!

I'm used to really fat strings I usually play in drop C with 13-56s I think, they might be skinnier then that on the top end.

[kelly user]

10-52 in standard, no problems

[Thoraby]

13-68 strings tuned very low won't fuck up the neck. 13-68 tuned to standard perhaps would, but I seriously doubt you can even tune them that high.

If you decide to try, don't forget to videotape it and show us what happened.

[sakeido]

13-68 strings tuned very low won't fuck up the neck. 13-68 tuned to standard perhaps would, but I seriously doubt you can even tune them that high.

If you decide to try, don't forget to videotape it and show us what happened.

Yeah I'll do that

[Model1VH2]

An "SG" is probably the worst guitar to use for this application IMO.

I've owned several (and love them!), but IMO, they just don't offer enough support in the neck joint/heel area which cause them to go out of tune often. At least that's been my experience when using just standard tuning.

Let us know how it works out.

[nateb]

On a SL1 w/ floyd, I use a set of 13's set to B's I play a lot of fast muted sequences and it was better then using 10's for me.

-Nate

[sakeido]

An "SG" is probably the worst guitar to use for this application IMO.

I've owned several (and love them!), but IMO, they just don't offer enough support in the neck joint/heel area which cause them to go out of tune often. At least that's been my experience when using just standard tuning.

Let us know how it works out.

The SG's short scale makes it a pretty bad guitar for mega low tunings on, so I'm only tuning it to D standard. The Jackson SLSMG is the one I am tuning to B standard, because it plays nice and also the EMGs will help get a good sound with such a low tuning...

[soc_monki]

I'm used to really fat strings I usually play in drop C with 13-56s I think, they might be skinnier then that on the top end.

i used to play in E to D with 10-54 or 10-56...then i got hooked up with my buddy in Lucian Scott and he used 11-49 for B Standard, so i tried 11-54, then went down on my standard gauges to 9-48, and now am using 11-50 in B standard. i used to love fat strings, but developing Carpel Tunnel sucks, so i went down because its more comfortable LOL

[bibz]

13-60 in Bflat here on a dr3. Slsmg's sound fucking beefy down low too. Those teens with the f'd up necks obviously dont know what they're doing or have poor quality guitars. My orig dr3 is going on 9+ years in C# 10-52's, necks straight as a die.

p.s. 666th post

[sakeido]

13-60 in Bflat here on a dr3. Slsmg's sound fucking beefy down low too. Those teens with the f'd up necks obviously dont know what they're doing or have poor quality guitars. My orig dr3 is going on 9+ years in C# 10-52's, necks straight as a die.

p.s. 666th post

I really want that beefy sound... my COW7 sounds great, but my SLSMG is orgasmic. The sound I get out of it is way "bigger" then what I can get from my COW.

[toejam]

now am using 11-50 in B standard.

Damn! That low B must be a little floppy, no? I couldn't use anything lower than a 56 when I had my 7-strings.

[sakeido]

No kidding... I just tuned my SLS way down and even with a 54 it is all over the place.