Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on December 12, 2015 at 3:44am

couple of things come to mind here,1st,it seems you have the .oo9 g string,so it is going to get tight,what tuning are you registering as it becomes taught?scale length can be an issue also,longer the scale ,the more tension required to reach the tuning,i know i've not helped much,but give a bit more detail ,and others with more knowledge than me might jump in

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Permalink Reply by Eric Salvi on December 12, 2015 at 4:40am

It started to get tight at f#. I think it could be paranoia. I'm not use to this small of a string. I have a 25" scale. I can get it to G but I'm not sure if it's normal to be really tight.

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on December 12, 2015 at 5:12am

by my best calcs,you are looking for about 18.5 lb tension,should be ok with that i'd think,when you reach f sharp is it extremely tight? stupid as it may sound,are you reaching an octave high? that's unlikely as i'm sure your string would fail b4 fsharp

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on December 12, 2015 at 10:07pm

The .009 should be able to handle a G right below the normal E for that string at that scale. So, what G are you trying to get? If your tuning for the G that is higher than the normal high E, it would be real tight and close to snapping.

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on December 13, 2015 at 2:53am

Hi Eric.

Its normal, don't panic.  Fact is, that high G (G4) is a very high note for guitar scale length, as anyone with a 12 string will tell you, its about as high as you can go.   It may benefit to tune up to F# for a couple of days, play the strings in, and then crank it up a notch.  

A couple of things to consider.

1.  guitar strings sound at their best when they are close to breaking point.

Although it is more work on your hands there is a definite tone payoff.

2.  guitar strings break all the time.  And they're cheap.  So we carry spares.

you might consider going an octave lower next time, (G2 D3 G3)  use the fat  (wound) ones from a light set of guitar strings and the unwound ones for this one here.

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Permalink Reply by Bluesheart on December 13, 2015 at 2:55am

I'm with Paul. I think it is supposed to be tuned "slack" of e (1st string in standard guitar), not above it.

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on December 13, 2015 at 8:34am

It won't sound mate theres no way.  That string will be a floppy noodle below d4.  Look at a set of 12strings.  What gauge is the octave partner to G ?

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on December 13, 2015 at 9:42am

It is a good bit down from the e, but I don't think it'll be floppy. That little string will probably be tight enough. Tuning down to F# then working up to that higher G would work too.

If neither of those options work for you, then I would use a B string tuned down to G.

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Permalink Reply by turtlehead on December 13, 2015 at 6:46pm

I strung up a new guitar tonight and decided to mess around with all the leftover strings I have laying around.

24.5 scale - I got a .009 up to G# without breaking.  Didn't want to try to go for A.   I worked a .008 up to a little over A before it broke.  I tried that LMH configuration with the .009 for a while and it's pretty cool for slide, but the huge leap between the middle and high strings had me fumbling all over the place when I was fretting.

I also tuned it down below E and have to say it was way too floppy.

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Permalink Reply by jim on December 13, 2015 at 8:15pm

My general rule is , 2 notes up and 1 note down. Any stretch or slack on the string sucks!

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on December 13, 2015 at 8:49pm

thats a pretty good rule of thumb at guitar scale length or thereabouts.. although mine is more like 2 semitones (frets) down or 3 up..

as the scale length decreases so too does the range that a given string might be tuned to.

An equal and opposite way to look at it, how wide a range of string gauges might be used to tune to pitch X?

Take E4 for example, the highest open string on a guitar.  You can buy sets that supply anything from 0.0085 to 0.014 inch for this pitch.  But if you look at options for mandolin strings for example you'll find almost no difference between 'heavy' and 'light' sets, and no intermediate sets in  between at all.

+ thanks Turtle, hope you're happy and well fella :)   I'm sure any of us who've actually strung up a guitar or two know a 0.009 is not doing G3 at 25".  Best

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Permalink Reply by JL on December 15, 2015 at 2:38am

my two engineer cents: the gauge of light/medium/heavy strings (just the 3,4,5 we often use)

light  23/30/39
medium 28/35/45
heavy 30/42/54

Note the 30 gauge can be used as a standard D (4th string) in a light tension set or tightened up and used as the G (3rd string) in a heavy tension set, that is 6 semitones higher, a major 4th, from 25# to about 40# of tension.

make friends with the string tension guide: http://www.daddario.com/upload/tension_chart_13934.pdf and note that it shows tension for a whole octave of tuning options for a given gauge string.

I would stay out of the 'heavy tension' range, but medium, light, or ultra light tensions work fine.

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