Question D Standard tuning... Beefy Slinky or not Even Slinky?

[Rich Knarren]

Hello, I´ve been thinking about changing the gauge of my guitar strings, normally I´ve been playing with 11 Power Slinkys, but I feel they´re not heavy enough for my needs, I tune in D standard, and want to play thrash/death metal, my guitar is a Dean ZX (explorer body) What would you recommend?

 

[Warg Master]

For D, I personally use Beefy slinky. For C I use Not Even Slinky. In D the Beefy Slinkys feel like 10s to me... Still bendy, but solid.

 

[James C]

I've always used Power Slinkys for D Standard, and I've never had an issue with them.
I get away with playing stuff from Necrophagist to Dream Theater to Racer X.
Though if you are looking for a little more bite, then I agree with Warg, go with the Beefy Slinkys.

 

[Music Man Dan]

Hard to say really. I've always been under the impression that it's a good idea to go up one string gauge for every half step lower. Neither of these sets truly satisfy that, if using a Regular Slinky set as a baseline. For example, to follow this formula, you should have a set of the following for D-standard: 12, 15, 19p, 30, 40, 50. For some reason, I have the impression that finding a 19p string may be a challenge LoL.

 

[paranoid70]

Typically I use Super Slinkys for guitars tuned to E or D#. But I have one guitar that's always tuned to C# for the Black Sabbath songs, and I use Slinkys for that one. I recently read that Iommi, the riff master, uses 9s when he tunes to C#... so I guess there is no rule.