Strato Incendus
New member
Hi everyone,
Having developed somewhat of an obsession with string tension calculators, I was looking for an 11-54 set that would allow me to tune back and forth between D standard and C standard on some of my hardtail guitars (possibly up to D# standard occasionally). Burly Slinky (11-52) and Power Slinky (11-48) work on some of my guitars, but mainly to temporarily go down to Drop C, as I rarely leave a guitar in a drop tuning permanently, unless it has a floating bridge. In other words, if I tune a guitar to C standard, it's more likely to stay that way for a while than if I briefly tune a D standard guitar to Drop C.
Enter the Beefy Slinky set, which seemed ideal, as the D and A string retain the same gauge (30 and 42) as in the Heavy Bottom (10-52) and Burly Slinky (11-52) sets, and only the lowest string goes up to 54. Of course, the top string remains an 11, just like with the Burly Slinky set.
But why then are the b and g string so heavy at 15 and 22p? This causes the b and especially the g string to have much more tension than the high e string, which should make for a very unusual playing experience, as it's usually the b string that's the loosest.
I considered taking the "Skinny Top Beefy Bottom" set (10-54), but that seems more suitable for Drop C specifically, as for C standard, in my view, the top string should be an 11, or it will get too loose. (Also, the Beefy Bottom set has even thicker D and A strings than Beefy Slinky, even though the lowest string remains the same gauge.)
I was wondering if there is some general physical explanation for this choice, as the same gauge distribution (11-15-22p) seems to be the default for any 11-54 set on the market.
Having developed somewhat of an obsession with string tension calculators, I was looking for an 11-54 set that would allow me to tune back and forth between D standard and C standard on some of my hardtail guitars (possibly up to D# standard occasionally). Burly Slinky (11-52) and Power Slinky (11-48) work on some of my guitars, but mainly to temporarily go down to Drop C, as I rarely leave a guitar in a drop tuning permanently, unless it has a floating bridge. In other words, if I tune a guitar to C standard, it's more likely to stay that way for a while than if I briefly tune a D standard guitar to Drop C.
Enter the Beefy Slinky set, which seemed ideal, as the D and A string retain the same gauge (30 and 42) as in the Heavy Bottom (10-52) and Burly Slinky (11-52) sets, and only the lowest string goes up to 54. Of course, the top string remains an 11, just like with the Burly Slinky set.
But why then are the b and g string so heavy at 15 and 22p? This causes the b and especially the g string to have much more tension than the high e string, which should make for a very unusual playing experience, as it's usually the b string that's the loosest.
I considered taking the "Skinny Top Beefy Bottom" set (10-54), but that seems more suitable for Drop C specifically, as for C standard, in my view, the top string should be an 11, or it will get too loose. (Also, the Beefy Bottom set has even thicker D and A strings than Beefy Slinky, even though the lowest string remains the same gauge.)
I was wondering if there is some general physical explanation for this choice, as the same gauge distribution (11-15-22p) seems to be the default for any 11-54 set on the market.
