| Author |
Topic: String gauge for octave above 5th string B |
Tom Campbell
From:
Houston, Texas, USA
|
Posted 23 May 2018 11:26 am |
|
Is it possible to get a string gauge that will allow one to tune an OCTAVE above the 5th string B?
I'm experimenting putting a my 1st string as a B. I've tried a .010 gauge string but as far as I could tune it was up to an A before it snapped. That A string pitch is just above your 3rd string G#.
Beginning to think the "physics" won't allow it. |
|
|
|
Greg Gefell
From:
Upstate NY
|
Posted 23 May 2018 12:10 pm
|
|
I would suggest you get a small assortment of single D’Addario NYXL strings and try again. They allow higher tension before breakage so you might be able to get a .09 or .10 or maybe even an .11 to tune up to a B. I use a .12 on the string 3 G# and it has no issues being pulled to A. But you’re right - anything above A is pushing the limits unless you shorten the scale.
_________________
https://www.facebook.com/ggefell/ |
|
|
|
Jeff Mead
From:
London, England
|
Posted 23 May 2018 12:37 pm
|
|
| If a .010 goes to A then an .009 would probably go to B - if not I'm sure an .008 would and that is a fairly common guitar string gauge so should be easy to get. Some guitar players (Billy Gibbons for example) use a .007 so you should be able to get it using one of those. |
|
|
|
Tom Campbell
From:
Houston, Texas, USA
|
Posted 23 May 2018 4:01 pm
|
|
I did some searching in the "archives" and my question has been addressed a few times over the years.
Short & long answer..."it ain't gonna happen"!
There isn't a string gauge that will take the tension...even if it just sits there as a B with no raising or lowering.
So...dream on  |
|
|
|
Rick Abbott
From:
Indiana, USA
|
Posted 23 May 2018 6:19 pm
|
|
Lower the tuning to D9?
_________________
RICK ABBOTT
Sho~Bud D-10 Professional #7962
Remington T-8, Wakarusa 5e3 clone
1953 Stromberg-Carlson AU-35 |
|
|
|
John Goux
From:
California, USA
|
Posted 23 May 2018 11:56 pm
|
|
| .001 |
|
|
|
Tom Campbell
From:
Houston, Texas, USA
|
Posted 24 May 2018 5:30 am
|
|
Yes John...I tried the .001 string...bought half a dozen of them. Only problem was when I opened the package I couldn't find the string!!!  |
|
|
|
Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
|
Posted 24 May 2018 9:08 am
|
|
The problem with doing this is that, for a given scale length, as the string gauge goes down (string gets thinner):
1. Less tension is indeed required to get the string to a specific pitch. There's an equation that governs that, given in the D'Addario string gauge chart, among other places.
2. But at the same time, the string's strength is also going down. Given a particular string material, there's an equation governing this also.
If you continue thinning out the string, at a certain point the string's strength is going down faster than the tension required to get it to pitch is going down. So there's a maximum possible pitch before breakage at any scale length.
Equations are useful, but experiments trump them. I mess around with lots of tunings for slide guitar, some of them very high. I have tried getting a 24" scale guitar high string to high-B as, e.g., the 3rd of an open-G tuning or the 5th of an open-E tuning. I tried everything down to a 0.007" string, no dice. I think the highest I ever got was with a .009" or .010", but once it got up past A, if it didn't break while tuning up, it broke very quickly after playing. Never could get it up to B without breaking on the way up.
So you're probably stuck with either a shorter scale or a significantly stronger string. I tried some supposedly extra reinforced strings, no dice. |
|
|
|
