2 Questions.

First, what guage strings should I get for my acoustic for C# standard tuning? I normally prefer something between medium and heavy for a good overall tone.

Second, my electric guitar's G string (har har) won't stay in tune, and if I give it a good pull, it goes back in tune. I also have the same problem with my low D when I play in drop D tuning, except it's much more exagerated (since low notes have less frequency differences than high notes). And I have a tremolo, if that makes a difference, but I'm only having these two problems, and the trem springs are pretty tight.

One of my guitarists is having the same problem with his telecaster, which obviously doesn't have a tremolo. We both need to get it fixed, and soon, because we're going to start playing places other than churches, and these little things need to be dealt with first. Not to mention I have relative pitch, so it drives me insane anyway.

are they new strings?

i found that sometimes new strings go out of tune easily.

takes about 2 - 3 weeks for a string to remain in tune, at least it did for my acoustic

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elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
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else{
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Well, on an acoustic with the nylon strings, the strings stretch out some.

So you have to tighten and loosen it a bunch to get it to stay in place.


As far as your Drop D problems.. stop playing in Drop D... seriously.



No really.. Uhmm, sounds to me like you aren't stringing that right. I've never had an electric guitar string just... go out of tune.

Could be many factors affecting your string going out of tune...

If its urgent, you could just take it to a guitar tech to have a look at it.

13-56's, standard medium acoustic guage, IIRC.


A floating tremolo à la Floyd Rose or a standard Strat-type trem? If its a standard trem and you dont use it, open up your guitar and tighten the springs as far as you can. Small string tension changes won't detune your other strings after that.

A tip, before putting new strings on your guitar, put them in boiling water on the stove for five minutes or so. Dry them off and put them on right away. The metal is warmer, and stretches much faster.

I figured as much. But what should I use for C# tuning?

Like I said, they're pretty tight. I've actually played a strat that would detune other strings during a bend. Crap... come to think of it, that's the strat I was going to borrow that night for drop D tuning. Plus there's a solo with lots of bends and tremolo-bend combos. *sigh* Something else to fix.
So how exactly do you tighten springs, anyway?

But for my guitar, I don't think it's the tremolo, because it never detunes the rest of the strings, even when I dive bomb or something. Not to mention the G string goes sharp, not flat. And I don't have a problem with the low E unless I drop it to D.
I use 10s, although I can't remember the specific range, and I'm considering going up another step. The more I play, the stronger my fingers get (obviously). I started on 8's originally, and I keep going up.


Wouldn't that make them prone to faster corrosion?

But all the kewl people are doing it!

13-56's. :p Seriously, I don't think they make guitar strings much bigger than that. Already, 56 is bigger than the standard size for a low B on 7-string guitars. You could go for 16-70s, but that would be excessive, wouldn't it? :p


Open up the panel on the back of your guitar. Usually there's two or three springs that hold the tremolo. Towards the neck of your guitar, there will be a small plate where the springs are attached. This place can be screwed closer or farther from the wood of the body. Tighten the strings to stretch the springs more and make them tighter. It's the only way I was able to get 13-56's on my old Strat-copy.


Maybe your string isn't sliding right in the nut when you tune it, and with play it moves later on. Loosen your string and take a pencil, put some graphite on the nut in the groove, just enough to cover the bottom, and see what happens.


That wouldn't make much of a difference to me anyways, my finger sweat when I play and my strings never last more than two weeks before they are black, and this without boiling the strings.

My strings usually last a year

I have no idea. I'm using 13's right now, and they're floppy (particularly that G string). D'addario makes 14-59's, but that's the largest I can find (from musiciansfriend.com anyway).


You have a rare Canadian sweating disorder. My strings are like a couple months old on my electric, and my acoustic strings are... many months old. And neither are even close to black (except maybe the G on the acoustic, since it's actually a number of years old).

Check out the D'addario phosphor-bronze EXP's. These are great strings, and probably the only ones to last me well over a month, and still sound brand new. :p

http://www.daddariostrings.com/DADProdDetail.aspx?CodaID=677&ID=2&Class=BBPA - these ones are 16-56's, but they make 16-70's as well, for tuning in B.

Is there a mathematical equation for this? :p

If all the cool people jumped off a mountain, would you?

Hey, whatever makes me look cool.


Actually, it's just that the chord riffs in the song I'm going to do are impossible in standard tuning. Plus I love doing harmonic-vibratoes in drop D.


Well anyway, I'm going to a Guitar Center in a few hours. And my mom offered to buy me strings. FREE STRINGS!!!

Hey, that pencil thing seems to have worked. Sweet.

Also, 13s are (apparently) exactly what I have on my acoustic already. So... :p

I hope they'll exchange them. They haven't been used, just opened.

13's are too floppy in C#? WTF? I played 13's in standard (not dropped) B tuning. :p

Glad the pencil trick worked. It's worked for me before.

Damn you. I probably spend 200 bucks in a year on strings.

Yeah, people don't realize the expenses a guitar can have. It's not like this 1 time purchase and your set...

Strings can easily rack up $$ per year. Granted, their relatively cheap for a pack - but when you have 4 guitars and play often - it's a never ending cycle. Plus people's string changing is different. Some people don't change it for awhile. Some change it after every live performance... Some guitar companies recommend chaning strings weekly... Bah!

Then, for the more into guitar, there are those that clean it, polish it, treat the fretboard as if you want to be able to eat off it (keeping it clean).

Then you have the inevitable maintenance... Electronics going bad, parts failing, pickup changes...

It's an investment I say...I've probably put more $$ into one of my Jackson guitars then I paid for it brand new. But damn I love it...

I think we're thinking different tunings. The one I'm using is where E chords are actually in C#, which is like 3 semitones down. And it sounds purdy.

And the dude gave me a 52 for drop D. It almost didn't fit into the nut. :p But it's about the same tension as it would've been if it was a 48 (I think) in regular E. And actually stays in tune.
Unfortunately, most of the other strings on the guitar I borrowed are corroded, so I'll have to get a set for those. But I'm taking them back off when I'm done!

I'm lucky if I have 200 bucks in a year.


*needs to get a job*

I was just saying, that in B-E-A-D-G-B that my 13's weren't sloppy, so they better not be sloppy in C#. :p

Perhaps our necks are different lengths? Or something. Because using the strings I already have on it for that tuning changes the tension enough to cause the neck to start bowing up in the middle.

Then they're definitely not tight enough.

uh.... yeah. Hence this thread.

Dude, the Fender I borrowed totally owns my Squier. Even though it has heavier guage strings that what I'm used to on an electric, I can play stuff easy on it that I have trouble with on my own guitar. Of course, the strings rattle like a mo'fo' because the action is so darn low, but still.

[/pointeless post]

Because Squire's are the spawn of the Devil.

I usually change my strings when either they get too worn (usually 2 months) or when I start breaking too many and run out of single replacements. I buy strings in about 3-4 packs at a time because I break strings often.

On my acoustic I use Elixir .10's polyweb and they have excellent tone and last a long time. Downside is they are about $13.99 per pack so if I'm buying 3-4 packs per month that's around $45 per month on just my acoustic strings.

On my Fender Strat I use Ernie Ball. They're cheap but good. Usually .9's or .10's. I dont know what kind of tuning heads you have but for a while I was stringing my electric improperly which caused me to break more strings/go out of tune more often. Be sure to stretch your strings A LOT when you first put them on. I've never done the boiling water thing. Just take a peg-winder and use the handle to pull up slightly on the strings and move up and down the neck like that.

Also, if you dont already have one, get an onstage tuner, rack or pedal. I use a BOSS TU2 and love it.

And Jeff Buckley did some kickass stuff with Dropped D. It's not just a thrash tuning.

It's not that bad. But I've never actually lowered the action to the point that this Fender has because I don't like it rattling, but I'm going to try it and see if it works. Had this thing over a year and never adjusted much of anything. If it turns out as good, I'm going to just get some new pickups (eventually), since these don't quite have as much punch as I'd like.

Ya, I have an old 1990 Fender Prodigy (it's like a Fat Strat) that I need to completely rewire and put new pickups in.

Duncan Hot Rails are incredible pickups for a Strat.

Do they have any noise reduction? Every single-coil pickup I've ever used is noisy. Plus right outside my room is a meter thing, which puts off way too much electromagnetism.

They're humbuckers that fit in a single-coil spot on your guitar. You get the classic sound of a single coil, but with the added "oomph" and noiselessness of a humbucker.

Third one down - http://www.seymourduncan.com/website/products/stratsdescr.shtml

Responds to the subtlest finger movements, eh? I make too much extra noise as it is.

Still, I've actually been wanting that type of pickup.