Hi guys. I'm actually a drummer, primarily. I do play some guitar just to write songs but I'm completely clueless to the anatomy of guitars. I bought a beautiful Michael Kelly and had it set for drop B tuning. I have Beefy Slinky 11-54s on it. Would it hurt my guitar or truss rod to go to drop B flat without having anything reset? It doesn't seem like a huge stretch but I don't want to damage my pretty new guitar. Thanks
I'm assuming you by "drop B" you actually are thinking of "B standard" where all the strings are lowered, in other words BEADF#B from low to high and not just dropping the low E string to B.
The problem is that, even with Beefy Slinkys, that's pretty low for most guitars to hold the tension on the strings without a longer neck. If you're interested in playing that low you should either get a seven string guitar or a baritone guitar or just a baritone neck to put on your current guitar, assuming you can swap out the neck.
Hope this helps. And welcome to Guitar Noise, by the way.
Peace
Low to high it's actually B, F#, b, E, G#, C#. The tension is perfect. I get zero rubber band effect cause I just had it set up for this tuning. The tuning I want to go to now is B flat, F, A#, D#, G, C. That's the tuning that At the Gates and In Flames used. I'm pretty sure they had six string guitars that werent baritone. I just love that low Gothenburg tone. It was like 25 bucks to get it set up for drop B and I really don't feel like paying another 25 bucks to tune it barely a half step lower. As my name dispays, I'm a noob at guitar. I just don't want to damage the truss rod or anything. It seems like a harmless drop but I don't want to chance it without someone who regularly uses these low tunings to give me an opinion.
The tuning I want to go to now is B flat, F, A#, D#, G, C.
So that's drop-Bb off of C standard (which you will often see spelled C F Bb Eb G C). I use C standard frequently on acoustic 12-string, using a .012 set. Drop-Bb brings intonation issues on the sixth course -- OK for a drone but pretty sketchy tuning beyond say the third fret. Normal guitar scale lengths seem to run into problems of physics or geometry or something when tuned that low. But with even heavier strings, who knows? I haven't tried it.
Truss rod? I shouldn't expect any issues in the neck from tuning another half-step down from where you already are. I haven't experienced any problems -- but a Takamine 12-string acoustic is not the same instrument as a Michael Kelley electric. I suggest you call the tech who set the guitar up, see if he/she will do a phone consult.
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream." - Frank Zappa
Yeah, probably a good idea. I'm just worried that he will tell me it requires another set up just to get another 25 bucks out of me. I guess I'll see what they say. Thnaks for the input guys.
I'm just worried that he will tell me it requires another set up just to get another 25 bucks out of me. I guess I'll see what they say.
Please let us know what they say. FWIW, I expect any guitar of mine to handle any alternate tunings down to C
standard, on the fly, with no truss-rod or intonation problems. I string everything with .012s to allow for this. I don't use locking tremolos, which require extra work to retune. That low Bb however has never really worked for me with the string sets I use.
Good luck. And welcome to the forums!
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream." - Frank Zappa
You shouldn't have to get it reset just for 1/2 a step down. I would think that you would be fine to go that low if your guitar is set for drop B. It'd be like going into drop D from standard tuning. If your guitar was set up for standard tuning and you detuned it that much it probably would do at least a little bit of damage though.
