String Gauges, Drop Tuning & Nut Slotting

Morbid

Morbid

Inspired
Greetings, gang!

I'm a long time player, and I'm revisiting some things I thought I knew, and am looking for some input.

Here in the near future, I'll be outfitting 4 guitars to cover 5 tunings for a hard rock cover band. The tunings will be as follows;
Guitar #1- Standard
Guitar #2- Drop D
Guitar #3- Eb & Drop Db
Guitar #4- Drop C

You may be asking; "Why not just use 3 guitars and drop the Standard to Drop D when necessary", and you'd be right, but my standard is an Ernie Ball JP6, and I'd prefer to not lock the bridge. Additionally, I've considered the Drop Tune pedal, but...I don't know...I'm not sure it sounds or feels as good as the real thing. But I'm willing to be swayed!

Anyway, when playing in standard, my preferred string gauge is 009 (NYXL 009, to be precise). I figure it wise to go up a full step to 10s for the Drop C guitar, with a heavier bottom string, but wasn't so sure about the Eb/Drop Db/C# guitar...9.5's with a heavier bottom string?

So my first question is; for someone who prefers 009s (I seem to be in the minority these days, lol), what gauges would you guys recommend for the alternatively tuned guitars?
Additionally, what implications will I face when swapping to heavier strings, aside from the obvious intonation adjustment and potential truss-rod adjustment? Should I anticipate re-slotting my nut? If so, should I assume that will essentially forbid those guitars from using lower gauges in the future without replacing the nut?

I'm sure it seems like I should know these things by now, and I largely believe that I do, but again, I'm revisiting what I think/thought I knew, with a mind that is open to having been wrong this entire time, lol, so thanks in advance for sharing your experiences, wisdom and knowledge!
 
10-52 was my go to for anything above B, d’addario xl. Try it on the drop C one.

You should be fine using the 9s for E/Eb and possibly D as well (try it and see).

Is your set 9-44 or 9-46?
 
Drop D - I just swap out the E string 46 for Dr strings ddt 46
Drop C # - custom set from stringjoy. 10.5 14 18 26 36 54
Drop C - custom set from stringjoy. 11 14 20w 28 38 56.
except for drop d, you will need to adjust the truss rod, intonate and slot the nut a bit.
You can buy a 56 nut slot file at stew mac. It’s easy. Go SLOW.

This keeps all my string tension nice, in tune and playable for me keeping the sets under 110 pounds for all. The nice thing about stringjoy is you can use their tension calculator and make up your own set. If you bang the strings hard you can go higher tension. Lower if you don’t.
There are plenty of stock sets that work as well. I’m sure others will chime in about those.
 
Budda said:
10-52 was my go to for anything above B, d’addario xl. Try it on the drop C one.

You should be fine using the 9s for E/Eb and possibly D as well (try it and see).

Is your set 9-44 or 9-46?
Click to expand...
9-42, actually! :)
 
If you're so inclined, try a 9-46 set. I use them mostly for Eb for everything from standard to Drop Db and they work just fine for me, but I have a fairly light touch most of the time. I use this gauge on all my guitars except Strats and the like with vintage trems; I used 9-42 on those..

For Drop C, I'd probably try a 10-46 or 10-56, but I don't currently play that low.
 
Morbid said:
9-42, actually! :)
Click to expand...
Light!

Yeah as said, tune down as far as you comfortably can with that gauge then go up one or so (d’addario does a 10.5-48 as well iirc) for going lower.

I use 12-54 in B with one guitar and 12-60 in B with another, both les pauls.
 
9-46 for anything in E or Eb, or drop D and drop C# (maybe a 48 in drop C#)
10-52 for D std or drop C
11-56 for B or Bb
Below that I'm going 7 string or baritone
 
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