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OK, so, I have this guitar:



Which probably has .009s on it now (roundwound).

It has a little over 23" or so scale.

IT HAS NO TRUSS ROD.

I'd like to throw on a set of .013s (flats) and tune it down to CGCFGC.

Anybody have any experience with anything similar they can share, please?

I always have my Jaguar (24") in Aenstandard (DADAAE) but have also gone down to C with really heavy strings. Aenstandard is a breeze. I only had it in C for a very short time, so I don't remember the gauges or any intonation or other performance issues, sorry!

aen wrote:I always have my Jaguar (24") in Aenstandard (DADAAE) ...

Yes, you do, sir. Thanks for your response.

This is probably a silly thing for me to be doing with this guitar. . My practice amp can't really reproduce notes below that low D that I usually tune to. (Which is why I've been playing in DADGAD and not CGCFGC.) It also might help the neck adjust if I don't take such an extreme leap in string gauges.

I've got my Jaguar strung up in G with .13/14-70somethings right now and it's been fine

That's awesome.

I'm a little worried because this one has no truss rod though (and a mahogany neck).

Mahogany is fairly durable, I'm pretty sure, but I could understand your concern with the lack of a truss rod.
Might be worth throwing a cheap set of .11's on it to see how it plays in C, and then if it's a little noodly, evaluate the tension and see if you can go up to .12 and .13.
Once you get the .11's on, it should be fairly obvious if the tension is getting crazy, but since you'd be going down to C I think you'd have less of an issue.

Thanks, skully.

Yeah, .011s are probably the safest bet to start with.

Just use this dude - plug in your current data to work out your total tension. Downtune then hack up the thickness as required until you arrive at a similar total tension.

http://www.mcdonaldstrings.com/stringxxiii.html

Nice, thanks, goroth. I've used string calculators before, but I'm not sure I've ever used that one.

Hmm, my peavey T15 (23 or 23.5" scale i can't remember) is strung with 11-56 rounds in drop C# at the moment although i've gone lower. Based on my experiences with that I would say start with 12's maybe. There's not a lot of tension even though it's not downtuned that much, but since your guitar has no truss rod there's no way I'd go straight to 13's. I wouldn't be surprised if the low C string rattled even with the tension being ideal, i've noticed that short scales downtuned tend to sound and feel amazing but i can never get rid of the rattling on the lowest string.

Thanks, backwardsvoyager, yeah, I have it in DADGAD now with the .009s (or whatever's actually on there) and it's fine, but I tried tuning down further and there definitely wasn't enough tension on the strings. That low C was ridiculously loose. I think .011s or .012s are most likely what I'll end up getting.

Convert to an octave mandolin. No one on here tunin' uuuuuuuuuuuuuup.

Get out of here, Kosta.

Although, it's funny you should mention a weird instrument like the octave mandolin. The first person I saw playing one of these guitars had it tuned in some strange tuning and was using a crushed pastile tin as a bridge.

kosta wrote:Convert to an octave mandolin. No one on here tunin' uuuuuuuuuuuuuup.

Incorrect!

GGDGG.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzXOvajfAHQ[/youtube]

Ah! Those look so great chankgeez!
Been considering one for a long time how does it play?