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Bass String On A Guitar?


dani143

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Right, i have an issue with a guitar i bought 2 or 3 days back...it's a 7 string epiphone les paul and it's great. The only problem is that the strings on it are far too heavy (for me) except for the 7th string which appears not to be heavy enough. So i was thinking about stringing up with rotosound oranges (9, 11, 16, 26w, 36w, 46w) like i would if it were a 6 string, and then put a single bass string in the 7th position, maybe a 60 or 65

My main concern here woud be whether the neck is strong enough to cope with this set-up...has anyone else tried this and how well is it likely to work?

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I can't say for sure whether or not your guitar will hold up, but I can say that people do that. Mike Musok from Staind does that, he moves all his string up and takes off the high E, then puts a bass string on the bottom. I also believe he plays a 7 string as well, Ibanez I think. He gets a killer sound from it, really heavy but still somewhat clean. Maybe look around to find out what setup he uses, I'm not sure what string thicknesses he uses but it sounds like you what you want is what he does so check it out. Good luck.J

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I regularly play with 11,14,18,36,52,70 tuned to normal tuning, i have my US tele set up for them. I wouldnt try it with something with a glued-in mohog neck but it is possible. You can get guitar strings up to 80 gauge by daddario. It plays and sounds awesome btw.:D

Why not? Mahogany is perfectly strong, and a set neck at least as stable as a maple neck.

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Yes it will work! I can't believe you bass guys didn't give a thought to this!

My first baritone was made with a bass as the B string. A firts string on a bass that is suppose to be tuned to G and now you are tunning it to B! Thats 6 notes down tht normal. In a guitar the tension will be about the same as a regular E string down tuned to C.

I have used up to 72 as my Low E and I think that it is not worth it unless you have an extended scale! Try GHS 7H which goes to 58 on the B, and then think if you need anything bigger.

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I cant see why it can't work, and I wouldn't worry about the neck too much either. I know guys that use 12's or 13's in standard tuning on his takamine which had a tiny tenon, you cant really bend though. And my old teacher had 11's on his telecaster, never had any problems there. And heaps of the jazz guys with 7 stringers use 14-80's.

Those are insane.

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Put it this way, if you can get a guitar (not the word guitar, not bass) string thats up at like .64+ then theres a good chance that its beed tested a few time as to make sure it wont damage any guitar. Ive seen a 7sting set with the low b at .76 or somthing rediculous like that.

Why do you want such a thick b string anyway, why not just use a .56/60 if your e is a .46 that way youl have a pretty even tension across the board.

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Some one should really string up an SG and see if the neck stays on it. I bet anything it would break.

If I had an old SG I would seriously try it. I don't know, I bet if you strung it up with say, .14 - .80 it would still hold.

I would be really scared to do it, but I bet it would still hold. Mahogany is a very strong thing. It would most likely bend but I seriously doubt it would just flat out break. and if it did It probably wouldn't blow up and fly across the room like what I always imagine when people say the neck will fail :D

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Some one should really string up an SG and see if the neck stays on it. I bet anything it would break.

I understand that SGs have a small tenon, and that they are notorious for braking there, but I can bet that 90% of those cases were abuse rather than tenon faliure! I guess that you can't use heavy strings on Ibanez with floyd nuts because they tend to break at the scarf joint! :D

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