Tunings: Bit more detailed description

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

not wishing to dig myself a hole here so all I can say is I have been playing over 40 years and cannot remember last time I broke a string while playing, the S.I.T strings I share with other players on here provide an extra .11 with the E9th sets not because they do not do the job but because some people do not learn how to fit them correctly or their guitar has a sharp edge somewhere that should be attended to. The end result for me is I get a build up of these "spare" 11's and I give them F.O.C to whoever needs them.....

[U_twelve]

Not forgetting John that the standard P.S.G. string sets print the gauges on the packet & bearing in mind a 0.017 thousand of an inch string is never tuned much above middle C (261.63 Hz) then the rest falls into place...

Before the days of digital tunners I used to tune from a concert A (440 Hz) tuning fork or the lead guitarists top E pitch pipe & had no knowledge of or interest in what frequency they where being pulled to other than the A. I assume it was the same with you. How did we ever manage. .

On top of that you have to take into consideration personal preference for instance I prefer a 0.018 & 0.022 plain (just like Buddy) for my 5th & 6th string on E9th nearley everybody else uses 0.017 & (0.020 plain or 0.022 wound).

Still just because I don't feel I would find it of much use I don't think there is anythong wrong with producing a cross referencing list of Frequency v String Gauges. So whoever wishes to take on the task, go for it, knock yourself out...

There is always room for more information

[simon_f3]

There is a good resource for making sure the tension is the the same for all strings here: https://b0b.com/infoedu/gauges.htm In terms of octave, I have never had any problems here... An octave too low definitely makes the strings feel too slack, and an octave too high (if you can get there!!!) would certainly cause some visible strain on the tuners, I would think.

But assuming you know that one string is correctly tuned, the chart on the linked URL will help if you want to try other, more exotic, tunings. I have used this myself for different plank set-ups, but always reverted to the 'normal' C6 in the end. I figure until I get to the point where I am limited only by the tuning, I should just persevere...
As it is, my limitation turns out not to be anything to do with the guitar!

Hope that's useful, anyway,

Sid