String gauge for D standard and drop C tunings

[Mr. Air]

I've got a Godin LG than I plan on making my main guitar for heavy and downtuned riffing. What string gauge would you suggest for D standard and drop C tunings? The guitar has a 24,75 scale.

[Dave Sloven]

I use a 10-52 Ernie Ball Skinny Top Heavy Bottom set for D standard, but I think the low string would be too slack for Drop C.

You might want to consider the D'Addario EXL117 Medium Top/Extra-Heavy Bottom set, 11-14-19-32-44-56

That's the first set I'd try if I was looking to play both D standard and drop C on a Gibson scale length.

[CommonCourtesy]

Ernie Ball Not Even Slinky 12-56 gauge. If you're a chuggy riffer then a 56 is the minimum I'll have on the low C string. Anything less and its too floppy for drop c. For D standard I'd use a 54.

[JDC]

10-52

[Kiichi]

Not a string gauge I concerned myself with a lot tbh, only spend a lot of time on standard, drop D and drop A#, acoustic standard and d standard. Personally Ernie Balls are just not for me. Never played one I liked. I have the suspicion that they use relativly thin core wire (among other things).

I prefer DRs or DŽaddario, whichever are easier and cheaper to get. Since I play 10er in standard IŽd go 11er on an electric for D standard. For the low strings you also have to think if you like nickel, nickel plated steel, or steel. Plus hex or roundcore. Change those up and the gauge wonŽt feel the same.

You might also consider a reaaaally big gap between the high and low end.
I for one tried a lot of sets for drop A# (for In Flames stuff) and nothing seemed to work right. Recently I met In Flames a craft beer bar before a gig and had a good chat with them, especially with Björn Gelotte. All great guys, but he was an especially nice chap. Ok, long story short, after a good gear discussion I ended up with two if his pics and one set of his signature strings.

Why am I talking about this? He plays drop A# on a Les Paul. What he uses are 12-68 (!) Dunlop customs, coated nickel plated steel (still gotta ask which core). And man, these are amazing. I did not think I would like them (I like high contrast, but this still seemed big, and I also prefer pure nickel, uncoated), but do they ever work for this. Now I am working so hard to learn Crawl through Knives.



Anyhow, to sum this up, gauge is not all. Not by any means. But look at DR and DŽaddario in the 11-58 range or so. Hex will be stiffer, steel will be brighter. Maybe DR drop tunings? Or the Dimebag set? DŽaddario heavy bottom? Really a lot of choices.