Detuning relative action, string tension?

[Muso]

Hi

Just got myself a new guitar and I'm looking to detune for the first time. I am currently used to playing with 9-42 medium-low action and I was wondering how you calculate which strings for which tuning?

Say I wanted to go to Eb, would 9.5s give a similar playability to E standard with 9s? Or would I best best to use 10's? Also I have a keen interested to play some In Flames stuff which is in C so I take it I will some much more significantly heavy strings but I don't wanna break my fingers  :P

Any suggestions would be grand!

[AJDS]

I think using 12's at C works out at the same as 10's standard. And for Eb I'd go for tens but I'd doubt there would be much difference between 9.5 and 10.

[Ratrod]

what he said.

[WezV]

dont forget scale length!!

9's will do Eb just fine on a fender scale but it definately feels looser on a gibson


but tbh the feel is quite subjective and you wont know how you like it till you try it

[badgermark]

Just man up and use thick strings. Anything less than 11s is girl territory.

On a serious note, you CAN calculate string tensions, best to ask Roobubba on the forums, pretty sure he mentioned he calculated his out. Basically anything more than a half step on 9s or 10s will be wobbily and not tight enough, 11s can happily go down to C standard, but will feel 'loose'. Any lower and you're into man land, 12s and up.

[Roobubba]

Indeed, I calculated mine such that the 9s I was using in standard tuning on an Ibanez (so 25.5 scale length) equated approximately the same tension as my 13s (EJ-22 d'Addario, medium jazz strings) in A-E-A-D-F#-B.
I can't remember exactly how I did it now, but you should be able to interpolate from those figures above what gauge strings you would require for what tuning (approximately!). I calculated the tension for each string and added them up to make sure the total tension was about the same, but I can't find the sources I used just now to help...

Hope this helps! If not, drop me a PM and I'll try again to dig out the websites I used to find out what string tensions I had and what I was aiming for!

Roo