Heavier strings

After getting my new guitar i went about the task of putting heavy guage strings on my old, el-cheapo guitar, and tuning it CGC-FAD, just so i can experiment with downtuning. My problem is that these heavy guage strings keep going massively out of tune. Is it because my tuners are not designed for the extra strain or is it more to do with my bridge. What can i do to make this guitar stay in tune a bit more (i'm talking in 3 minutes of playing it's out of tune again).

Well, it could be such a thing that your guitar is setup to handle light gauge strings in standard tuning... then you put these heavy strings on and tune it way down... You most likely have a strat style trem... And since this bridge isn't set-up for heavier strings... it's floating more than normal. Which means that the tension from the strings is greater than the tension for the trem springs... causing an inbalance in the setup of the trem... in turn... causing your strings to go out of tune much faster... That's the most likely... I would think. However... It could be that when you put the strings on the guitar... you didn't stretch them... Stretching the strings when you are installing them helps them break in a lot faster... and along with that. Expect heavier strings to take longer to break in because the mass of the strings is much greater than that of the smaller gauge strings. This means that they have to be exposed to that much more tension before they reach a stage of metallurgy which is, in lamen terms... the "pre loaded stage"... or in engineering terms the apex of the modulus of elasticity... The apex of the modulus of elasticity is known as the comfort zone for metals... they are most stable when they have been loaded with tension long enough to reach the apex of the modulus of elesticity curve.

Or it could be the neck adjusting to the different tension of the heavier strings, which if this is the case, let it do it's thing then have the truss rod adjusted.

Also, the slots in your nut could be cut too narrow and causing the heavier strings to bind-up and then slip periodically.

will have a mess around with the guitar, cheers.

I once had a acoustic and after using heavy strings the guitar began to come loose at the bridge & saddle & the top of the guitar began to raise at that point. Soon to become impossible to tune. RTO :)

wow so comforting :P lucky for me its a pretty standard electric so i can replace parts cheaply.

I have big huge 13 gauge strings on my Floyd Rose. I would have to add two more springs to get it up to standard tuning... but I keep it down at C# so the normal three spring setup works just fine. So far, so good.

Stevie Ray Vaughn used big-@$$ 13 gaugers, and at standard tuning I presume. And of course, his weapon of choice was the venerable Strat. Did he have some kind of specially-made weird tremolo or something? I know he had a lefty version in his right-handed guitar. I played an SRV Strat the other day at the Guitar Center... but they take the tremolo arms out of the floor models so I didn't get a chance to dork around with it, other than depressing it with the edge of my palm... which I do when I'm too lazy to grab the arm. Also, I've heard you can't do divebombs on the Fender trem, but SRV was known for them. So what's up with that? :confused:

Finally, I wanna get a guitar with a Kahler. Would that handle 13 gaugers just fine? Hell, they make a tremolo for bass :eek: so I imagine it dang well should!!!

Even when you use 5 springs... you can still adjust the spring tension by screwing the trem claw farther away from the trem block... this stretches the string and uses more tension from the springs... I use GHS Zakk Wylde Boomers (.10-.60) or something like that. Not positive about the E string gauge. But I have these installed on my number 1 Strat with all five springs... I don't use my trem hardly at all... if ever... So I went ahead and "screwed the trem down". I basically cranked on the trem claw screws until my bridge was flat against the body like I like it.

I'm not too familiar with the Kahler bridges... But like I said... it's all about adjustments. There is more than one way to adjust bridge tension besides just adding or taking off springs...

They make gadgets that help as well... like adjustable trem setters and hipshot trem springs...