Alternate tuning questions...... string gauges...... affecting harmonics. ????

[javert]

I couldn't even fit 10s in the nut on one of my SL2Ts. I use 9s for E standard and 10s for Eb and D standard, although I am trying to motivate myself to try out 11s in D standard. I like both the feel and the sound of the thicker strings, but since I only play a couple of times a week, it seems like I struggle with 10s in E standard.

[potatohead]

I tried putting Slinky Beefies (11-54) on my USA Soloist with a TOM bridge and bone nut. The 54 did not fit into the nut all the way...it sort of sat on top which meant it was really high off the fretboard.

I didn't want to modify the nut, so I went back to lighter gauge strings. Anyone else run into that?

yeah, common thing. I file the nut if I know I am not going back with it. I have an RG I use in drop C which I had to file, it originally came with 10 - 46, now I use 10.5-14-18-28-38-54 (or 56). This is another reason why I love Floyds, you just clamp them down, doesn't really matter what gauge is in there.

I couldn't even fit 10s in the nut on one of my SL2Ts. I use 9s for E standard and 10s for Eb and D standard, although I am trying to motivate myself to try out 11s in D standard. I like both the feel and the sound of the thicker strings, but since I only play a couple of times a week, it seems like I struggle with 10s in E standard.

Maybe try what I do with a light top/heavy bottom set, although nobody makes the tops from 10's and bottoms from 11's (I still don't know why seeing as how they make them with the tops from 9's and bottoms from 10's), so you have to combine two packs. Still easy to bend the high strings and you get a little more chug from the bottoms.

Also, if you prefer to just stick to 11's, in D std they are pretty much right in between 10's and 9s in E std, when it comes to tension.

[JACKSONFREAK]

I have a couple of customers that down tune to G and G# on seven strings. I ended up using ernie ball hybrid slinkies and a 70 for the 7th string on one and a 65 on the other Cus the tuner wouldnt accommodate the 70. Unfortunately i had to use a bass string cus we dont carry anything larger than a 54 in a single string. wihich im trying to work on with the purchasing guys. Pinch harmonics are harder to get when a string is looser in tension, and when the magnetic field is changed due to more magnetic pull downward on the string. due to a looser tension. So with both being the case here, the pinch harmonics will be much harder to get.
Gil