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Problems with EBE tuning - advice please

Hello all

The nature of my problem..........

I generally make my CBGs with a GDG tuning, I have a scale length 24.5 inches and use the A, D and G strings.

I have tried tuning this to EBE using the same set of strings, it works but the strings end up being quite slack and it doesn't seem to hold it's tuning brilliantly.

So I swapped the string for the E, A and D strings, still using the same scale length 24.5 inches, and it is really really tight to tune up the A and D strings I ended up having to shorten the scale length drastically to arrive at a tension that I felt comfortable with.

Any of you makers out there use an EBE tuning? What strings and scale length are you working with?

Many thanks in advance.

Alex

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on August 25, 2015 at 2:39am

It always depends on the scale length Alex. 24.5" is a totally normal length for a guitar, so using a standard E string for the bottom should be fine. It's a bit of a stretch tuning the others up by a whole tone but it should be doable...

I would recommend buying your strings to achieve equal tension across all of them. I ran your tuning and scale length through this string tension calculator:
http://www.mcdonaldstrings.com/stringxxiii.html
And it looks like 52, 34 and 24 would be ideal, and would give roughly 10kg of tension per string. Have fun!

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