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Comment by Mark Bliss on October 29, 2016 at 3:16am

Another thing I should have touched on here about tension. Slide setup is usually preferred to hit the tighter side. It is again going to be a matter of personal preference, but I am betting many slide players would find 15 Lbs quite a bit too light. But there's different styles and tastes to consider I guess. IE: there could be a large range of difference between a cigar box guitar, Dobro, Lap steel, Pedal steel.

You might need to experiment, and very likely need to mix and match some string gauges.

And there's the question of wound or plain..... and the fact that wound only  come in limited gauges. 

Given your description, I personally would probably start in this range, targeting about 20 Lbs maybe?:

G2 = .039W

D3 = .026W

G3 = .019W

B3 = .014P

Comment by Fomhorach on October 29, 2016 at 3:10am

I had short strings..

6th 32", 5th 34", 4th 35" 3rd 37". When I built my 28" scale I had to go headless to fit my 6th sting.

Comment by Slow Blues Dani & Ol' Grey Bear on October 29, 2016 at 3:08am

You make a lot of sense Fomhorach. I really should try thinking more. Back to the drawing board and buying stuff too. Thanks for helping. :)

Comment by Fomhorach on October 29, 2016 at 3:01am

At 28" scale, make sure you have string lengths to fit the build. 28+2/3(bridge fixing)+2/4(tuner and string winding) 35". Measure your strings.

Comment by Slow Blues Dani & Ol' Grey Bear on October 29, 2016 at 2:50am

I'm not overly bothered about GDGB I should say. Thinking a little (rare for me) I think low c or b is normal at that scale length?

Comment by Slow Blues Dani & Ol' Grey Bear on October 29, 2016 at 2:44am

Wow thanks everyone for the help. I'll take a look at the calculator but may still struggle with knowing the neck thickness needed. No doubt that the calculator is going to help massively though.

I want to build a 28 inch scale length, fretless slide guitar for a deep and rich tone. I've just bought proper hardwood neck wood for the first time. Sapele which is 43x26mm. I appear to have got my facts completely wrong again so maybe I should use two necks together for a thickness of 52mm. Problem being that 52mm is likely not going to be that comfortable to play. Any suggestions for what I should reduce that down to for comfort but also strength? I bought 9-42 super light nickel on steel electric guitar strings and I'd like to tune GDGB. Any tips, pitfalls or tricks you could share would be much appreciated. I appreciate the huge help you've all given already but if I can pick your brains again I'd be in your debts massively.

Cheers. Bear.

Comment by Mark Bliss on October 29, 2016 at 2:34am

Another point:

The 15 pound tension thing is one way to roughly estimate tension, and a reasonable target, IN SOME CASES, but I wouldn't suggest getting extremely fixated on it. And lets keep in mind of course we are speaking of steel strings here, and that a typical electric tuning might fall in that ballpark while a steel strung acoustic often is set up much tighter, often with individual string tensions well over 20 Lbs and often running up to 30 or so. While a nylon strung classical might be in the range of 10 Lbs per......

And again, just an  example- you might find a gauge at a particular tuning that drops to about 14 Lbs, which might be fine, or the player might find that a little light and floppy. Going up incrementally one gauge size may bump you to 17 or 18 Lbs. which another player might find tighter than he/she desires.

Use what works, while understanding and awareness is a good thing......

Comment by Mark Bliss on October 29, 2016 at 2:07am

Its only a guess without knowing the intended scale lengths, tuning and string gauges, but I'd say all else being equal, I'd expect the combination of going from a (for example) 23" three string to a (for example) 25" four string of typical tunings and string gauges to be roughly 25 Lbs. additional tension.

And yes, you could compensate somewhat by using lighter strings, though there's a strong possibility of compromising tone qualities.

Comment by Fomhorach on October 29, 2016 at 1:58am

Take same note, same string. Longer length needs more tension.
Yup there's many variables but that's the easy answer.

Comment by darryl kernaghan on October 29, 2016 at 1:55am

The calculator is your best friend here, as Jim says, the same size string WILL have different loadings for different lengths, and what might really stress your neck can be easily countered by a lighter guage

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