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Fiddlehound
Jun-12-2010, 12:08pm
I'm a clueless fiddler when it comes to tenor guitar strings. :)) I've been playing on the strings that came on my Blueridge. I assume all the guitars come with the same strings from the factory. Does anyone know if the factory strings are considered light, medium or heavy ? Is a certain gauge preferable for GDAE tuning ? Has anyone experimented with different gauges for GDAE tuning ? Thanks for you help !

mandroid
Jun-12-2010, 12:20pm
Clue:You are better off getting used to using numbers .. 0.012" is a fixed unit , 'light/medium' is not.

take the instrument to the music store where you buy strings, a decent shop will have bought a Vernier Caliper ,
that will display digital fractions to 4th place behind the decimal point. and measure the thickness of what is on there.
then you will have a reference point of what's on there , as you change tuning from CGDA
to GDAE, bear in mind that the total tension induced on the instrument should not change much ,
It like other guitars was designed for a particular tension load.
and you would not want more tensile load that it will accept.

:popcorn:

mandoannie
Jun-12-2010, 11:07pm
My retailer measured the strings on my new Blueridge BR-60T when I picked it up and they were 0.032w, 0.022W, .014, .010 for standard CGDA tuning. I believe they ship with D'Addario J66 set, which are 80-20 bronze. I was advised to be careful changing the strings for GDAE tuning as this could cause the bridge to lift away from the body.

Sorry to derail the thread, but want to share some info about Blueridge tenor guitars. I love the tone and playability of this little guitar and have barely played my mandolin since I got it last week. I really like the voicing, somewhere between guitar and mandolin, so it will add a new layer to jams.

(My retailer was able to get a great deal on a 60T that had a few minor finish blems on the back edge, for about the same price as the 40-T, which were out of stock.)

When I took the guitar in to the local luthier yesterday to have a strap button put on, he replaced the strings with phosphor bronze in the same gauges as the originals were already dead. He suggested that PB would probably sound better longer. (the tone is a bit less bright with the PB.) He also noticed that the bone in the bridge was not glued in, but rather slid in a groove and was narrower than the groove. When strings were tensioned, the bone piece tended to pull toward the fretboard and he suggested that eventually the bone might spit the wood of the bridge from this constant pull on groove. He is suggesting that at some point after the instrument has acclimatized and I'm ready for a better set up, that he will replace the bone with a piece that properly fits the groove in the wooden bridge and will glue it in. (as it was shipped the intonation was pretty close but the strings were a bit farther from the fretboard as you moved toward the 7th to 14th fret, but still pretty easily playable. The luthier did some quick and dirty sanding on the bone piece to improve the string distances and intonation up the neck.) I also had him check to see what might work for a pickup. The LR Baggs I-beam will fit under the bridge between the bracing and was what he suggested for the situations I might play in. I'm going to think about that for a bit. Supply and install will cost nearly as much as the guitar. :(

For the price, I am very impressed with the tone and volume and fit and finish (and the luthier was also impressed). I have only had the guitar for a week, but have been having fun learning to pick some melodies on it. It was surprisingly easy to find scales, fills, breaks and melodies all over the fretboard. I am struggling with the reach for chords. I found some excellent chord charts for tenor guitar on the internet, but most are either barre chords or 'long-stretch' chords.

Anyone have any 'cheater' chord charts that show by key the 1-4-5 and relative minors that aren't finger-busting for CGDA tuning?

mandoannie
Jun-13-2010, 8:11am
Sorry, should read "bone might split (not spit) the wood of the bridge". Not sure if all Blueridge tenor guitars have the same bridge setup, but that might be a consideration for changing tuning to GDAE and adding more tension to the bridge.

I concur with the excellent review
"N00b Review: Blueridge BR-40T Started by grumpycoyote, May-16-2010". I was unable to compare the tone of the BR-60T to a BR-40T, but both seem to be excellent value for money. If you plan to change the tuning from standard CGDA for any period of time, you might want to consider checking the bone/bridge.

Fiddlehound
Jun-13-2010, 11:48am
Sorry, should read "bone might split (not spit) the wood of the bridge". Not sure if all Blueridge tenor guitars have the same bridge setup, but that might be a consideration for changing tuning to GDAE and adding more tension to the bridge.

I concur with the excellent review
"N00b Review: Blueridge BR-40T Started by grumpycoyote, May-16-2010". I was unable to compare the tone of the BR-60T to a BR-40T, but both seem to be excellent value for money. If you plan to change the tuning from standard CGDA for any period of time, you might want to consider checking the bone/bridge.

Thanks so much for your input. I just love this guitar and wouldn't want to damage it.

mandroid
Jun-13-2010, 3:20pm
With the string length, scale, constant, lowering the pitch reduces tension ,
increasing gage raises it ..

Until someone else with the same thing you want to do has done it,

and makes the statement 'I have used X set and it has been fine'

there are string tension calculators to be found, online, to work with ,

to see what keeps the tension similar at that lower pitch.

John Flynn
Jun-13-2010, 3:31pm
I just posted this on another thread, but it seems it applies here also:

I get a lot of use out of The Universal String Tension Calculator, a free download linked below. I set up a profile that represents the string gauges and tunings the instrument was designed for. Then I note the string tensions. Then I reset the software for the desired tuning and change the string gauges until I get tensions close to the original tensions. That provides a baseline for me to string the instrument up in the new tuning with a "safe" string tension. I still sometimes find that there will be a string or two that I don't like the tension on for a given instrument. Then I will go a gauge heavier or lighter than the baseline on those strings and I'm done. It would be great if the software were right on every time, but at least it minimizes how much experimentation I need to do.

http://www.kennaquhair.com/ustc.htm

mandroid
Jun-14-2010, 1:06pm
Just a thought .. check out Irish tenor banjo sets string gages for a rough idea , then get Ball-end singles in that or smaller size..

I'd double check the tension calculation , Banjos don't have glued on bridges to pull off ..

arrowmandolin
Jun-14-2010, 2:02pm
There is no truss rod in the Blueridge neck, and it's a little flexible, but I would recommend this combo:.048-.034-.016[.020w if you can get them] and.012.
Like most modern production instruments, this tenor is a bit overbuilt, and needs a bit more tension to get full potential out of the box.