Stereordinary, DougK... string tension/neck safety question

[fuzzking]

So I assume this is a question for the luthiers in the house: Lately, I've been tuning strings up instead of down for open tunings, as it accomodates my whining and bottleneck playing better. The 'base' strings (the two Es) stay the same, and leaving some tension in them by not tuning them down is very nice for bottleneck technique. I don't worry too much about the newer necks, but I would feel terrible for fucking up a vintage one. I use .10/.11 strings, and I figure that tuning a few strings a step up shouldn't give much more tension than, say, an old school set of 13s in standard tuning, but what do I know... thanks for any advice.

[fisonic]

Might help.

http://www.mcdonaldstrings.com/stringxxiii.html

[jorri]

You're right, it should give same tension as a heavier guage. Be sure to add some tension in the opposite direction with the truss if you are worried. But that neck relief might be part of what you like about it too.

You can use the D'addario string tension guide to work out what kind of tension is compared to regular heavy string sets. Up-tuning is done a fair amount, its only the high e issue of snapping or having to use an out-of place heavy high E to prevent it..

[fuzzking]

Oh that calculator is nice! when I feed it my gauges/tunings, I get around 140 lbs of tension, which is still less than a set of .13s in regular tuning, so all is good. Haven't broken a string in years, and truss adjustment is child's play, so: topic end.

Thanks!

[Stereordinary]

Yep, jorri answered it as well or maybe even better than I could have. I love when I pop into a thread that I think I might be able to help in, and someone has already answered it. We have a good community around here.

[fuzzking]

Hey Paul, thanks for checking in!