Do I really run the risk of damaging my neck with big strings?

Discussion of newer designs, copies and reissue offset-waist instruments.
Post Reply
User avatar
N0_Camping4U
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1673
Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 1:59 pm
Location: Houston Texas

Do I really run the risk of damaging my neck with big strings?

Post by N0_Camping4U » Mon Sep 26, 2022 12:00 pm

I like big strings, and I cannot lie. Not saying they have moar toan or anything, but I like how tight they are and don’t move much when I’m doing tremolo picking. I play a lot of surf music so that’s where I’m coming from. I’ve got old massive strings on a beater Stratocaster. I’m talking 15-16’s for sure. Maybe bigger. I can’t remember. I think bigger. And it’s fine.

I was looking at these strings: https://www.stringsbymail.com/la-bella- ... -8073.html

And it says not to be used on 25.5 scale lengths. I’m narrowing completion on my type 2 Marauder build but don’t want to damage my neck… but my strat has remained straight as an arrow for 10 years.

Is there any concern? Or is this blown out of proportion?
"I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan. We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner, now I am the master."

User avatar
Embenny
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 10363
Joined: Tue May 24, 2016 5:07 am

Re: Do I really run the risk of damaging my neck with big strings?

Post by Embenny » Mon Sep 26, 2022 12:06 pm

The short answer is that it depends on the neck - a one-piece wizard carve flame maple neck with a single-action truss rod is very different from a baseball bat 5-piece laminated neck with graphite rods and a dual-action truss rod in terms of stability.

Also, the warning against 25.5" scale and standard tuning might not be as much about damaging the neck as it is about destroying the strings. 15 gauge strings at standard tuning on a 25.5" neck might be under so much tension that the strings themselves just snap. Different alloys and string construction styles would have different maximum tensions.
The artist formerly known as mbene085.

User avatar
DeathJag
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 2297
Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2018 11:44 am

Re: Do I really run the risk of damaging my neck with big strings?

Post by DeathJag » Mon Sep 26, 2022 12:36 pm

Someday I want to play Dick Dale's 16 - 60 strings. That was on his strat, I wonder if that neck had any problems? An 80s Japanese strat got a neck twist and I think it's from leaving 12 - 54s on there over years with the Summer-Winter changes. It sucks because it was my first guitar and it has a cool thin unvarnished neck.

Question - you're just putting sets together using a string tension calculator? I mean, no one makes a 14 - 58 set as far as I have seen, forget about 15s or 16s. I found a wound .017 and I'd LOVE to use that as a high e but that seems like a lotta tension...

User avatar
Flurko
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 996
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2008 8:05 am
Location: Stroßbùrri
Contact:

Re: Do I really run the risk of damaging my neck with big strings?

Post by Flurko » Mon Sep 26, 2022 12:37 pm

The text in the description says : These professional Jazz Guitar Strings are made to fit archtops and hollow-body guitars, therefore are NOT suitable for standard guitars with 25.5" or 24.75" scales. , I don't think they're saying you shouldn't use them on standard scale guitars, as far as I know archtop jazz guitars have the same scale lengths as most electric guitars.

From a similar description on the Labella Jazz Tapes I bought, I think it mostly means that these strings are designed for guitars strung like archtops, ie with some length between the bridge and the tailpiece, and with classic nut + tuners, so you have room for the silk ends on both sides, that wouldn't always work with some other hardware like a strat trem, string through bridges, perhaps locking nuts, etc.

User avatar
andy_tchp
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 8010
Joined: Fri Apr 02, 2010 1:36 am
Location: Brisbane

Re: Do I really run the risk of damaging my neck with big strings?

Post by andy_tchp » Mon Sep 26, 2022 3:30 pm

Flurko wrote:
Mon Sep 26, 2022 12:37 pm
From a similar description on the Labella Jazz Tapes I bought, I think it mostly means that these strings are designed for guitars strung like archtops, ie with some length between the bridge and the tailpiece, and with classic nut + tuners, so you have room for the silk ends on both sides, that wouldn't always work with some other hardware like a strat trem, string through bridges, perhaps locking nuts, etc.
I believe this is the correct answer.

You can't just trim those strings shorter (once you're past the silk).

Labella FAQ
Can I cut the tape wound portion of my bass or guitar string?
No, you cannot. Only the silked portion of the string can be cut, or else the string will unravel like a slinky.
"I don't know why we asked him to join the band 'cause the rest of us don't like country music all that much; we just like Graham Lee."
David McComb, 1987.

User avatar
N0_Camping4U
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1673
Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 1:59 pm
Location: Houston Texas

Re: Do I really run the risk of damaging my neck with big strings?

Post by N0_Camping4U » Wed Sep 28, 2022 4:22 am

DeathJag wrote:
Mon Sep 26, 2022 12:36 pm
Someday I want to play Dick Dale's 16 - 60 strings. That was on his strat, I wonder if that neck had any problems? An 80s Japanese strat got a neck twist and I think it's from leaving 12 - 54s on there over years with the Summer-Winter changes. It sucks because it was my first guitar and it has a cool thin unvarnished neck.

Question - you're just putting sets together using a string tension calculator? I mean, no one makes a 14 - 58 set as far as I have seen, forget about 15s or 16s. I found a wound .017 and I'd LOVE to use that as a high e but that seems like a lotta tension...
It was so long ago... I can't remember where I got the strings, or how. I dug through my emails for hours one day to see if I had a receipt online from the strings. I know I was on SurfGuitar and I feel like someone posted a link to the strings or a site that let you make custom strings. Maybe it was Pyramid... I wish I could remember or buy them again because I love them. I dread the day I may break a string on that Strat I have strung up with them.
"I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan. We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner, now I am the master."

User avatar
Horsefeather
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 468
Joined: Tue Jan 10, 2017 9:47 pm

Re: Do I really run the risk of damaging my neck with big strings?

Post by Horsefeather » Thu Sep 29, 2022 3:11 pm

No, you're not going to mess up the neck. Go big! Dick Dale's guitar lasted his entire career in that configuration with no ill effects to the neck, from what I've read.

I posted on 101 about a custom set I put together at Stringjoy, where I sought to even out the wide variety of tensions across the Dick Dale set, and having been playing on that set for a while now, I can say it's really not that much different than a more typical weight. I went bigger on the low end and thinner on the high end:

14
18
22p
34
46
62

I won't blasphem by posting a picture of the guitar (With it's non-offset Strat waist) but they look real nice!

The 14 is a major relief from the crazy tension on his 16 and allows you to get some small degree of actual bends in if you want them but the whole set still stays nice and stiff while you're playing hard. And the guitar itself doesn't mind the extra tension one bit.

The forces on the neck are mostly compression along its length and that's a very easy load for wood to bear. Get your action nice and low and this will minimize the bowing forces. Your truss rod will easily handle the rest.

User avatar
N0_Camping4U
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1673
Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 1:59 pm
Location: Houston Texas

Re: Do I really run the risk of damaging my neck with big strings?

Post by N0_Camping4U » Sat Oct 01, 2022 9:09 am

Horsefeather wrote:
Thu Sep 29, 2022 3:11 pm
No, you're not going to mess up the neck. Go big! Dick Dale's guitar lasted his entire career in that configuration with no ill effects to the neck, from what I've read.

I posted on 101 about a custom set I put together at Stringjoy, where I sought to even out the wide variety of tensions across the Dick Dale set, and having been playing on that set for a while now, I can say it's really not that much different than a more typical weight. I went bigger on the low end and thinner on the high end:

14
18
22p
34
46
62

I won't blasphem by posting a picture of the guitar (With it's non-offset Strat waist) but they look real nice!

The 14 is a major relief from the crazy tension on his 16 and allows you to get some small degree of actual bends in if you want them but the whole set still stays nice and stiff while you're playing hard. And the guitar itself doesn't mind the extra tension one bit.

The forces on the neck are mostly compression along its length and that's a very easy load for wood to bear. Get your action nice and low and this will minimize the bowing forces. Your truss rod will easily handle the rest.
I saw your post and replied to it on SG101! Post the guitar! Everyone would want to see it. It made me want to build my own!! I'll check out stringjoy, thanks for the advice.
"I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan. We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner, now I am the master."

User avatar
graceless
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 368
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2021 2:33 pm

Re: Do I really run the risk of damaging my neck with big strings?

Post by graceless » Sat Oct 01, 2022 11:54 am

No

Post Reply