What Are Balanced Tension Guitar Strings? 

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@Tommy Gerald Instablaster ;)

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@Tommy Gerald You are welcome :D

Check the description!

Sure thing!

Can't wait to hear what you think of 'em Shawn! Holler at me if I can help with anything at all!

Try this link (click the download button, it's an excel doc): bit.ly/tensioncalculator

Thanks! You rock!!

Did you ever try them out? What did you think?

@@51MontyPython Yeah, I had them on for a few days and they felt great. I stopped because the strings didn't fit through the nut and the saddles correctly, and I didn't want to recut the nut just for this. I went down to 12s later and that is what I use for 24.75" scale length guitars. And I use Daddario balanced tension 11s on my 25.5" guitars. That's the tension I like.

@@RobCabreraCh What do you mean didn't fit through the saddles?

@@51MontyPython The strings were so big that they didn't go into the slots completely, they would just lay on top of the slots and buzz like crazy.

@@RobCabreraCh What kind of guitar(s) do you play? Btw, after rereading your OC -- 16-62s -- did I read that right? dayumn. Are you a jazz player? SRV was known for using 13s (though they were custom -- not true 13s) but not even his were _that_ big.

Yep, absolutely! We do this with our Light Top / Heavy Bottom set actually, the two tweaks you want to make are a .0135 for the B instead of a .013 to balance out the plain strings, and then there are really two approaches on bottom. Either moving the 5th string to a .040 from a .042 to better smooth out the tension difference between the .030 and .052 (so .030 - .040 - .052 all together), or bumping up the 6th string to a .054 (so .030 - .042 - .054 all together), will balance things out better.

Stringjoy cool, thanks for the info!

😃

You don't it's not speaking length. It doesn't matter unless your doing strums on the headstock.. Telecaster style. The balance will help have the G string come back to pitch on a Trem system

Add springs. Use all five and a balanced tension set but perhaps a less tension set so from 11-50 try 10-46.. Or float it a half step.. You probably only have 3 springs.. Get 2 more

Great question! This is a tonal balance choice, a .044 in that position on some guitars can really outshine the .032 and .024w. But there's nothing wrong at all with giving it a shot on one of your own guitars, it might work great for you!

@@Stringjoy If you have pickups with adjustable poles, you're in the money. Get a 44 and just bring the low E pole a bit down to compensate for the volume :)

They're better than their standard sets, but we like ours better (obviously). They don't account for the geometrical differences of plain and wound strings with their sets, so theirs are balanced purely based on the tension math. Unfortunately tension equations only take mass into account, and not any geometerical differences (what I'm talking about here are the fact that a wound string of a given mass will be more flexible than a plain string of the same mass). Long-story short: their wound strings will feel fairly slinkier than the plain strings in their sets, ours fill feel the same as the plain strings.

Thanks for saying to Charles!

err, saying so

Yep, all of our acoustic string sets use the same Balanced Tension philosophy as our electric strings!

Totally depends on the player. Anywhere from 15-33lbs per string is normal.

Well not to be rude, but don't play Elixir baritone strings and your guitar will be quite a bit happier.

How do you mean, happier?

I have been using this exact set for years on a C tuned les paul, thanks to Bjorn Gelotte Feels fun

I have to admit I don't have much experience with guitars without Truss Rods, but generally just having lower tension is going to be key with that. Balance is good, but it won't have a huge effect as we're really talking about a difference of a few lbs.

Get the lightest set of strings you can find lol

Yeah, but the scale length is 3/4 size, and anything lighter than a 12 gauge is like string cheese. The guitar is holding up well with 12 gauges, but I might try a balanced set of 11.5

With that shorter scale it should be able to handle 12s or 11.5s just fine, just keep a reaaaallllly careful eye on it.

because it is thinner, even with same force, it will exert more pressure on ur fingers

@@HaramGuys are you sayin' that, everything else being the same, a .009 will be easier on fingers than a .008?

@@tigranayvazyan5974 9 tuned to have 15 lb vs 8 tuned to a have 15lb, latter will feel more painful

Take your guitar to a local tech, they'll be able to identify the issue!

Ohhk sir, thanks for responding 😊

Can you determine where they're breaking and if they're breaking in the same spots? There's 3 or4(string trees) points of failure and any one of them can put undue stress on your strings. Might even require changing a few parts. Also, you have to stretch the strings and if you try to tune them too quickly, they'll break under the tension before they stretch. I would often tune to lower pitched alternate tunings and play a bit. Allowing the strings time to stretch before I eventually tune them to standard where I'll eventually settle in. You can try going for a lighter gauge set. I use to use .08's. I broke a lot too. It wasn't anything wrong with the guitars. I was really into metal at the time and .08 sets didn't seem to hold up to the abuse well. I ended up switching to lighter gauge picks and that did mitigate a lot of the breakages. Also consider the metallurgy of your frets and strings. There's nickel and there's steel for examples. Steel is harder than nickel. If you're using nickel strings, steel frets will wear them out faster. Also steel strings will wear down nickel frets much faster than if you had used nickel strings instead, eventually leading up to the need for fret redressing, leveling, and/or and even full replacements. It really is a custom recipe that you're putting together yourself. You're tuning a lot more than just strings. At some point, your guitar will be an extension of you, easier for you to play, but uncomfortable for anyone else, depending upon how far you go with your personal setup.

Hey Joseph! Both our .009s and our .010s balance very well, they just have different levels of tension overall. You can use a wound g on a .009 set, however it will have a bit more tension on it than the plain strings in the set.

Thanks, can I ask one more question? I asked you about using a wound G and you gave me some custom gauges that you would use...if I want to use your .010 balanced set...with a wound G...would the tension match, as well as the custom gauges you gave me? .0095 / .013 / .018W / .024w / .032 / .044 - these are the gauges you suggested based on my love of Pete Townsend style chords & violin like leads...would your balanced 010.s work as well or better, with a W .018 as opposed to the custom gauges you gave me? Thanks ps. Chords & tuning stability are more important to me, than fast leads......

Of course! And yes that .018w would work even better on a set of 10s in place of a .017 than it would on a set of .0095s

OK, thanks I'm going to order a couple of sets by the end of this week, as well as a couple of wound G's...thanks again!

As the scale gets longer, the tension gets higher for the same gauge string tuned to the same note.

I’m curious what guitar has a 25.5”-25”? Usually it’s >25.5”-25.5”

Like Kevin said, tension will increase as the scale gets longer. That said, typically it isn't enough to merit an adjustment to your strings, it will just help a typical string set sit a little better than otherwise. This is different of course if you have a really extreme multi-scale, but those aren't super common.

imhandumdrehen yep, that’s what I was referring to. Love me some Strandbergs.

Stringjoy awesome! Thanks for the info!

We account for this in our balanced tension sets. I believe we talk a bit about why we do so in the video.

No, it's not. Maybe you're not bright enough to understand what this guy says. That's your problem.