D Tuning String Gauges

Tony Dingus · Post by **Tony Dingus** » 6 Jan 2015 7:43 pm

What's the best gauges for D tuning on dobro and for Weissenborn guitar ?

Tony

Tom Gray · Post by **Tom Gray** » 7 Jan 2015 8:20 pm

Tony, it really depends on your guitar. On my David Dart Hawaiians I use .015, .017, .025w, .035, .045 and .056 for D tuning. On a Dobro you can go heavier, and on an electric steel heavier still, like .016 to .060. On a vintage Weissenborn please go lighter and err on the side of caution because the bridge can pull up overnight if the strings are too heavy.

Tony Dingus · Post by **Tony Dingus** » 8 Jan 2015 4:04 am

Thanks Tom.

Tony

Bruce Romanoff · Post by **Bruce Romanoff** » 10 Jan 2015 4:49 pm

HI, I'm pretty new to lap steel, but have been playing regular guitar my whole life. I have 2 Rogue lap steels I got new for a song. On one I'm playing C6 tuning and love it. On the new one, I would like to do open D, G and E if possible. My question is what are the right strings to put on. Its a 6 string and the ones now are way to thin. Thanks, Bruce Romanoff

Bob Blair · Post by **Bob Blair** » 10 Jan 2015 7:55 pm

On my 25" scale instruments I mostly use D'addario J-42's - a 16-56 set designed for resos. Works great for me. Very handy as I use them on my resos as well and by them by the fistful. I would probably go a little lighter with a vintage instrument. In terms of D tuning on dobro most people seem to just use the same strings they use for the G tuning (EJ-42's are a pretty common choice). Works just fine.

Larry Carlson · Post by **Larry Carlson** » 11 Jan 2015 1:27 pm

Bruce Romanoff wrote:HI, I'm pretty new to lap steel, but have been playing regular guitar my whole life. I have 2 Rogue lap steels I got new for a song. On one I'm playing C6 tuning and love it. On the new one, I would like to do open D, G and E if possible. My question is what are the right strings to put on. Its a 6 string and the ones now are way to thin. Thanks, Bruce Romanoff

Hi,

I also have a Rogue. I bought it as a first instrument and took it apart and changed a few things. When it came to strings I did a bit of searching and found a recommendation of 15, 18, 28, 38, 48, and 58 for strings, nickel wound. I play in open D mostly now but I don't see why you couldn't use them for G and E also.

Mark van Allen · Post by **Mark van Allen** » 11 Jan 2015 9:53 pm

Curious what you guys might suggest for a shorter scale, like 22 7/8 ths?

Bruce Romanoff · Post by **Bruce Romanoff** » 12 Jan 2015 5:58 am

Larry Carlson wrote:
Bruce Romanoff wrote:HI, I'm pretty new to lap steel, but have been playing regular guitar my whole life. I have 2 Rogue lap steels I got new for a song. On one I'm playing C6 tuning and love it. On the new one, I would like to do open D, G and E if possible. My question is what are the right strings to put on. Its a 6 string and the ones now are way to thin. Thanks, Bruce Romanoff
Hi,

I also have a Rogue. I bought it as a first instrument and took it apart and changed a few things. When it came to strings I did a bit of searching and found a recommendation of 15, 18, 28, 38, 48, and 58 for strings, nickel wound. I play in open D mostly now but I don't see why you couldn't use them for G and E also.

Thanks for the advice. I'm ordering them now. Wondering if I could put a humbucker on the Rogues. Have 2 nice ones sitting in my closet for 15 years.

Bruce Romanoff · Post by **Bruce Romanoff** » 12 Jan 2015 5:59 am

Bob Blair wrote:On my 25" scale instruments I mostly use D'addario J-42's - a 16-56 set designed for resos. Works great for me. Very handy as I use them on my resos as well and by them by the fistful. I would probably go a little lighter with a vintage instrument. In terms of D tuning on dobro most people seem to just use the same strings they use for the G tuning (EJ-42's are a pretty common choice). Works just fine.

Thanks Bob,
This is a great site. Lots of support and info.
Best, Bruce

Larry Carlson · Post by **Larry Carlson** » 12 Jan 2015 10:51 am

Thanks for the advice. I'm ordering them now. Wondering if I could put a humbucker on the Rogues. Have 2 nice ones sitting in my closet for 15 years.

That's what I did.
I made a steel nut for mine and I tossed out the $2 pickup that came with the Rogue and replaced it with a fairly good Epiphone humbucker I had laying aroud. I had to carve just a small amount of wood out of the body but making a hole in the pick guard for the humbucker was a bit more fun. I traced the pickup on the guard and then drilled 1/4" holes around the perimeter and then finished it with a hand file. I put a trim piece around the pickup just to make it look a bit nicer. I know it doesn't sound like the "big boys" instruments but it sound 10 times better than it did before.

I knew the Rogue was a low end lap but I wasn't going to spend up to $1000 for a good lap steel until I found out if I liked it enough to keep with it. Well, I am hooked now and am ordering an Asher lap as soon as they have them back in stock later this month.
After the Asher arrives I am taking the Rogue apart again and making a steel bridge for it and string it through the body.

Bruce Romanoff · Post by **Bruce Romanoff** » 13 Jan 2015 6:09 am

Larry Carlson wrote:
Thanks for the advice. I'm ordering them now. Wondering if I could put a humbucker on the Rogues. Have 2 nice ones sitting in my closet for 15 years.
That's what I did.
I made a steel nut for mine and I tossed out the $2 pickup that came with the Rogue and replaced it with a fairly good Epiphone humbucker I had laying aroud. I had to carve just a small amount of wood out of the body but making a hole in the pick guard for the humbucker was a bit more fun. I traced the pickup on the guard and then drilled 1/4" holes around the perimeter and then finished it with a hand file. I put a trim piece around the pickup just to make it look a bit nicer. I know it doesn't sound like the "big boys" instruments but it sound 10 times better than it did before.

I knew the Rogue was a low end lap but I wasn't going to spend up to $1000 for a good lap steel until I found out if I liked it enough to keep with it. Well, I am hooked now and am ordering an Asher lap as soon as they have them back in stock later this month.
After the Asher arrives I am taking the Rogue apart again and making a steel bridge for it and string it through the body.
Thans again. Yeah, I felt the same way. i'm hooked, but not $1000 hooked yet. I'm a carpenter so I should be able to do it.
The wiring should be pretty elemental. I'll give that a try for a while. Enjoy your new price.... Thanks Bruce

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 13 Jan 2015 9:58 am

Digging through some links here, you get to b0b's guide of string gauges:

http://www.b0b.com/infoedu/gauges.htm

This is worth it's weight in... strings. You can cut 'n' paste it to make it prettier, print some up and stick them around.... the gauges are pretty much geared around the highest pitch for a string on a 22.5" scale and they may run a bit heavy, but they still work perfect for finding the gauges of a tuning relative to each other, i.e. go down .003" etc. Saves a fair amount of oop's.

Joshua Gibson · Post by **Joshua Gibson** » 31 Jan 2015 2:14 am

J-42's and drop Your pitch, that's all I'm doing...but I am a greenhorn on Reso

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 31 Jan 2015 4:04 am

I use Asher AH6-14 Acoustic strings: .014, .017, .028W.,036W, .046W, .058W

They work very well and last long for D tuning and it's variations as well as G tuning and G with a low E tuning (DBGDBE).