Do you use lighter strings on long scale lap steels?

Michael Papenburg · From: Oakland, CA

Up until now, all of my lap steels have been either 23" or 22.5" scale. I recently purchase an Oahu Tonemaster, though, which is over 25". Do you find that you need to use lighter strings on long scale lap steels? If so, how many gauges do you usually go down? For example, I usually use a .015 for a high E. Would this work?

BTW, the instrument is being shipped to me now so I haven't been able to experiment yet. I'm really excited about it.

Bill Leff · From: Santa Cruz, CA, USA

I have 22.5 and 25 inch scale lap steels and I don't use lighter strings on the latter.

Tom Pettingill · From: California, USA (deceased)

I use a little lighter gauges on my 25" than I do on my 22.5" mainly to lighten / balance the tension.
Some good string gauge info on John Elys site
http://www.hawaiiansteel.com/tunings/gauges.html
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Michael Papenburg · From: Oakland, CA

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