string gauges for odd tunings

[David Ford]

I saw a YouTube video the other day with a 6 string. search for Penetration lap steel guitar and it will probably show up. The tuning is Low F, G, A, Bb, C, High D. I want to try this tuning, any suggestions on string gauges?
Peace, David

[Jack Hanson]

I saw a YouTube video the other day with a 6 string. search for Penetration lap steel guitar and it will probably show up. The tuning is Low F, G, A, Bb, C, High D. I want to try this tuning, any suggestions on string gauges?
Peace, David

Cut and pasted from an earlier post:


One of the advantages of:

a) having a 50+ year stash of guitar strings,
b) having a lot more lap steels than you really need,
c) and having much more time on your hands than is healthy,

allows for some experimentation.

I pulled out my old maroon postwar Kalamazoo KEH and strung it up especially to play this tune. Here are the string gauges I installed, which seem to work pretty well. (The KEH has a 22.5" scale.)

D - .018
C - .020
Bb - .022
A - .024p
G - .026w
F - .030

[Gene Tani]

Good starting point

https://www.hawaiiansteel.com/learning/gauges.php

but you have to see how flat those gauges lay on your nut and bridge