What's the maximum gauge strings my guitar can handle?

[LeDave]

I have a Fender California Series Redondo Player. What's the max gauge it can handle? I've been sticking with light and extra lights. I'm just curious, learning about my guitar. I probably won't put anything on it higher than lights. Again out of curiosity, I just want to know.

[YamahaGuy]

Originally Posted by LeDave

I have a Fender California Series Redondo Player. What's the max gauge it can handle? I've been sticking with light and extra lights. I'm just curious, learning about my guitar. I probably won't put anything on it higher than lights. Again out of curiosity, I just want to know.

I've been trying 13s every now and again. If it seems like it's too much tension on the guitar, I tune down a half or whole step. That said, it should be OK with 13s. Just keep an eye out for your neck relief (your truss rod will likely need a half turn give or take); and watch for bridge lift. That's bad, of course. Hopefully that doesn't happen. As a relatively new player, I doubt anything larger/thicker than 13s would be pleasant to play.

[JonWint]

You might want to fasten your bridge more securely when you experiment with strings heavier than 13's.

I recommend Grade 8 bolts.

[IMG][/IMG]

[LeDave]

Thanks guys. I'll stick to .012 and lower

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by LeDave

I have a Fender California Series Redondo Player. What's the max gauge it can handle? I've been sticking with light and extra lights. I'm just curious, learning about my guitar. I probably won't put anything on it higher than lights. Again out of curiosity, I just want to know.

Dave, your guitar is a sort of dreadnought. Dreads would normally have mediums (13-56)

Therefore your guitar should take mediums ok, but you may need to adjust the action.

[Earl49]

I have put mediums (56-13) on most of my guitars from the Seagull S6 to the 600 series Taylor. Some have even had EJ-18 heavies (59-14) but never above D-d tuning. With some research you can find the tension information of string sets. D'Addario used to have the tension charts on their website but a recent reorganization makes it much harder to find now. Just keep the total tension somewhere between 145 pounds (lights tuned at D-d) and 185 pounds (mediums at E-e tuning) and most modern guitars can handle it. You may have to adjust the truss rod between these two extremes.

[tadol]

Theres no guarantee about what strings your guitar can handle - most builders will recommend lights, but thats mostly because they know the lighter the gauge people put on the guitars, the fewer structural problems people might have -

If you want to put heavier strings on your guitar, its important to pay attention to it - Heavier strings put greater tension on the neck, which can cause your relief to go up, and as it goes up, the pull on the bridge goes less from a shear to more of a lift, and if it goes up too high, then you greatly increase the risk of the bridge getting pulled off the top, or of creating an excessive belly in the top. And the real problem with that is that once it starts, it can get worse quite quickly, and can lead to a failure alarmingly quickly.

So, most guitars can take heavier guage strings if you think you need them, but you MUST take care to keep an eye on how its affecting your guitar, and if you start to see any problem, deal with it immediately. Tune the guitar down to lower the overall tension, make sure you adjust the truss rod to keep the relief appropriate, and keep an eye on the bridge. And if you don't get what you want with the heavier guage, go back to the lighter gauge and find a different guitar -

[redir]

Originally Posted by JonWint

You might want to fasten your bridge more securely when you experiment with strings heavier than 13's.

I recommend Grade 8 bolts.

[IMG][/IMG]

LOL! That's fantastic.

[phavriluk]

Ask the manufacturer?

[wrench68]

Originally Posted by JonWint

You might want to fasten your bridge more securely when you experiment with strings heavier than 13's.

I recommend Grade 8 bolts.

[IMG][/IMG]

Grade 8 bolts have five ticks. Six ticks are Grade 9 boron steel for aircraft and other critical service. I'd say these look capable of handling most bridge cables (see what i did there?)

[Rodger Knox]

A guitar should have about 2° of bridge rotation due to string tension. Attach a laser pointer to the bridge with the guitar anchored solidly in place with the strings tuned to pitch. Mark the position of the laser pointer on the wall. Loosen the strings without moving the guitar and measure the difference of the laser pointer on the wall(A) and measure the distance from the wall to the bridge(B). The angle is arctan(A/B). Heavier strings produce more rotation.

[JonWint]

Originally Posted by wrench68

Grade 8 bolts have five ticks. Six ticks are Grade 9 boron steel for aircraft and other critical service. I'd say these look capable of handling most bridge cables (see what i did there?)

For these SAE J429 (yes, Grade 8) in 3/8" diameter bolts, clamping force is 6974 lbs each when torqueing to 33 ft-lbs (K=0.015 for hot hide glue thread-locker with preheated bolt). I back down on torque a little to keep the BrazRW and mahogany happy.

This is a Size 2 guitar. Use the Grade 9 bolts for D-size guitars.

[phavriluk]

I'd rather use AN hardware: known physical qualities.

[bobio]

You know you are getting old when everyone is talking about heavier strings and all you can think about is lighter strings would feel much better on these old fingers

I am moving from Medium Lights to Lights on my acoustics. Not a drastic change, but we will see if it helps the arthritis...