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So I bought D'Addario NYXL 11-64 strings for the 7 string electric guitar. The Gauges go as follows: 11-14-18-28-38-49-64
I have a 6-string electric guitar and I was looking for strings that would let me play in tunings from Drop-D to Drop-A without my bottom string flopping at the lower tunings. However, I like the sound of lower gauge for my higher strings. So I was wondering if stringing my guitar as 11-14-18-38-49-64 could cause any problems for my guitar or would it be fine?
I believe you're asking two different questions here. No, omitting one string should not damage your guitar.
Now as far as gauges and tunings go, you simply will not find a set that will play reasonably from drop-D to drop-A. Depending on what kind of guitar your have and its scale length, the 64 will probably be too loose still for drop-A.
I'd stick with a normal set of 10's for drop-D, and then use the top 5 strings from a set of 13's and find a 72 single string for the 6th string. What kind of guitar are you planning on doing this with?
Hardly this will damage an electric guitar, (a cheap acoustic one, instead, might suffer, although acoustic use bigger gauges in the first place) but it might sound out of tune, or simply not stay in tune, as much as it used to.
You will lose sustain, though.
People generally go to bigger gauges to gain more durability out ot their mute (thin strings last less) and/or drop the tuning lower. But .011 is a pretty standard gauge, not an extreme one, so you'll probably be fine on all accounts.
If problems arise, you might have to adjust the action or the neck, (octaves should be left alone) or simply switch back to a lighter gauge.
You can use this string tension calculator: https://tension.stringjoy.com/ to see what the approximate resulting tension will be with your scale length, string gauge, and pitch.
One thing you should avoid is putting much more tension on the neck. Especially with an acoustic guitar, this can damage the soundboard and/or bridge.
Note that this calculator is for the Stringjoy brand strings, so different materials and manufacturing processes of other brands may differ slightly. Although I think it's safe to assume the biggest changes will be due to gauge and whether the string is wound or plain.
In standard tuning, .11 is a nice fat sounding gauge, and this also works for drop D, open E and open A
For crazy stuff like drop C, get a guitar all set up for that. I like to keep thinner strings at least 4 pts apart(thickness)
