Medium light Gauge on a L00 tuned in open A

[giacomo.p]

Hi everybody! It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm writing you to know if I can tune in Open A using medium light gauge strings on my Gibson L00 studio, in my particular case I'm using Ernie Ball Earthwood  8/20 12-54, I tried but i've felt a little too much tension tuining the guitar, I've played a bit and I didn't notice anything wrong with the stability of the guitar and I loved the sound that came out of it! Especially playing with the slide, But i'm worried that in the long run this can harm the guitar and I really wanted to have some advice from you, becasue if I use a lighter gauge of strings the slide gets messy and won't sound the same. Do you recomend perhaps using a ceramic and or thicker slide with light strings?

Let me know what are your thoughts!

Cheers!

[northcntryblues]

I have an L-00, and even though I use lighter gauge strings than the ones you mention, I don't tune it to open A.  I usually just tune it to open G and Capo on 2nd fret.  Open A is really hard on guitars imo.  Many people believe this is how Robert Johnson played Open A.  The famous "photo booth" shot of him shows his Kalamazoo L-00 guitar with Capo 2.

Edited November 1, 2021 by northcntryblues

[QuestionMark]

I regularly retune my two Epiphone EL 00s, my Martin 00L X2E, and my Gibson J45 to an open G during my sets for some songs.  However, I retune them back to standard or loosen to high tension strings afterwards.  I use Martin Authentic Acoustic Mediums on my J-45, Martin Authentic Acoustic Light/Mediums on one of EL-00s, Martin Authentic Acoustic Lights on the other EL-00, and Custom Mediums (John Pearce ones) on my Martin 00L X2E.  I’ve never experienced any issues.  My suggestion is to simply retune back down or loosen the high tension strings when not playing/storing. 
 

Or, another option is to use Lights, but use a 2nd string in place of the 1st string besides the normal 2nd string on the new string…as really the only string that seems to need greater tension for slide is generally the first string.

I hope this helps.

QM aka “ Jazzman Jeff

 

[giacomo.p]

1 hour ago, northcntryblues said:

I have an L-00, and even though I use lighter gauge strings than the ones you mention, I don't tune it to open A.  I usually just tune it to open G and Capo on 2nd fret.  Open A is really hard on guitars imo.  Many people believe this is how Robert Johnson played Open A.  The famous "photo booth" shot of him shows his Kalamazoo L-00 guitar with Capo 2.

I usually do the same solution with the capo on the second fret in Open G but since I've discovered the open A it's another world, especially when playing an RJ tune ( 😉 good to see someone with great taste in music!)  The string tension it's just perfect to me

Edited November 1, 2021 by giacomo.p

[giacomo.p]

I was thinking about the same solution, and I did that when I tested the tune! I'm glad you didn't experience any issues, do you often play with tunes like open A?

[zombywoof]

When it comes to tunings  I pretty much stick with Open G6 and Drop D with an occasional wandering over to Open D.  Back in the day when I was more of a purist I would go to  Open A to try and get Robert Johnson or John Lee Hooker songs down but found I was more comfortable knocking everything down one step.  But I agree with Question Mark (I wonder how the Mysterians are doing) and leave no guitar even a newer one like the OPs sitting in  Open A tuning for any length of time.  

But today there are also low tension strings such as Newtone Heritage, Optima Vintage Flex and GHS Thin Core.  I am not sure, however, whether these could possibly be game changers.

Edited November 1, 2021 by zombywoof

[QuestionMark]

On 11/1/2021 at 3:47 PM, zombywoof said:

 But I agree with Question Mark (I wonder how the Mysterians are doing) 

———————————————————

Zombywoof-I can’t answer.  Just like our fellow poster Sgt Pepper is not really the actual Sgt Pepper but only uses the moniker, I too am not the real Question Mark of ? & the Mysterians, etc.  ( But, I am the real “Jazzman” Jeff.  The reason I now sign my name as QM aka “Jazzman” Jeff after originally using the moniker Question Mark in tribute to ? & the Mysterians back when the forum was new, circa 2000’ish.
 

QM aka “Jazzman” Jeff

Edited November 3, 2021 by QuestionMark