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Hi luthiers,

I built this baritone guitar last year. It has a 28.5 inches scale, 16-70 ga strings and tuned B to B. I'm trying to figure out what would be the consequences of a lighter gauge set of strings, let say 16-56. Those 16-70 are a little heavy.

I think I’ve used .014 to .067 on a baritone in the past (it was a long time ago—I can’t promise that my memory is correct). I designed the guitar to work with those strings. It only costs you the price of the strings to experiment and see what works for you.

My rule of thumb is one pound per inch. Using the D'Addario tension chart, you currently have 29lbs on the high B and 30.1lbs on low B, which is good. 66ga would be 28lbs, which is also ok. 56ga would be 20.3lbs, comparable to a 53ga on 25.4" scale tuned down to C# (too floppy).

Your real problem is much too high action, clearly visible in the photo. Try 1/16" high B and 3/32" low B (measured from top of 12th fret to bottom of string), and make sure the nut slots aren't too high either (I can't tell that from the photo). You may have to adjust the neck angle.

Dennis is right on the money here. Google up an online string tension calculator and Try to choose string gauges that land around what DK suggested. I agree that your action looks high. Maybe you intended that (playing slide?), but I would find that hard to play and want to adjust the setup rather than the strings. Guitar looks lovely BTW!

What Dennis said -

I’m a skin player and find that a .070 sounds dead under my thumb. I prefer .015 - .060, tuned to C. I get a nice shimmer top to bottom. As for action, I like it a bit lower 5/64 to 3/64.

This is a 28” over 26.5” Fan Fret, Sitka over Black Limba.

Tschüß, M

Harp makers use the 'one pound per inch' rule to maintain the 'feel' across the compass. Guitars tend to use less tension, but as a general idea it makes sense.

You can calculate string sizes for any scale length, including multi-length instruments, using this free online tool from R.M. Mottola.

String-by-String String Set Calculator for Guitars and Similar Instruments