See the tension on all six strings for your tuning and guitar, plus the string pack that keeps the low string tight. Free, no account.
Less flop.
More riff.
Assuming a standard 10-46 set for your 10s; check your actual gauges.
Recommended: base pack + 3 required swaps
Low C: 16.6 lb · comfortable.
Stock pack: 3 of 6 in the 15-18 lb band. Not a full Normal match as sold.
After the required swaps below: 6 of 6 in band.
.011p · .014p · .019p · .032w · .044w · .056w stock pack, high to low
Check the gauges printed on the pack match the list above.
Assumes a 25.5 inch Fender-style neck (estimate), normal feel, and 10s on it now. Compare your current strings with the recommended setup using Before / After above.
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The stock 11-56 pack does not fit your Normal feel on every string. Use these singles with it to put all six strings in your 15-18 lb band.
Low C .056w (16.6 lb) / G .038w (17.1 lb) / C .028w (16.9 lb) / F .019p (16.4 lb) / A .015p (16.2 lb) / High D .0115p (17.0 lb)
Nearest reference gauge to the middle of the band, preserving the pack’s plain/wound construction. All values shown low to high.
Runner-up stock pack
Low C: 15.5 lb · comfortable.
Stock pack: 3 of 6 in the 15-18 lb band. Not a full Normal match as sold.
.011p · .015p · .022p · .030w · .042w · .054w stock pack, high to low
Check the gauges printed on the pack match the list above.
Before you restring
Going from 10s to 11-56 + 3 required swaps may need a neck-relief adjustment, and the low-string nut slot may need widening. A shop setup is the usual fix. Check intonation and, on a floating bridge, spring balance; don’t force a thicker string into a tight slot.
Take it with you
Your exact tuning, gauges and tension table. No screenshot needed.
A chromatic tuner reads the notes in dropped tunings, not just standard E.
Check price on AmazonA string winder makes the winding part of the change less tedious.
Check price on AmazonPick the tuning you play in.
Tell us your guitar and how you like it to feel.
Buy the base pack plus any required single-string swaps.
Normal feel, 15-18 lb per string, worked out by the same calculator as the tool above.
| Tuning | Notes, low to high | Closest stock pack | Low string | In band | Open setup |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E standard | E · A · D · G · B · E | 10-46 | 17.5 lb | 4/6 | |
| Eb standard | Eb · Ab · Db · Gb · Bb · Eb | 11-49 | 17.5 lb | 4/6 | |
| Drop D | D · A · D · G · B · E | 10-52 | 17.5 lb | 4/6 | |
| D standard | D · G · C · F · A · D | 11-49 | 15.6 lb | 4/6 | |
| Drop C# | C# · G# · C# · F# · A# · D# | 11-49 | 13.9 lb | 3/6 | |
| Drop C | C · G · C · F · A · D | 11-56 | 16.6 lb | 3/6 | |
| C standard | C · F · Bb · Eb · G · C | 11-54 | 15.5 lb | 4/6 | |
| Drop B | B · F# · B · E · G# · C# | 12-60 | 17.1 lb | 4/6 | |
| B standard | B · E · A · D · F# · B | 12-60 | 17.1 lb | 3/6 | |
| Drop A | A · E · A · D · F# · B | 14-68 | 17.2 lb | 3/6 |
“Closest” does not mean every string fits. Open a setup to see its out-of-band strings and suggested swaps.
Fair questions
“11s” tells you only the thinnest string’s gauge. Two packs of 11s can have very different low strings, and a dropped low string needs more help than the other five. Look at all six gauges, your tuning and your scale length together.
Not automatically. A bigger change can affect neck relief, intonation, nut fit and floating-bridge balance. If a thicker string binds, or the guitar starts buzzing, have a guitar tech check it. Don’t turn the truss rod just because the pack number changed.
For the same string and pitch, a shorter scale produces less tension. At 24.75 inches you may prefer a heavier gauge than you would at 25.5. Brand chips are estimates: measure from the nut to the 12th fret and double it to check your guitar’s nominal scale.
The six gauges and plain/wound construction are the useful starting point. Brand still matters: core-to-wrap ratios and materials affect unit weight, tone and bending. The named pack is a shopping example, not a claim that every brand has identical tension.
It is calculated tension using published reference unit weights, not measured feel. The result assumes plain steel and nickel-plated roundwound strings, equal temperament and A4 = 440 Hz. Brand, core shape, setup, pick attack and your hands all affect feel. The Slinky, Normal and Stiff bands are rules of thumb, not research findings.
How we know
T = UW × (2 × L × F)² / 386.4
Calculated tension in pounds: UW is unit weight in lb/in, L is scale length in inches, and F is frequency in Hz. Our fixed reference uses the PL plain-steel and NW nickel-wound tables from D’Addario’s public String Tension Specifications.
The historical chart may redirect to the manufacturer’s calculator. The manufacturer’s formula explanation describes the same method. Values are rounded for display; scoring uses unrounded tension.
We compare 12 generic six-string gauge recipes, first choosing the base pack that needs the fewest single-string swaps to fit your selected band. Ties favour a low string closest to the band midpoint. Further ties use squared distance outside the band, with an additional 11× penalty for a low string below the floor and 4× for a high string above 20 lb, then overall proximity to the midpoint. These are design choices, not measured preferences.
The recommended After setup keeps the base pack’s in-band strings and replaces every out-of-band string with the nearest ideal single. The stock pack alone is not a full match unless all six strings fit. Ideal singles keep the base pack’s plain/wound construction. Slinky 13-16, Normal 15-18 and Stiff 17-20 lb are overlapping rules of thumb. Feel labels are relative to your selected band: comfortable inside it, a bit floppy below it, stiff above it, and very stiff only above the Stiff range’s 20 lb ceiling. No model here predicts every player’s feel.
| Gauge | lb/in |
|---|---|
| .008p | 0.00001418 |
| .0085p | 0.00001601 |
| .009p | 0.00001794 |
| .0095p | 0.00001999 |
| .010p | 0.00002215 |
| .0105p | 0.00002442 |
| .011p | 0.00002680 |
| .0115p | 0.00002930 |
| .012p | 0.00003190 |
| .013p | 0.00003744 |
| .0135p | 0.00004037 |
| .014p | 0.00004342 |
| .015p | 0.00004984 |
| .016p | 0.00005671 |
| .017p | 0.00006402 |
| .018p | 0.00007177 |
| .019p | 0.00007997 |
| .020p | 0.00008861 |
| .022p | 0.00010722 |
| .024p | 0.00012760 |
| Gauge | lb/in |
|---|---|
| .017w | 0.00005524 |
| .018w | 0.00006215 |
| .019w | 0.00006947 |
| .020w | 0.00007495 |
| .021w | 0.00008293 |
| .022w | 0.00009184 |
| .024w | 0.00010857 |
| .026w | 0.00012671 |
| .028w | 0.00014666 |
| .030w | 0.00017236 |
| .032w | 0.00019347 |
| .034w | 0.00021590 |
| .036w | 0.00023964 |
| .038w | 0.00026471 |
| .039w | 0.00027932 |
| .042w | 0.00032279 |
| .044w | 0.00035182 |
| .046w | 0.00038216 |
| .048w | 0.00041382 |
| .049w | 0.00043014 |
| .052w | 0.00048109 |
| .054w | 0.00053838 |
| .056w | 0.00057598 |
| .059w | 0.00064191 |
| .060w | 0.00066542 |
| .062w | 0.00070697 |
| .064w | 0.00074984 |
| .066w | 0.00079889 |
| .068w | 0.00084614 |
| .070w | 0.00089304 |
| .072w | 0.00094124 |
| .074w | 0.00098869 |
| .080w | 0.00115011 |