Found this interesting...

[JakeDTH]

The band "Gob" plays most of their stuff in Eb tuning (my favorite tuning), one song "Underground" is played in drop C, which I may consider trying out.

Can anybody recommend some nice high gauge strings?

[mr dave]

wow i haven't heard of Gob in forever (or did someone ripoff an old Canadian punk band's name?)

personally i've used both the Ernie Ball 'not even slinky' .12s and the d'Addario Chromes .13s. they don't really cost much more than normal strings and both work fine, the Chromes are ribbon wound though so they'll feel quite different to your fingertips and have a much rounder and bassier tone.

d'Addario also offers string packs for downtuning your guitar as well. i wouldn't recommend using anything smaller than a set of .12s to go down to C. the strings will still feel rather soft which makes it easy to play bad sounding chords if you inadvertently pull the strings out of tune while forming the shape with your hand. nothing a little bit of practice won't overcome though.

[JakeDTH]

Originally Posted by mr dave

wow i haven't heard of Gob in forever (or did someone ripoff an old Canadian punk band's name?)

Nope, same band. Except they sound more like Sum 41 now (Rock, Alternative Metal) on their latest album "Muertos Vivos". You can listen to some of the album on playlist.com, look for these tracks:

"We're All Dying" - 3:26
"War is a Cemetery" - 3:13
"Dead End Love" - 3:22
"Prescription" - 3:03
"Underground" - 3:35
"Still Feel Nothing" - 4:38
"Banshee Song" - 4:41
"18" - 4:19
"About My Summer" - 3:45
"Face the Ashes" - 3:30
"Open Wounds" - 3:52
"Wake Up" - 4:13

Originally Posted by mr dave

personally i've used both the Ernie Ball 'not even slinky' .12s and the d'Addario Chromes .13s. they don't really cost much more than normal strings and both work fine, the Chromes are ribbon wound though so they'll feel quite different to your fingertips and have a much rounder and bassier tone.

d'Addario also offers string packs for downtuning your guitar as well. i wouldn't recommend using anything smaller than a set of .12s to go down to C. the strings will still feel rather soft which makes it easy to play bad sounding chords if you inadvertently pull the strings out of tune while forming the shape with your hand. nothing a little bit of practice won't overcome though.

Thanks You saying .12 or .012? Because I have a set of Acoustic strings here now that are .012-.053, of course I can't use those but they don't seem very thick or have very much tension.

[mr dave]

my bad, yeah i mean .012 or .013

there aren't really bigger packages out there, the norm is either .009 or .010 for electrics. so .012 are actually one string 'bigger' all around. i actually have a hard time getting the .053s to fit into the hole in the tuning peg when i change the strings on my guitar, tuning to C still feels loose but it's manageable.

[JakeDTH]

Originally Posted by mr dave

my bad, yeah i mean .012 or .013

there aren't really bigger packages out there, the norm is either .009 or .010 for electrics. so .012 are actually one string 'bigger' all around. i actually have a hard time getting the .053s to fit into the hole in the tuning peg when i change the strings on my guitar, tuning to C still feels loose but it's manageable.

Nice. Well, I tried tuning to drop C with my current strings, but they are far to loose, the highest fret just sounds like static, too much slack.

Drop C gives the guitar two more lower note frets and loses two higher note frets, correct?

[mr dave]

4 frets actually. only dropping 2 frets would get you down to D.

[JakeDTH]

Originally Posted by mr dave

4 frets actually. only dropping 2 frets would get you down to D.

No wait, isn't drop C D tuning with the low D tuned to C?
Like drop D is E tuning with the low E tuned to D.

You mean there's a C tuning?!

[mr dave]

there's any kind of tuning you want out there hahaha i've even used 3 octaves of Es before (mind riot by soundgarden)

if you're trying to do dropped-C the same way that dropped-D works then you need to tune everything down a full step (2 frets) then drop the low-E another 2 frets (4 total) to get it down to C.

and yeah, for most Kyuss / Queens of the Stone Age tunes you would tune all your strings down two full steps to C instead of E.