Tuning a 6 string to drop A

I was thinking about getting rid of my 7 string and getting a six string and tuning it down to drop a (A-E-A-D-G-B). Will this work? thanks

Honestly.........even with the thickest strings probably not.

Just get a baritone, since they're made for that type of tuning. With a regular 6-string, you would have to have the nut reslotted, and even with some very thick strings you wouldn't have enough string tension to really enjoy it. You would also probably have intonation and tuning stability issues.

A baritone is longer scaled right? That's why it can handle the B string and stay decently set up?

Correct. Regular 6-strings have a neck scale length, typically, between 24.625" - 25.5". Wheras a baritone will have a neck scale length somewhere between 26" - 28".

Hooray! My guidance councilor was full of dookie.I knew I wasn't stupid.

I always knew you werent stupid ninjie...tell me this guidance councilors name, and myself, Earthman, and Acapella will go an beat him up...then we'll send him on a date with Cryptic! that'll show him.

I could tune my Strat to baritone (B) if I wanted to... right now it's one half step up from... at Drop C. Though I think I prefer drop C#.

I use big huge fat 13 gauge strings... that's why. Even though it's at Drop C, I've got string tension to spare.

I haven't attempted to drop it to "A". Maybe it's possible in theory... what I would do is put the E string where the A string is supposed to go, the A where the D is supposed to go, etc. The problematic part would be getting the quote-unquote E-string down to "A."

On my 5-string bass if you drop the B-string below what it's supposed to be at, it'll turn into a floppy useless bungee cord. (I tried it once.) I imagine a baritone guitar would be the same way.

However they do have 7 string and 9 string basses where there's an F# string below the B-string... and a 9-stringer will have one below even that, I think... which would be... (counts on fingers)... uhhhhh... C#... whereas the high skinny string on a 6 stringer (and as well a 7 and 9 stringer) is a C.

Bill "The Budda" Dickens is known for doing his thing on a 7 stringer and sometimes a 9 stringer. However, he usually has this big fat rope thingy that serves as a capo that he straps around the fourth or fifth fret. See, it gets to the point that it's no longer audible to normal humans... unless you have ears like a humpback whale or something.

I know of someone who constructed a 4-string bass that had F#, B, E, and A. He must have had to build the thing from scratch... or he did something to seriously tweak the neck and bridge.

Dickens likes having that many strings because he can go from low to very high very quickly and mind-blowingly intricately by working up and down the strings rather than having to go down the neck to the higher frets and back up again to the low frets. Do a web search for Dickens' website and you'll be able to see videos of him in action... frightening to watch. He pulls stuff that virtuoso guitarists can't do on their guitars.

Left of Center mp3

Open the above webpage and download the "Left Of Center" mp3 in the upper righthand corner... can't miss it. It's Bill Dickens doing his thing on a 7-stringer.

Now... for your guitar... one thing you could attempt, at a very possible risk of wrecking your guitar, is to take the D-string off a bass... you might be able to shave the nut and bridge to accept it... but chances are you will seriously damage, if not destroy your guitar... and for what?

Conklin 8-string guitars

Come to think of it, Conklin makes 8-string guitars... I imagine there's a B-string on the thing but I don't know if they've got an F# below it or whether they've got a hiiiiiiigh A above the skinny top E. I think that Conklin makes their own line of strings, so they could make a low F# string for a guitar if they wanted to, I guess.