Thoughts/Opinions on Downtuning & Heavy Strings?

I am thinking of this for my ASAT Blues Boy, or possibly another one of my guitars. What I am wondering is what would I lose (aside from the higher notes) from down-tuning to a Drop-B or Drop-A tuning with heavier strings on an ASAT or other 25.5" scale guitar?

What I'm looking for is something that will have a thicker/heavier/fatter sound while having some of the chime and articulation of my ASAT or even some of the brightness of a Strat-style. I am thinking more of a baritone-esque sound without getting a baritone guitar, not just for sludge metal (nothing against it, it's not my end-goal). That said, I do not want it to sound sludgy or lose what I like in the guitar in the first place. Any thoughts? I know I could just try a set of strings for that and see if I like them, however I was not sure if they would be playable without setting the guitar up for that setup first and I don't want to do anything I have to undo before I am sure I want to stick with that.

Any thoughts or opinions?

-Cheers

Thats a significant difference, I'd expect problems. At the minimum you're going to need to do work on, most likely replace, the nut and give it a whole new setup for the bigger strings. Those strings will most likely be too close together at the nut and impede playability. And the saddles on the ASAT would most likely need replacing too. Personally I think you'd be better off getting a baritone guitar for tunings that low - I have a baritone that has that low A, and the A string is enormous compared to a regular guitar string.

Do you HAVE to go that low? Why not get a set of strings one gauge larger than what you're currently using and tuning down a step - it'll be considerably fatter and you'll most likely get away with doing nothing to the guitar.

blarg makes some good points .

Ya gotta wonder if Leo dialed out the sludge to make for a nice bright baritone,
(it would be a fairly safe bet).

Do you HAVE to go that low? Why not get a set of strings one gauge larger than what you're currently using and tuning down a step - it'll be considerably fatter and you'll most likely get away with doing nothing to the guitar.

I normally use .11's. I could just downtune a step to at least try it. Part of why I'm interested in going so low is inspiration from some of the bands I've been listening to lately. Namely ISIS, Jesu, some Buckethead to name a few, and I've read The Cure used a Fender Bass VI for some of their songs; not the same, but it got me interested in playing around.

blarg makes some good points .

Ya gotta wonder if Leo dialed out the sludge to make for a nice bright baritone,
(it would be a fairly safe bet).

Did/do they ever make those? I read they basically made the one pictured the day before Leo died and he never got to see it. Otherwise I suppose I could try to seek out a baritone Telecaster; I know they make them, I am not sure how well they perform though (although I would guess probably pretty well unless the balance was off).

-Cheers

A string set from .014 up to .060 should do the job for a drop B tuning.

You could use standard .011 set, use it without the high E string, but order a .060 single for the low E string: http://www.daddario.com/DADProductDetai ... nd_Singles

Of course you'd have a wound G string, if that's a problem, plain strings will go up to .026: http://www.daddario.com/DADProductDetai ... el_Singles

With a complete set up, it should work, as the strings will be tuned to what they normally are. I'm not sure for the .060

Thanks for the input/advice. At this point I'm seriously considering selling some seldom-used stuff and buying a baritone or a six-string bass like the Fender Bass VI or similar style (Schecter has a few offerings in that style). I'm kind of thinking going with a Hagstrom Viking baritone; it's a semi-hollow ES-335-style. I'm thinking getting a baritone or Bass VI type would let me have something different to experiment with without setting up the G&L ASAT and losing out on what I love about it in the standard configuration. Not to say I'd never do it, just that I like it enough as-is that I sort of want to keep it more-or-less as-is (maybe throw on a set of .11's, not necessarily set it up for cable-strings and downtune a perfect 5th).

-Cheers

You would definitely need to set it up and a new nut, but I don't see any problems otherwise.

A baritone tele would balance like a nightmare though. Teles hang flat as it is.