Too difficult getting optimal ascent at certain tech level?

[Branjoman]

I have been playing a fresh 1.0 career save, and have noticed something odd concerning building 1.25m rockets with the SRB's available at tech level 3-4 - specifically the BACC Rockomax booster. When you use it, the speeds it pushes you to at such a low altitude prevents you from doing your gravity turn low down, for fear of your rocket spinning out due to aerodynamic forces. This means you have to wait for that stage to burn out before beginning your gravity turn, but by then your apoapsis is quite high, so you get less out of performing you gravity turn. Is there any workaround to this?

[Theysen]

Right click the Boosters in VAB and set a thrust limit, which will reduce the acceleration and gives you even more delta V!

[Snark]

Right click the Boosters in VAB and set a thrust limit, which will reduce the acceleration and gives you even more delta V!

+1 to this. Take the mass of your ship, multiply by 9.81 (Kerbin surface gravity), multiply by 1.5 (or whatever reasonably low TWR you like), then divide by the sea-level thrust of your SRB (275 in the case of a BACC). That will give you the thrust limiter fraction to set.

Also, consider adding fins to the back of your rocket, and/or streamlining the payload up front; will help with aerodynamic stability, and unlike SAS, its benefits scale with speed.