Rant: How can he not notice this stuff?!?

[Jeff_H]

Re: Rant: How can he not notice this stuff?!?

Urm you need to tie the strings on properly then you get stable tuning quickly, and for heavens sake don't stretch the strings!
If you tie the strings properly then you need more turns. On a slot head more turns mean more stability.
This is how you put strings on http://fretnotguitarrepair.com/lockingstrings.htm

This is how I learned to string my non locking tuners as well, but I believe I learned mine from Dan Erlwine's book. However, I do stretch the strings gently after I string them.

Everyone has their own little ritual and whatever anyone finds that works for them is great.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Rant: How can he not notice this stuff?!?

Try stretching in bass guitar strings.

 

[tone4days]

Re: Rant: How can he not notice this stuff?!?

To wit:

1. Neck - I played one of my standard "let's try this baby out" solos, and missed a big jump down to the E-string up around the 12th fret. Dang, blew it... try again. Missed the same jump. Hold guitar at arm's length, look at it face-on... Yup, the neck's crooked, and the 6th string is nearly falling off the side of the fret board.

what is the approach to fixing this? ... in my mind, i can think of everythign from a new nut that moves the slot over enough to bring the string back over the board to taking the neck off, dowelling the holes, remeasuring and redrilling ... is there an easy thing to just 'adjust' ?

good luck
t4d

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Rant: How can he not notice this stuff?!?

Some people just give the neck as shove, strings and all, but that's a bit risky - it's likely to chip paint or worst around the neck pocket.

Yeah... remove strings, slightly loosen the neck bolts, scootch the neck over a smidge. This is assuming the neck has a bit of room to move. Sometimes there's excess paint build-up in the pocket or something like that.

Whatever you do, when it's time to replace the strings, don't post your method on the web.

 

[Uk Ant]

Re: Rant: How can he not notice this stuff?!?

Are you guys arguing over how to re-string guitars

Back to the OP.
I've come across assorted people down the years who buy some really nice bits of gear and never get it set up, or have no idea how to look after them.
Year or so back I practiced with one band and the bassist had one of the Stuart Ham Fender "urge" basses. He was thinking of getting rid as he found it hard to play. Possibly because you could limbo dance under the strings.
I think a lot of this comes down to music shops who just don't set up their stock at all.
Last year I tried an Ibanez S in one shop. Brand new it was.
It quickly became evident that it was so new that they hadn't even bothered to try to tune it up, the action was all over the place and the trem tended to ground far too easily.
For people without a certain amount of experience with guitars how would they know there was something wrong?
So they buy it, play it till they snap a string, try replacing just the one and then completely lose interest in the instrument as it now never holds tune anymore.
When I was a kid my favourite music shop offered a free re-string and set up within the first year on any brand new instrument. Really quite a cheap, simple and nice bit of after sales care that meant the guitar might not be re-located to the loft within the first year.

 

[tone4days]

Re: Rant: How can he not notice this stuff?!?

i find my EJ strat easiest to restring ... i find the locking sperzels pretty easy too ... i find following the 'only correct way' as described on my PRS SC245's instruction card hard to do, especially for the bass strings ... it is the 'under, then back over' method like in the link/video shown above ... i can never get the wound strings to crimp tight enough and it just looks lumpy ... also i can never seem to judge the correct amount to leave slack so as to get optimal number of wraps ... but i do make sure that the wraps are neat ... i dont have tuning stability problems, so it must not be that bad

there is a video of a PRS factory guy restringing a PRS with the original winged locking tuners over on BaM these days .. he restrings the entire guitar in under 4 minutes ! ... he inserts 5 of the 6 strings through the back of the guitar at one time ! ....

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Rant: How can he not notice this stuff?!?

I've spent years doing the under/over thing, but I've always felt that it was awkward to keep tension just right with it. It's worked better than other methods I've tried before it, but I would always end up fighting it.

I recently used the following method and I'm really liking it so far. It makes everything so much more manageable and I no longer worry about keeping proper tension on it while I'm winding the strings up.

Check it out, this guy really has it down to a science and with his method I get the perfect amount of wraps with the string and it comes out clean. His way of "locking" the strings seems to make a difference:

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Rant: How can he not notice this stuff?!?

Apparantly you haven't noticed that there are alot of idiots in the world.

 

[tone4days]

Re: Rant: How can he not notice this stuff?!?

I've spent years doing the under/over thing, but I've always felt that it was awkward to keep tension just right with it. It's worked better than other methods I've tried before it, but I would always end up fighting it.

I recently used the following method and I'm really liking it so far. It makes everything so much more manageable and I no longer worry about keeping proper tension on it while I'm winding the strings up.

Check it out, this guy really has it down to a science and with his method I get the perfect amount of wraps with the string and it comes out clean. His way of "locking" the strings seems to make a difference:

YES !

this guy's "double crimp" is exactly how i use to do it until i was 'shamed' into doing it the 'only correct way' per the PRS mafia .. that's it, i am going back to it next restring

 

[blueman335]

Re: Rant: How can he not notice this stuff?!?

Apparantly you haven't noticed that there are alot of idiots in the world.

How could someone 'not notice' that?

 

[guitfiddle]

Re: Rant: How can he not notice this stuff?!?

I do the over under method stringing, but the waste part of the string isn't what I focus on. I look for a good tight over-under pattern on the part of the string that bends around from the hole in the capstan. I don't bother with the over under thing on the low a and e strings, which always seem to have enough friction on their own with plain old under wraps. Three wraps per string, and I always stretch them out.

I don't own a pair of clippers, because when that string locks tight over and under the bend, you can literally rock the twig back and forth until it breaks off, which leaves no stub at all.

 

[John_L]

Re: Rant: How can he not notice this stuff?!?

I agree with the locking part, but absolutely not with the don't stretch the strings part. When those strings are first put under tension, they are going to stretch some amount before they settle and don't stretch anymore. Leaving the strings alone and letting them do this over the life of the strings is gonna make fore unstable tuning over the life of the strings. If you stretch the strings during installation until they don't go out of tuning when stretching, you're going to have much better tuning stability.

Okay let me clarify. What I mean is don't grab the string and yank it up, that puts a lot of stress on the neck (and with a Gibson on the weak head join) what you should do is play a warm up and that should be fine. It's a real bug bear with me that people yank stings "until you can stretch them till they stay in tune" it's damaging for the guitar and takes the life out of the strings. I know that D'Addario tell you to that on the packet. DR warn you not to on the packet.
Telling people not to stretch string is a bit like how it must have been telling people smoking was bad on the '60's.