The D stirng keeps breaking at the saddle - possibly just sweat induced?

C

constant mesh

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I have a customer with a Suhr Pro Series, has a Gotoh 510 trem on it. This guys plays sets about 5-7 hrs long, playing in high and low temps, outdoors and indoors. This started happening this summer, we had high peaks of unbearable heat, and he started poping the D string right at the saddle. A fresh pack was ruined in the middle of the set.

At first I though it must be a rough edge somewhere, but when I took it apart everything was great under there. Anyway, I lightly sanded and polished 90° angles as it wouldn't hurt. The saddles are SS so they didn't suffer from corrosion, only groove removal.
Everything went fine on a first gig, next week he used that same guitar on another gig and again popped the D string.

This player sweats a lot and is not so well disciplined when it comes to cleaning. I know he often puts it in the case still hot and wet. I think this is the crucial parts because he actually cooks the sweat and moisture localized in the bridge area into the hardware and strings become brittle. I also suggested two cloths for cleaning strings and body separately.

When I first removed his old and rusty set of strings I paid close attention at the saddle portion. It only rusted on parts where you can touch it when you rest your picking hand, but not behind the saddle itself. I could break each wound string with my fingers right at that point when I removed them.

My estimation is that it only suffers from poor maintenance and sweat induced corrosion. With 5-7 hrs per live set I'd recommend a string change for each set or at least two guitars to split the mileage in hotter days.
As E and A are thicker they don't break that fast, but D does. D is in most cases the last string that is muted or rested on 99% of the time.

What's your opinion on it?
 
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Re: The D stirng keeps breaking at the saddle - possibly just sweat induced?

Could also try contacting Suhr to see if they've dealt with a similar case - After trying a different brand of strings.
 
Re: The D stirng keeps breaking at the saddle - possibly just sweat induced?

He should be changing the strings BEFORE every gig. If he isn't he is asking for trouble. I had a similar problem with breaking strings & I; like you first suspected the saddles. I buffed them with steel wool, then compound to make them as smooth as possible. It worked but not as well as I had hoped. I too broke more wound strings then plain so I eventually switched all my saddles to string savers. The graphite saddles will eliminate ALL breaking of strings, but if he is playing with rusty strings they have been fatigued at the point of rust so they will STILL break. he will need to replace the strings after each performance.
 
Re: The D stirng keeps breaking at the saddle - possibly just sweat induced?

Also, try using Big Bends Nut Sauce or something similar on the saddles.

BTW, I've noticed that I go through strings quicker on gigging guitars. Not simply because I play them more, but because I play for longer sessions than when at home, plus I generally sweat more in that setting.
 
Re: The D stirng keeps breaking at the saddle - possibly just sweat induced?

I will hazard a guess that for long gigs like that, he's playing covers. Is he playing a lot of rhythm ?

The D string is wound from the thinnest components and often takes a real beating during rhythm work. Combined with the sweat and lack of general cleaning, and depending on the style(s) of music, it may simply be that he is going to see this regularly unless he makes some changes.
 
Re: The D stirng keeps breaking at the saddle - possibly just sweat induced?

In 50 years of playing (sometimes going for years between string changes) I've NEVER broken a "D" string!

Any time I found myself breaking any particular string (usually a high "E" or "B" string) on a guitar, I filed and polished the saddle (not just "lightly sanded") and NEVER broke another string on that guitar. Ever!

If done correctly, he certainly should not be breaking strings every week, no matter how hard he sweats.

I know you say that you've checked the saddle, but I still can't help believing that there is a bur or sharp edge on the "D" saddle. If it is SS, "sanding" isn't going to remove sharp edges/burs. Filing or, preferably, grinding with a stone is necessary.
 
Re: The D stirng keeps breaking at the saddle - possibly just sweat induced?

maybe he is going nutty squirrel on the tremolo bar
 
Re: The D stirng keeps breaking at the saddle - possibly just sweat induced?

GuitarDoc said:
In 50 years of playing (sometimes going for years between string changes) I've NEVER broken a "D" string!
Click to expand...

Way back in the last century I played 5 nights a week an a blues/R'n'B band. I had to change strings after every second night, the strings wouldn't hold up for a third night. However, during that time, i would pop a few D strings, and it was pointed out to me that it was due to the many 'Bompa dompa' rhythms in those genres that are played on the wound strings exclusively that were causing the D strings to give out. My guitars were fine in the bridge/saddle department, the issue was the style being played and the fact that i played with a degree of authority.

The solution was simply to grab a few spare D strings each time i got a new box of string sets. If you're gonna break strings, you're also gonna get good at changing them real quick.
 
Re: The D stirng keeps breaking at the saddle - possibly just sweat induced?

Anyone mention trying a coated set?

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Re: The D stirng keeps breaking at the saddle - possibly just sweat induced?

He could try coating wraps with clear enamel to stabilize the wraps or use RPS (reinforced plain strings) which have a cloth cover for the wraps.
 
Re: The D stirng keeps breaking at the saddle - possibly just sweat induced?

If you cannot find any sharp edge or pressure points, corrosion is the only explanation.

I know a guy with corrosive sweat who can reliably kill all of the elasticity and brightness out of any set of strings within ten days. (Let's call it twenty hours' playing time.) If he were playing stints of five to seven hours, each packet of strings might survive three or four days.

One idea that springs to mind is the one that Stevie Ray Vaughan used to use. Short lengths of electrical insulation over the string where it passes over the break point of the saddle.
 
Re: The D stirng keeps breaking at the saddle - possibly just sweat induced?

Sorry for a late reply.
I have suggested coated strings also but we haven't tried them yet. We only got through a couple of sets of EB's and D'Addarios. The guy swears at EBs and it was already a pain to persuade him into trying a set of D'Addarios for a change. DA's proved to be more reliable as EBs already started breaking in the middle of the set.

Like someone above mentioned, this guy actually plays those "bompa dompa" rhythms, except it's an Oberkrainer polka and waltz stuff, where guitars are very percussive and you usually play barre shapes all over the neck.

As for the bridge goes - how many of you have already serviced a Gotoh 510? This trem is already designed to eliminate friction points, it has extreme chamfers on the string holes, plenty of wiggle room so that backing the saddles for proper intonation won't even get close to the string hole. It's one of the finest examples of what a quality guitar hardware should look like, altough I was never really a fan of Gotoh stuff. Just looking at the stainless steel block you can tell by the surface roughness how well it was machined, and SS is one material machinist like to avoid.

Wound strings looks like sh1t from the picking area right to the saddle. The rest of the string that falls off the saddle and goes through the hole is practially in perfect condition, but everything else is brown like baby poop even past the bridge pup (this guy likes to strum more towards the neck pup).
 
Re: The D stirng keeps breaking at the saddle - possibly just sweat induced?

Ah, sweaty hands... I switched from EBs to D'As when I noticed that D'Addarios lasted a lot longer on my guitars.
 
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