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Location: Atlanta GA | I too changed the strings on a few guitars during my "Vacation". But while bringing the low E string to pitch I noticed it wouldn't stay in tune. Unon insprction on what was going wrong (thankfully my bridge wasn't lifting) I noticed the string was coming unwound from around the ball. I've changed a LOT of strings and this is the first time I saw this happen. Any ideas on why? Bad string, Bad luck, Bad form...?
BTW.. I went to the only place I know that sells strings individually, a little pawn shop in my town and they has a Celebrity O sitting on the front porch with spray painted with "Doug's Pawn Shop" hand painted on it. I may go back and make an offer. It would be the perfect wall hanger for my music room. |
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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | On another note, I don't have a lot of experience changing strings on a slothead, but already I've discovered that it is more difficult and tedious compared to a flat headstock. After inserting the string into the tuner pole and just before cranking the peg, is there a general rule of thumb for how much measured slack there should be between the string and, say, the third fret (or some other fret) to ensure a good three or four wounds? |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | Probably a bad string. I've had that happen on the wound strings for classical guitars, but never with strings with a ball end.
Prof, I have the same question, but I restrung all the slotheads using the pinched string method, so I don't have enough winds to get the string away from the headstock. |
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Location: There's no place like 127.0.0.1 | Watchme22, I would say you just got a defective string. Can't think of any other reason that would happen, unless the ball end was abused somehow before running it through the bridge.
Brad, I know there are lots of opinions on how to string guitars, but I use the same technique as on my pegheads. Theoretically the fewer winds around the post, the fewer tuning issues you'll have from the slack coming out of the windings. On my Koa, I position the hole in the post so it's almost parallel to the neck, with the top hole slightly up. I feed the string over the post, down the hole, then up around behind the post. Then I pull it under where the string enters the hole so as the string is tightened it locks itself down. I leave just enough slack over the fretboard to get maybe 1 to 1 1/2 winds on the post when I bring it up to tension. Never have problems beyond the normal stretching (which I do as I'm tightening) because there is no slack in the windings. YMMV.
edit: I see Mark does it the same way. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | I posted a picture of this method a while ago....  |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | is that clear enough for everyone? |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | could you make it bigger? |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | where's that "right click" enlarger? |
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Location: There's no place like 127.0.0.1 | The evidence shows it doesn't work on Macs. |
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| Real men do it anti-clockwise.
You might just as well wear a skirt.
Had the unwinding thing happen on an A string only last week - on a $20 set of Galli flatwounds. Not funny. |
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Location: Atlanta, GA. | It would be an even stronger wrap if you run the tag end back through the loop. |
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Location: Texas | I couldn't understand the diagram on-screen so I printed it out…
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Location: Hanau, Hessen, Germany |  Now that's really funny! Great one, Standing xD |
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Location: Atlanta, GA. | Well, no wonder the sun was blocked out for a while here today! :eek: |
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Location: Bellevue, Washington | Don't want to hijack the thread here... oh wait! But did anyone else read the topic of this thread and think, "Man... that sounds like a great song title!" |
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Location: Texas | Since Jeff W. posted a clear and useful illustration, (just kinda large,) I took the liberty of reducing it for easier on-screen reading:
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Location: GATLINBURG TENNESSEE :) | Thanks ... I seem to have the same problem with posting too large photos. |
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Location: closely held secret | If you scale your images down to no more than 480 pixels wide they should display properly. There are lots of free ways to resize images. |
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Bad Luck on the Low E
