Cutting Your New Strings... Nightmare?

[BassicJohn]

I have had good luck with aviator snips. The compound leverage gives you good control of the cut.

[dvh]

Originally Posted by stflbn

Personally I never cut strings 'off' my basses. I thought you were asking about trimming excess off when putting new strings on.

I unwind and remove them and usually keep them around 'in case', or put them up for sale cheap here on TB. Some people love worn out strings.


.

+1 you only need to loosen them to the point where you can just pull the winding up off the post. Then keep them as backups.

[Kenner]

wire cutters .......

measure, crimp, measure again, cut.............

[T-MOST]

I use standard needle nose pliers with the cutting edge in the center. However, I never cut strings off. unwinding is easier and you get a complete set of pre cut backups to keep in your case.

[Pilgrim]

I just use a good quality set of diagonal cutters, then take a pair of needle-nose pliers and bend the end of the cut string 90 degrees and insert it into the tuner post. Dead simple.

Since I normally don't ever change strings, I don't worry about re-use.

[deckard]

Originally Posted by shadowmac

There are special string-winder / string cutting tools available. I use this one by Planet Waves.

http://www.juststrings.com/pwv-bass-...hannelid=FROOG

Much easier than edge cutters.

This, definitely.

[Handyman]

Originally Posted by pringlw

I nash them off with my teeth. Impresses the fans.

Ok that's not true.

Wow, your fans must be hard to impress.

I use one of those hand held screw/bolt cutter/wire stripper tools.

[JTE]

To take them off, I just loosen them and pull 'em through the bridge. To cut new ones to size I use diagonall cutters (a/ka/ "dykes"). But get decent ones, don't waste your money on cheap cutting tools. My Craftsman dykes are probably 25 years old and besides cutting bass and guitar strings have had a long life of cutting elctric cables, guitar cords, etc.

BTW, I'd never use aviation snips (sometimes called tin snips) for anything except cutting sheet metal. But that's 'cause Dad was an HVAC contractor and I used his good snips to cut some heavy wire once when I was kid- put a big nick on the cutting face and he was quite upset. After I got older and bought my own set of Klink snips, I understood...

John

[MichaelScott]

High leverage hand wire cutters. You probably have 2 or 3 of these around the house somewhere. They come standard in most tool sets and you can get them from your local hardware store for under $5.

[calebbarton]

Originally Posted by shadowmac

There are special string-winder / string cutting tools available. I use this one by Planet Waves.

http://www.juststrings.com/pwv-bass-...hannelid=FROOG

Much easier than edge cutters.

i have one of these. it works pretty well unless you have reverse tuners. like my marcus miller jazz......then it dosnt work worth a ****.....the cutters work wonders though..

[mcapote]

Originally Posted by MichaelScott

High leverage hand wire cutters. You probably have 2 or 3 of these around the house somewhere. They come standard in most tool sets and you can get them from your local hardware store for under $5.

thats what i use