Manual String Winder Question

[jgbass]

I just got Kolstein Heritage strings from Lemur and now its time to put them on. Last string changing was without a string winder, so thought this would make string changing less than torture.

So, I have this black plastic Heriba string winder. One part fits nicely over the tuning mechanism, but I was curious about the other part of this. It has a 1/2 inch diameter hole and this part rotates. I can't figure out what the purpose of this is for and it must rotate for some reason. If it was trying to fit a drill bit or something, the fact that it rotates would defeat the purpose.

Very humbly thankful for your enlightenment on string winders.

[bill h]

If I hear you correct, that would be to pull the pins on an acoustic guitar.

[jgbass]

Hmmmm, could be, but I think this is solely a DB winder.

[Adrian Cho]

Here's the thing:

I have learned recently that there is no good reason to own a string winder because there is no good reason to wind the whole string onto the peg. I recently had Bill Merchant do some work on my bass and he demonstrated this to me. Until that point I had always wound the whole string onto the peg. Now I just pull it through the hole until it's somewhat taut, and loop it back under itself once. It means that installing and removing a string is a lot faster, the string settles in quicker (at least that's what Bill said), and the tuner is easier to turn because there's less bulk on there. You can either trim the excess string (leave a few extra inches on there in case you ever want to install the string on another bass with a substantially longer string length) or just try and tuck it into the pegbox.

[jgbass]

I kind of wondered why one has to wind the whole string around, but thought it might have something to do with string tension on a DB. Since I also play electric bass, I have always cut off some of the string to reduce the winding as I just figured on electric bass other folks had longer necks and needed a longer string. Same would apply to DB I guess.

Thanks for the info, Adrain. Especially since this is a 5/8 bass I am going to restring today, I think I will cut off some of the string and try this. Makes a lot of sense and always worked just well for electric bass instruments. although I leave a few turns when I do this just to be safe.

[Rob Knight]

Originally Posted by Adrian Cho

Now I just pull it through the hole until it's somewhat taut, and loop it back under itself once.

I've done a little picture of what I think your saying. Could you confirm or dispute my understanding.

Key: The circle is the peg end on, with the black line as the string. The straight line going to nut. The break in the line is where it passes behind the straight bit. And the arrow to show which way the peg must be turned to tighten the string.

I'm interested to know because I had all sorts of trouble at the weekend when I changed my strings for the first time.

Cheers,

Rob

[Adrian Cho]

Except that you need to take the end you've got in the picture pointing up and pull it back under itself where it goes around the peg. That way, the tension of the string pulls against the string itself (against the peg) so that it won't come undone. Hope that makes sense.

[Rob Knight]

Yup! got it.

Thanks