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Donate your old strings to a great cause!

kenstee

kenstee

Oct 9, 2009
1,949
19
#1
Donate your old strings to a great cause! Link Removed

"I want to ask you to join me in helping 1000′s of aspiring musicians around the world who aren’t fortunate to have a plentiful supply of strings. Got Strings? then click the link above to find out how to donate them."
 
#6
I'm offering to be a UK Hub for this.

Invalid Link Removed

Basically any UK TB'ers wanting to get involved but finding the cost of shipping to the US prohibitive, shoot me a message and I'll give you an address in the UK to ship them to and then we will be forwarding on boxes every month.
 
#8
Great cause.

I have about 20 nearly new bass string sets that I was about to sell in the classifieds, I will send them to Janek ASAP.

A quick story thy some of you might find interesting....

As a Canadian, I have travelled to Cuba on vacation a few times. Each time I go, I bring a couple of bass string sets as well as 3 or 4 acoustic guitar sets (MAYBE worth $35 total).

On my last trip I saw a guitarist tying a knot (the 3rd on that string) on his broken G string. I asked him if he could use a new set if strings and he hugged me, invited me to play a few songs with the band, invited me to his home for dinner and brought me a bunch of cigars the next day. Of course, I didn't ask for anything and only took the cigars as his brother rolled them for me.

A couple of days later, I saw a great band playing in a market in Veradero, Cuba. Bass player was pretty good considering she had no E string! I gave her a set of bass strings and she was actually crying. She was so excited it was crazy. Over a stupid set of $12 strings.

Strings may be cheap and easy for us to discount as necessities, but to many people in countries like Cuba, they are nearly impossible to come by and they are very expensive imported goods if they can even find them.
 
#11
Lichtaffen said:
^That's a very touching story^

I'm down for this. Subscribed.
Click to expand...

It was honestly very cool. Such a small, almost meaningless act of generosity on my part and it still resonates 5-6 years later.

In any case, I just spoke to my local Long & McQuade (Canada's GC) and my buddy John the guitar tech will be giving me all of their used bass and guitar stings every month. he does 4-5 restrings every day, so likely about 1000 sets a year.
 
#12
Baird6869 said:
It was honestly very cool. Such a small, almost meaningless act of generosity on my part and it still resonates 5-6 years later.

In any case, I just spoke to my local Long & McQuade (Canada's GC) and my buddy John the guitar tech will be giving me all of their used bass and guitar stings every month. he does 4-5 restrings every day, so likely about 1000 sets a year.
Click to expand...

Excellent I'll be hitting up my local techs as well for my monthly shipments out, this really isn't hard work for people, most of us were just going to throw them away anyway.

Anyone in the UK looking for help hit me up, I'm listed on the site Link Removed

Cheers
 
#13
TaySte_2000 said:
Excellent I'll be hitting up my local techs as well for my monthly shipments out, this really isn't hard work for people, most of us were just going to throw them away anyway.

Anyone in the UK looking for help hit me up, I'm listed on the site Link Removed

Cheers
Click to expand...

+1.

Folks, these strings are generally thrown away.

My guy was giving them to a lady that made jewlery but she had enough strings to last her a lifetime then he just tossed them for the last year.

You are doing the retailer a FAVOUR! No work on their part.
 
#15
Baird6869 said:
Great cause.

I have about 20 nearly new bass string sets that I was about to sell in the classifieds, I will send them to Janek ASAP.

A quick story thy some of you might find interesting....

As a Canadian, I have travelled to Cuba on vacation a few times. Each time I go, I bring a couple of bass string sets as well as 3 or 4 acoustic guitar sets (MAYBE worth $35 total).

On my last trip I saw a guitarist tying a knot (the 3rd on that string) on his broken G string. I asked him if he could use a new set if strings and he hugged me, invited me to play a few songs with the band, invited me to his home for dinner and brought me a bunch of cigars the next day. Of course, I didn't ask for anything and only took the cigars as his brother rolled them for me.

A couple of days later, I saw a great band playing in a market in Veradero, Cuba. Bass player was pretty good considering she had no E string! I gave her a set of bass strings and she was actually crying. She was so excited it was crazy. Over a stupid set of $12 strings.

Strings may be cheap and easy for us to discount as necessities, but to many people in countries like Cuba, they are nearly impossible to come by and they are very expensive imported goods if they can even find them.
Click to expand...

Great story!
 
#17
Really fantastic stories and kind words of support for this cause guys. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this response, and you just have no idea how many eyes we're all going to help light up, and how many lives we can change with this small gesture of recycling and donating strings.

I'm working flat out here in Los Angeles sorting all the strings and packaging them up. We have our first shipment going down to Cuba just after the weekend. And Steven Taylor in the UK has stepped up for us big time offering his services as a location for people in the UK/Europe to donate to.

Big smiles all round here in my little office, and there will be so many great stories and touched hearts to report in the coming months and years.

Thanks,

Janek
 
#20
Baird6869 said:
Great cause.

I have about 20 nearly new bass string sets that I was about to sell in the classifieds, I will send them to Janek ASAP.

A quick story thy some of you might find interesting....

As a Canadian, I have travelled to Cuba on vacation a few times. Each time I go, I bring a couple of bass string sets as well as 3 or 4 acoustic guitar sets (MAYBE worth $35 total).

On my last trip I saw a guitarist tying a knot (the 3rd on that string) on his broken G string. I asked him if he could use a new set if strings and he hugged me, invited me to play a few songs with the band, invited me to his home for dinner and brought me a bunch of cigars the next day. Of course, I didn't ask for anything and only took the cigars as his brother rolled them for me.

A couple of days later, I saw a great band playing in a market in Veradero, Cuba. Bass player was pretty good considering she had no E string! I gave her a set of bass strings and she was actually crying. She was so excited it was crazy. Over a stupid set of $12 strings.

Strings may be cheap and easy for us to discount as necessities, but to many people in countries like Cuba, they are nearly impossible to come by and they are very expensive imported goods if they can even find them.
Click to expand...

I felt the need to share this story a bit more

Invalid Link Removed
 

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