Double Bass Cut the strings?

[Nivaca]

Hi,
At another forum I found the following:

If strings are too long, which quite a lot are, just cut them down. But don't overdo! there should be some windings on each string to better keep the tuning. In my experience this rule works: the longer the string the better the bass stays in tune.

Is this correct? Is so, where and how can DB strings cut?

Thanks!

 

[anonymous0726]

As to "The longer the string...stays in tune" -- this makes absolutely no sense. The strings are firmly on the tuning peg or not.

If you have a lot of extra length, you can trim the end off with any pair of decent wire cutters. I would recommend that you wait a couple of days before you do this to make sure that the strings are wrapped properly on the pegs.

 

[JimmyM]

What about gut strings? Should they be trimmed, and how? There's always a lot of excess that sometimes interferes with the path of the other strings. I had to trim a slight bit of fraying off my gut E string so it would fit in the hole, and I used a single edge razor blade. Was that the right thing to do or is there a better way?

 

[Rob Hunter]

I was wondering about the "cutting strings" issue as well. I will soon be restringing my Eminence EUB and the tuner posts seem much smaller than "regular" DB shafts.

If I recall from the EB world, as long as strings are cut on the thread, all will be fine. Anyone think otherwise? (FYI, I'm not referring to gut strings here.)

 

[Adrian Cho]

I justed posted in this thread about trimming strings. I use unwound gut on G and D and just trimmed the strings this past yesterday. I thought perhaps I might need to melt the end of the gut to stop it from fraying but I don't think that's going to happen.