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How can you tell if a string is about to break
- Thread starter GC34
- Start date
I've broken two bass strings... Wait three. Once when I just got my first bass trying to tune it up. The next one was a friend's bass with ancient strings at a practice space, and the last one at a show.
I couldn't tell you what precipitated them or any signs for how to predict them, but they always had old (at least a year old) strings on.
Edit: I also have a hard attack. I've gotten a lot better about it but I'm the definition of "all enthusiasm no talent"
I couldn't tell you what precipitated them or any signs for how to predict them, but they always had old (at least a year old) strings on.
Edit: I also have a hard attack. I've gotten a lot better about it but I'm the definition of "all enthusiasm no talent"
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Couldn't tell you any of the strings - this was over a decade ago in each case.
The first time was probably tuned above standard, the other two were half step down.
Whoa, one of those could kill ya!
Also: I presume the OP is just stringing us along.
I guess it would have been better said as, I pick really hard.
I'm keeping it as is because of this though
If you want to worry about strings breaking (you really seem to want to do this), you picked the wrong instrument. On a violin, strings break much more often, and depending on where they break, they can give you a good snap in the face. I sometimes wonder why violin players don't wear protective eyewear. Maybe you could take over worrying about that for me.
I've had a few strings break over the years. Mostly probably over a decade ago when I was younger and playing with a heavier attack. Not like a clean brake but more like in mid song the wrappings of the string just came off the core.
Will this be the last such post from our hero?
Frayed knot.
Frayed knot.
When you least want it to. In front of an audience.
... and if you're odd enough to have a Kahler on a bass so all the other strings go out of tune.....
Yes, happened to me (with a kahler)
Seriously, no. It's always an annoying surprise in my book.
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Or Mandolin. I've only broken one violin string because I could not get the peg to stay in place. I've had strings break at the bridge on violin, while it was in it's case.
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Just like in mountain biking, you will never take lines because you are afraid to crash
If you want an interesting thing to think about w.r.t. string breakage, consider an electric guitar. The highest strings are plain steel. Assuming the alloy and scale length are kept constant, the highest pitch you can tune any plain string to (regardless of gauge) before it breaks is constant. The Physics is simple - the linear density of the string goes up with the diameter squared. March through a couple equations, and a couple of squares and square roots, and it turns out that the tension required to bring a string up to pitch goes with the diameter squared. Twice the area mans twice the mass, and twice the tension. So, it's simply the tensile strength of the steel alloy and the scale length that determines the highest pitch you can tune to. Why don't guitars go much above high E? Because the string will snap, regardless of what gauge you use.
Another way of looking at this - the high E string on a guitar is much more likely to snap than the B, regardless of the gauges of either one.
Another way of looking at this - the high E string on a guitar is much more likely to snap than the B, regardless of the gauges of either one.
