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I am can't believe this video

#21
I'm sorry, I've been playing for well over 35 plus years and not once have I ever 'stretched' my strings and not once have I ever had any issues with tuning or being out of tune or losing my tuning!

But hey, whatever floats your boat! Unrelated story but (I was also a bigtime softball player in my youth) this guy takes one of the aluminum bats and proceeds to wack it several times across a fence post! I ask what's he doing, and a guy tells me he's breaking in his bat! I tell him BS, he's actually damaging his bat. I've never heard of such nonsense! My time to go bat and I grab my bat......wait a minute, it's got a big dent in it! Dammit, that was my frikkin' bat he was 'breaking in'!! You break strings in by 'using them'!
 
#22
scsm said:
I searched and I couldn't find anything about this video and I had to share with someone. It's a guy telling you how to stretch strings...

Now I'm not a luthier by any means but I'm pretty sure this is terrible for your neck.

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I am can't believe it either! :D

I'm not even going to watch the video...I've done setups and intonations and other minor repairs for years on hundreds of instruments and have NEVER stretched strings. It's metal. Stainless steel...nickel...yeah, those don't "stretch" as much as they "fail".
 
#24
I couldn't even watch the whole thing. That's a good way to break a bass.

We pre-stretch strings here at my shop, but not like that. We use both hands, and press our thumbs against the strings - keeping the excess tension between our hands, not on the neck. I've found that it does help stabilize the string, so you don't have to tune it over and over again in the first day or so of playing.

*sigh*... so much bad information, so little time...
 
#25
fryBASS said:
If you think that your bass neck would snap because of that, then you have one weak bass neck. With the use of truss rods, it is VERY hard to snap a bass neck by hand, let alone by pulling on the strings. Ever heard of neck bending? Do it all the time on my basses. Both neck-through and bolt-ons. Never had a problem.
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I knew it wouldn't happen. Just wishful thinking. I was thinking more along the lines of the neck pulling off at the screws more than actually breaking.
 
#27
+1, for sure.

I'm an old cat, likewise--and this video was a WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot thing for me. I've had all kinds of basses (good, bad, ugly) and used all kinds of strings, and all the stretching I ever needed to do when restringing is pull the strings parallel to the fingerboard a bit more than I do playing fingerstyle. A couple passes like that, play a bit of slap, play a bit of fingerstyle, and retune. Rinse and repeat, and it'll hold pitch pretty well.

That's worked fine for me, for three decades...

The key is to get a good clean wrap around the post of the tuner. No need to get brutal with the bass, if you do.

RustyAxe said:
"I'm (whatever his name was) and I've been playin' bass for ... a while".

I'm Denny, been playing bass for more than 40 years. I never stretch my strings by swinging the bass by the strings ... never. :hmm:
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#28
I stretch mine. I pull them out gently, not nearly as far as that joker. I start at the bridge, pull the string a bit. Then let it ease back. All the way down to the nut on all strings. I also use my thumb and first finger to bend the string all they way down too. I push gently with my thumb and gently in the opposite direction with my finger. I never pull them much off the fretboard. I think it's more an issue for guitarists. They tend to break strings if they are not worn in a bit.
 
#31
When I put on new strings, I like to hold the neck upright and knock an arrow on the string. Then I pull back as far as I can, being sure to get some bow out of the neck, and shoot the arrow at a target. I repeat with all the strings, until the arrows stop shooting, and just sort of fall to the ground. That's when I know I'm ready.
 
#34
blopazone said:
i wouldn't recommend stretching them at all, there's a lot of people out there and i don't know what they could do learning from this video... plus it SHOULD affect the neck's bow
i prefer just playing out of tune and getting a bit hard enough on the strings, in 10 minutes time they'll be stretched.
Click to expand...
I with you... I also would not recommend doing this to strings....

There is no practical reason to stretch bass strings. What's wrong with just putting on new strings and allowing them to "settle" naturally? It sure works for me... been doing that ever since the 1970's. Too many people sit up and pay attention when they hear any subject that's prefaced by the magic word "expert". I learned long ago to be quite skeptical when someone is a self-proclaimed "expert" in any discipline.
 
#37
He's an idiot for handling the string so violently, but that is NOT going to hurt the neck. It might break a string, but it won't bother the bass. The neck isn't made out of glass. I just installed a set of strings last night and I pushed them an inch or so to the side to help them settle in, but they're going to stretch over the first few weeks anyway.
 
#38
NO NO NO NO!

Everybody knows the correct way to stretch your strings is to tune the bass sharp 2 to 4 whole steps, lay down the bass on carpet, stand on it and pull the strings upwards with both hands and full force... That way, you´ll know if the strings snap, they were faulty... :D

I can´t believe this guy:rollno:
 

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