using full length of your string,not trimming them,is better for it's core, true?

[Epitaph04]

LOL imagine getting what looks like pixie sticks when buying strings.

 

[khutch]

I'm not saying that trimming strings affects tone (so long as it's done correctly), just showing that the mfgr doesn't cut a string at the windings as has been asserted herein.

Of course it was asserted by the manufacturer. In a promotional video posted on their own web site....

Apparently this is a point which is extremely critical to you to have made precisely correct. So here is a picture of the end of a GHS Pressure Wound Flat that I just took after removing it from the factory fresh packaging on which it is laying. I have not cut it, I have not used it as an agricultural implement, I have not retouched the photograph.

As I said, there is both the core and a secondary winding extending right to the very end of the string. Maybe that is just dumb luck - on string after string after string from GHS - but more likely it means that both wires were cut at the same point at the same time, as the final step in trimming the string to its finished length. Hey, if D'Addario doesn't know how they make their own strings, not my problem!

I think that rolling them up in those round packages does more damage than cutting them. I think we would all be better off if they shipped strings striaght.

Circle K strings agrees with you. I've never bought any but they claim to store them straight and ship them loosely coiled. One turn? You'd have to check their website but I think it is only about one turn.

Ken

 

[khutch]

Why?

Because a few people on TB say you look like a fool if you don't cut your strings the way they do, that's why. Actually if you don't cut and dress your strings precisely the way most of us do you look like someone who has the inner resolve and confidence to march to the beat of their own drummer. You look like a musician in other words!

Ken

 

[SGD Lutherie]

No, cut your strings. Most strings have a hex core, so the wraps stick to it. Some have a round core, so you need to bend the string before you cut it. If they have silk ends you don't have to worry about it.

Here's how I sting up basses. I install a lot of strings every month, so after a while you get good at it!

I put the string into the bridge, and pull it up to its tuner. I then go the length of 2 tuners past the tuner you are going to wind onto, and cut the string there. Most bass tuners have a hole for the end of the string, so I stick the end in there, and then start winding the tuner so that as you add wraps, the end of the string you are holding is down towards the headstock. Your wraps should not over lap, and you only want 2 or 3 wraps around the post.

You cab hold the string down with the hand not winding, against the fingerboard. I press it down with my index finger and use the others to pull it up to keep it taught.

After the string is on, and up to pitch, grab it around the midpoint of the string, and pull it gently up about an inch. It will probably need to be tuned up again, and then repeat that. That gentle stretch pulls the wraps on the tuners tight, and the string wont slip out of tune now. Otherwise they will detune for a day or so.