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When setting up new strings - anyone do this?

WardEarth

WardEarth

Feb 18, 2010
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Anchormanville, CA
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#1
Not sure where this came from, if I read it somewhere or just figured it out. But whenever I put on new strings I like to tune up then press into any bend points on the string. Both sides of the bridge saddles, both sides of the nut, and the 1 side of the tuning post. I find that the string finds the open note faster that way, less wandering on the tuner. Does anyone else do this? Common knowledge?
Or am I completely wrong and seeing something that isn't there and/or taking the 'magic' out of the string?
I'll take a picture or something if you don't get it.
 
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#3
Sure do. Everything needs to stretch into place no matter where the slack may exist. However being to forceful on the headstock/ tuner side can put excessive stress on the nut. I feel it contributed to me snapping my nut in two. Had to have it replaced last week with a piece of bone.
 
#9
Jeff Scott said:
Stretching the strings help stabilize the tuning so it they won't go flat as quickly. There's lots of youtube vids on how to do so, correctly.
Click to expand...
My thought is tugging hard on the strings like that would just wear them out faster. But maybe I just stabilize them by playing on them for a while. The only thing I really notice about my tuning is temperature really effects things a bit.

My strings seem to be as bright as I could want them to be and I've been playing the crap out of them for about 4 months or so. Dean markley helix's. Then again I'd have to put on a totally fresh set in order to see the difference.
 
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#12
Tugging Hared sounds like an intimate moment :roflmao:


Me: only on basses & guitars w/o a vibrato arm

if the guitar has a vibrato arm (and a recess route), I tune close to pitch (just roughly close the first time) & then yank back on that vibrato arm like I'm Darrell Abbott, a couple of times, about two steps above the tuned pitch.

retune (fine tuning this time), do the Darrell Abbott again & check the tuning
repeat until it holds tune (the strings are fully stretched)



BTW, I used this method on my latest guitar acquisition & determined quite quickly why no one uses a single-locking Floyd Rose vibrato system :wideyed:
The strings literally unravelled from the ball ends until the high E just broke right through.
 
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#15
WardEarth said:
Sounds like you're lucky a string didn't pop loose, could have lost an eye!
Click to expand...

Maybe you missed it, but a string did pop loose. When it happens they don't go flying through the air like a loose mooring rope & tear your face off. They just pop loose & that's it.

How many incidents of a guitarist losing an eye from using the vibrato arm have you heard or read about?

warning! graphic injury!


In a guitar or bass string, the tension is pretty finite, because metal doesn't really stretch. (It's not very elastic)
In Cuba (pronounced Koobah) Gooding Jr.'s case, the rope stretches & that makes for the snapback. I've broken a few strings doing the Darrell Abbott & none of them even came remotely close to my face.
 
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#16
saltydude said:
Sure do. Everything needs to stretch into place no matter where the slack may exist. However being to forceful on the headstock/ tuner side can put excessive stress on the nut. I feel it contributed to me snapping my nut in two. Had to have it replaced last week with a piece of bone.
Click to expand...
nah, that would only have happened if the nut slots were too small for the strings or if there was an air gap under the nut so it wasn't supported in the middle.

properly installed, you can seat the strings at the nut and at the keys with no fear.
 
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#17
Jeff Scott said:
Tugging hared on the strings like what? Is that is what you have come across about stretching strings? I'll see if I can find something to link to later tonight.
Click to expand...
I lay the bass flat, fret on the 7th fret, and pull up slowly a few times. Seems to help main't in tuning. Also, when I first put the string into the peg, I bend a right angle, instead of doing an initial round bend.
 
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#19
I saw Anthony Jackson at a clinic event over 20 years ago and he does the same thing. He uses the rounded end of a handle of a screwdriver and sometimes a wrapper from a string to prevent knicks and dents to delicate surfaces. I've been doing it ever since.
 
#20
I usually use flatwounds and they don't stretch a whole lot but recently put light gauge Rotosound Swing 66's on a short scale bass and had to stretch the hell out of them by brutally pulling on them:roflmao: to get them to stay in tune, I forgot how much those strings stretch after you put them on, even on long scale basses.
 
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