Forum

My guitar strings were long overdue for a change ... I've always cut them after wrapping around the tuning pegs, but I remembered a Taylor YouTube video where they cut the strings beforehand. The heavier strings (with winding) were cut one peg-length longer than the string's destination peg, and the unwound strings more than that.

So I decided to try that approach, but had a brain-fart and cut the A string to the length meant for the low E string :blink:
Mea Mucho Culpa.

This means that the string had at most 3/4 inch of slack for winding around it's tuning peg.

The string is ruined, right ? Ah, not so fast !

I came up with a solution that I haven't yet found with any internet search engines.

So I made this little tutorial for fun, since I wanted to experiment with the open source "Inkscape" program (similar to Adobe's "Illustrator").

Anyone had similar experiences ?

Well it was'nt to !!! short I think..

Thats why I always save the old strings. Just in case I suffer from a temporary rash of lunacy.

One old A string won't be the end of the world.

scott

sbutler wrote:

Thats why I always save the old strings. Just in case I suffer from a temporary rash of lunacy.

One old A string won't be the end of the world.

scott

Scott, I'm glad for you that your rashes of lunacy are only temporary :silly:

Karma being what it is, my old A string was buzzing, so couldn't reuse it ... so it was kind of the "end of the world".

But Mr. Fixit is still alive and well, thank you.

In researching my dilemma, I also found this approach for extending a string, even if it does not reach the tuning peg.
The knot has to be between the guitar's nut and tuning peg, of course. Surely this deserves a Boy Scout badge ?

cosmicmechanic wrote:

sbutler wrote:

Thats why I always save the old strings. Just in case I suffer from a temporary rash of lunacy.

One old A string won't be the end of the world.

scott

Scott, I'm glad for you that your rashes of lunacy are only temporary :silly:

Karma being what it is, my old A string was buzzing, so couldn't reuse it ... so it was kind of the "end of the world".

But Mr. Fixit is still alive and well, thank you.

In researching my dilemma, I also found this approach for extending a string, even if it does not reach the tuning peg.
The knot has to be between the guitar's nut and tuning peg, of course. Surely this deserves a Boy Scout badge ?

I suppose, if all else fails you could always go out a buy a new A string. Just a thought.

daryl wrote:

I suppose, if all else fails you could always go out a buy a new A string. Just a thought.

Daryl, aw, I was just going to prepare a demonstration of another method, using my soldering iron ...

What, burn all that gas to screw up the weather even more to replace a perfectly usable string that will become a conversation piece for it's duration and so start up long-lasting friendships and a never-ending chain of events ? Convinced, now ?

Pierre

cosmicmechanic wrote:

daryl wrote:

I suppose, if all else fails you could always go out a buy a new A string. Just a thought.

Daryl, aw, I was just going to prepare a demonstration of another method, using my soldering iron ...

What, burn all that gas to screw up the weather even more to replace a perfectly usable string that will become a conversation piece for it's duration and so start up long-lasting friendships and a never-ending chain of events ? Convinced, now ?

Pierre

Convinced? Always was. My credo is: "rethink, reduce, reuse, repair, repupose, recyle". You're brilliant with your string "stretcher" ideas! Love the idea of soldering the string. I suppose you could also work from the other end of the string as well?

daryl wrote:

Love the idea of soldering the string. I suppose you could also work from the other end of the string as well?

Daryl, even if I found a way to manage that, I'd get lots of silent looks that said : "He's got a booger hanging off his guitar string".

So you are right that sometimes it IS better to just buy a new friggin' string

Pierre

I can just imagine the comments if it were your G string.....