Josh Cho
From:
New York, NY (orig. Honolulu, HI)
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Don McGregor
From:
Memphis, Tennessee
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Posted 4 Oct 2009 3:57 am |
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My father taught me this method of changing the strings on my guitar when I was about 9 or 10, and I've been doing it this way now for 50 years. As in the video, I make my first loop above, and the rest below the tensioned string. I like to wind up with a minimum of 4 loops underneath, but one above and 3 below seem to hold fine. The larger, wrapped strings hold better with fewer wraps, but the skinny plain ones really need 4 below in my experience.
More wraps are okay, too, though I don't like to see so much string wrapped around, especially on the the larger strings, that it just looks like a sloppy ball of yarn. There are those who think this added mass of metal wrapped around the posts adds to sustain. I don't really worry about that, but I do like a quote I heard that was attributed to the great blues guitarist Albert King, "I paid for all of the string, and I want all of the string."
One of my pet peeves about some luthiers is their use of a current fad of actually tying a half hitch knot in the string through and around the string post, which they claim does a better job of preventing slippage, and doesn't require any lower wraps at all.
It doesn't work. Without the 3 or 4 wraps, the knot slips, and the string won't hold pitch. Also, when you do break a string, it takes a pick or needle nose pliers to get the knot off the post so you can change strings. This is bad if it happens during a show. Besides, how much time did you actually save by not putting the 3 or 4 wraps under the string?
When I've gotten a repaired guitar back that has been strung this way against my stated wishes, I made them give me another set of strings so I could go home and re-string the guitar myself.
The method Josh shows in his video is tried and true, doesn't slip, and makes it easy to change strings quickly, without tools. |
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