Dead string

[Dave W.]

Just put a new set of DR Sunbeams on my OM-21. I follow Bryan Kimsey's advice to the letter and am real anal about every little detail. I always check the seating of the ball end with a long handle lighted mirror to make sure they are up real tight against the bottom of the bridge. I have used DR's for years and can never remember a bad one. So...

The D string is dead, very muffled sounding. Compared to the other wound strings around it, it sounded like it was five years old. After triple checking everything I could think of, I loosened the string, pulled the bridge pin, and gave it four clockwise turns (looking at it from the rear) and re-seated it. 100% improvement. I can't recall where I read this, but some tech does it as a regular part of his string change routine. He says the initial stretch loosens the windings a bit, and this tightens them back up. Anybody else here do this or have used it to fix a dead string?? It's a first for me.

[knockwood]

Haven't used the loosen & twist method to fix a dead string, but have tried it just for the heck of it. There's a segment about this in Frets.com. It is Richard Hoover's - SCGC - method, and he apparently learned it from a piano tech... My observation was that it worked as advertised... I'm just too lazy to do it most of the time...

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Musician/GenSetup/QuickTricks/quicktrick.html

[Hudman]

Cool tip.

The guy from Santa Cruz does it to the new low E string during a normal string change.

I'm going to try that at my next string change.

[Tony Burns]

When i changed the tuners on my classical,( put schallers on it ) i kept the same strings on it- ( they were new ) and when i put them back on they are dead to the world- think i unwound them slightly- which killed their sound -- ill try that when i get a chance -- something new learned everyday on this site !

[Dave W.]

Originally posted by knockwood Haven't used the loosen & twist method to fix a dead string, but have tried it just for the heck of it. There's a segment about this in Frets.com. It is Richard Hoover's - SCGC - method, and he apparently learned it from a piano tech... My observation was that it worked as advertised... I'm just too lazy to do it most of the time... http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Musician/GenSetup/QuickTricks/quicktrick.html

 

 

Knock,

 

Yes, that was the place I saw it, Richard Hoover is the source. Credit where credit is due.