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Should you ever unwind your strings


martcol

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I watched a you tube vid of Vince Gill recently and boy, does he have a tack of great guitars! When he took a guitar it seemed that he had to really wind them up to get them in tune and it got me wondering if you should unwind them a bit to lay them down for a while?

 

One other Q about string tension. If I put lighter strings on my new J200 is it likely to need setting up again. Currently it’s as is out-of-the-box and feels lovely. I’d just like a bit more room to bend.

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I was told by a luthier friend that strings should only be slackened for shipping long distance, and that it’s less stressful for the neck joint and braces to be under tension all the time rather than having a succession of on-off-on-off tension.

 

With your SJ200, you may well get away with putting a lighter set of strings on without a setup-expect the action to drop a touch, so if it’s already low you may experience a few buzzes. If it doesn’t work out and you don’t want to spring for a setup, you can always go back to the heavier strings and the status quo will be restored 🙂

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I don't loosen my strings when I put them away, but I do say comforting and supportive words to them.

 

"Say, beautiful job today, strings. Absolutely top-notch."

 

"Thank you. You know, we are under a lot of tension, and the fretboard says it's a real pain in the neck."

 

"I know you are uptight, but you can handle it. You always have in the past. You have never, ever let me down, or snapped even, and I want you to know how much I appreciate it."

 

"Well, okay then. We'll do our best to never be slackers."

 

"Jolly good show!"

 

[crying]

 

36771c7440c49e551ddc1900aa86a535--guitar-art-music-guitar.jpg

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Then only time I have loosened strings is when I took my 2008 J-50 to Europe a few years ago. Aside from that, I keep them (more or less) in tune. After years of trying various strings, I have settled on the Martin SP Phosphor bronze, but I use the upper three strings from a set of custom lights, and the lower three strings from a set of mediums. This gives me a .011 E and .015 B that are nice for bending while keeping a strong bass on the lower strings. Costs twice as much and wastes 6 strings, but I don't change strings often, and they're pretty cheap anyway. :)

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My guess is that Vince, having soooo many guitars, tunes them all down a step to keep tension off the necks. Since there are so many of them in his collection, I doubt they get played a lot so increasing the amount of time the guitar can go without needing a neck reset isn't a bad idea.

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Hi there,

 

With my solid body guitar, unless there going to be in transit, nope, I just leave them tuned up.

On my acoustics, because I will put them away for longer times, yes, I always de-tune them.

But it should be noted that I play my solid body's far more then the acoustic.

 

I feel that is is far more likely to be less of a problem to de-tune, then to leave it for months in the case under tension.

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If I put lighter strings on my new J200 is it likely to need setting up again. Currently it’s as is out-of-the-box and feels lovely. I’d just like a bit more room to bend.

 

If you are going to go from lights (12s) to extra lights (11s) I don't think you will need to do a lot. I would think the nut may be the only thing to get a look at.

 

The only thing you may noticed tho, is the 11s may not work the top as much as the 12s.

 

My SJ200 came with the action factory set, at about 6~7/64s (B) 5~6/64s (T). I had it dropped to 5/64s (B) 4/64s (T) and that really made a world of difference for my hands.

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Metal springs keep their strength even when compressed. They lose it, over time, by being compressed and de-compressed constantly. So, I would think strings would maintain their "strength" if left alone , but would get "fatigued" if constantly loosened and tightened. I don't know anything about wood, but the neck might react the same way. Ymmv.

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