Why not clip strings at tuners?

[JOESTONE]

Is there a reason to leave them long like I see so often?

[TheLiveSoundGuy]

None that I know of other than cats are:

A. too lazy to clip 'em

B. no cutters handy

C. they think it looks cool.

[ksdaddy]

My avatar is of my newest acquisition (abused Dove) that has the famous "I don't have a pair of dikes so I'll just loop them around into big circles" look. Not my choice, it was how it arrived with 13-58s from the Nixon administration, but used in the avatar for jocular purposes.

 

Myself, I like to have a minimum of wraps, 2 or 3, clip the strings about 1/2" or 5/8" out from the post and then make a 90 degree bend downwards. It looks nice and decreases the chances of driving a string end under my fingernails.

 

 

[grampa]

They're so much easier to deal with when the strings are clipped. Looks is a subjective judgement but the safety issue isn't. It's pretty easy for a kid or a pet to get poked by the wild strings. Or even the player if he/she gets carried away with their playing. Getting stabbed by the clipped end is a hazard - it's happened to me and the pain is something else, and it can last for a while. I like to take needle nose pliers and bend the end around in a circle to keep the pointy part turned inward.

[TheLiveSoundGuy]

The only thing I do differently is, I go, string through the hole, then 1 wrap over, then 2-3 wraps under. It seems to lock the string in the hole, and all the wraps snug up nice and tight. I bend my ends straight up. (rarely if ever I poke myself)

[albertjohn]

The only thing I do differently is' date=' I go, string through the hole, then 1 wrap over, then 2-3 wraps under. It seems to lock the string in the hole, and all the wraps snug up nice and tight. I bend my ends straight up. (rarely if ever I poke myself)[/quote']

 

That's exactly what I do which seems to be against advice given by advocates of the "self locking" technique - which I get wrong and don't bother trying anymore. Never had a slippage problem either. I believe it's a question of physics............oh!......there's the door....must be the scientists again!

[Thermionik]

No string slippage if'n yah prays to the good Lord up above. Only infidels and gay's strings slip. Good, honest, God fearing folk never have to worry 'bout string slippage, excepting the G-string, which slips up their butcracks and gets covered in shite, whether they is infidels or goyim or evanjellywobblers alike.

 

And the world being flat and all, and the whole creation happening just a few thousand years back in six days, well, we don't need to worry about any of it anyway - just whip up a mess of tuning-pegs made out of angel spit and tonal nirvana will doubtless ensue.

 

Passez la viande de cheval, père, j'ai faim.

 

To quote another poster, 'I'm just kiddin' is all.....'

[TommyK]

Is there a reason to leave them long like I see so often?

 

No earthly, or unearthly for that matter, reason I can think of.

 

Clip 'em short.

 

The only reasonable reason is a last minute change / replacement before, or while on stage and your clippers are not where they're supposed to be.

 

 

2 - 3 wraps,

thread through tuner spindle,

pull snug with pliers,

bring to pitch,

Clip'em off

 

... in that order.

 

Haven't impaled myself with a string since I've been doing it that way.

[Modac]

Wow....you guys have lived charmed lives, haven't you?.....back in the not-so-good-old-days, we would not clip the string----instead, we'd make a circle with the leftover, and thread the string around that circle.....that way, if you broke a string prematurely, you could unwrap the leftover, and maybe tie the string up with a simple square knot, if it didn't break too far away from the nut....then it would be good until the windings of the string itself became undone. We used to boil strings, too, to reinfuse them with life.

[retrorod]

YesSirReeBob.....Dos were da days....we thought they never end.....But tank God day did! Rumour had it....not cutting the string ends would give the guitar better sustain. Back in da day...when we boiled strings to clean them, we would never want to 'cut' our tone short...RRod

[TommyK]

Wow....you guys have lived charmed lives' date=' haven't you?.....back in the not-so-good-old-days, we would not clip the string----instead, we'd make a circle with the leftover, and thread the string around that circle.....that way, if you broke a string prematurely, you could unwrap the leftover, and maybe tie the string up with a simple square knot, if it didn't break too far away from the nut....then it would be good until the windings of the string itself became undone. We used to boil strings, too, to reinfuse them with life. [/quote']

 

I'm cheap, but not that cheap. But, if the economy worsens, I may have to go that route. Shux, I a pinch I strung up a banjer with 8# test fish line. Worked okay too until I could get to the store for a proper set of banjer strings.

[Hall]

The Hurdy Gurdy Man forbade the clip. < spell check had no options, LP burried in basement supply bin

 

Steve

[retrorod]

The Hurdy Gurdy Man forbade the clip. < spell check had no options' date=' LP burried in basement supply bin

 

Steve[/quote']

 

What in the hell was that about? Did I miss something?????

[Johnt]

Is there a reason to leave them long like I see so often?

 

In the 60s there was a reason to keep em long.

 

You stuck the end in your cig(arette) to keep it alight during the interminal guiatr solo.

 

Now so many of us have given up fags and piled on 3 stone instead then there is no reason except laziness.

 

IMHO!

 

Which is why my J45 has been untrimmed for two weeks!

[Hall]

 

What in the hell was that about? Did I miss something?????

 

 

Yea, you sure as hell did. It was old Donovan's trademark to curl his strings ever so rediculously perfect.

[onewilyfool]

Have you guys tried those BOB COLOSI CLIPPERS for cutting the strings? They are made out of Tiger's teeth and are sharp as hell, and really make a clean cut. That clean cut REALLY improves the tone and sustain of the guitar.

[TheLiveSoundGuy]

Haven't tried those, but I do use the Bob Colosi String Cap Crimper.

 

It places a small metal cap over the cut ends and crimps it tight to the string, so I don't get poked.

 

Here are the caps, magnified 200 times.

 

[onewilyfool]

Live sound guy........LOL

[Thermionik]

TheLiveSoundGuy - surely them there is..... balls.

 

Admittedly small and shiny,

 

but balls all the same.

 

Personally - I don't think rcolosi would put his name to anything so, erm, ahh, foolish? Is that the word?

[ajsc]

 

This is the way Bobby used to do it!!

[wonderful remark]

damn..... I just clipped mine.......

 

I didnt know bobby didn't cut it....... but it looks neat to have them all cut..

[onewilyfool]

Dylan is Jewish, of course he cut it. He may have been borrowing that guitar from someone else....lol

[wonderful remark]

Dylan is Jewish' date=' of course he cut it. He may have been borrowing that guitar from someone else....lol[/quote']

 

Even my wife got a good laugh out of ya lol

[retrosurfer1959]

I read one that way back when gut srings were used they use to break at the bridge so the ends were left so you could pull it down again and reuse a string. Im not old enough to know if that's true or not but make since in a way, I am old enough to have used the wound end to hold cigs and joints in the late 60's :)

[ajsc]

"I am old enough to have used the wound end to hold cigs and joints in the late 60's"

 

I don't remember that at all. I wondered where all those nicotine stains came from!!