Month: February 2024

This question was put to me again by a steel-string guitar owner, and I don’t blame the questioner. There are as many opinions on this as there are guitarists or guitars!!!

But shall we put this debate to rest, once and for all?

IT’S PERFECTLY SAFE TO CUT ALL THE STRINGS ON YOUR WESTERN FLAT-TOP (STEEL STRING) GUITAR AT ONE GO!

So, how did the doubt arise in the first place?

The Western flat-top guitar, as we know it, is a contemporary cousin of the Classical Guitar (Spanish Guitar), having evolved from it. The Classical Guitar – having its origins in the Lute and the Arabian Oud – acquired its final shape by the 1790s.

Classical and flamenco guitars historically used catgut strings, but these have been superseded by nylon. Catgut is a type of cord that is prepared from the natural fiber found in the walls of animal intestines. Catgut makers usually use sheep or goat intestines, but occasionally use the intestines of cattle, hogs, horses, mules, or donkeys. Despite the name, catgut is not made from cat intestines.

Classical Guitars were never constructed with a truss rod (which keeps the neck from bowing out of shape and gives relief to the neck) because the catgut strings never exerted as much tension as steel strings do. Ditto, nylon strings. And so, traditional wisdom said that while replacing strings on a Classical Guitar, strings should be replaced one at a time, to prevent the sudden loss in tension from misshaping the neck.

That knowledge continued to hold sway with the advent of Western Flat-top/Folk Guitars, even though they had a static steel rod or a truss rod in their necks to take the strain of the steel strings, and the same misinformation/lack of information keeps getting perpetuated by internet users even today.

So, to conclude, you can easily cut off all strings on a steel string guitar without fear of damaging the neck because it has a truss rod in it to maintain its shape. But one has to be careful while changing strings on a classical guitar.

 

Rave alert!

I have raved about it before and I will repeat myself for – two reasons – reader memory is short, and yours truly was, himself, reminded of this malpractice when more than a couple of guitars walked into the Garage with monstrosities like this staring at him from the headstock. 

It was frightening!

 

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the extra length of string is provided by the manufacturer just in case you have a guitar with a tail-piece (see below).

Never was the extra length of string provided for you to try and challenge the genius of #thestringartguy. Also, just because it is there, does not mean that you have to wrap all of it around your string post. 

NEVER!!!!!!!!!

2.5 turns on wound strings and 4 – 5 on the unwound ones is all your instrument needs to sound its best and sweetest! 

Now, let us see what all that extra length of string does, besides being ever ready to prick you.

A situation arises when you pluck/play your guitar which has any length of string hanging out from the tunning post. The hanging (or coiled) bit of string tries to pick up the frequency of the note you played, and begins to vibrate to it, causing an irritating buzz like sound. In guitarese (guitar lingo), we call it a sympathetic buzz. 

Only the experienced ear will be able to realise that it is the extra string vibrating, while most will go hunting for the buzz on each fret of the neck! 

Winding the entire length of the string onto the tuning post may present tuning issues, and you will be left scratching your head why your guitar won’t stay in tune.    

Until next time!

You all might remember this one from some time back. It returned recently for a change of tuning machine sets. The owner was not happy with the tuning machines and also the crumbling buttons on them.

If you don’t remember the earlier visit by this instrument, you can read about it here

Guitar repair – A novel problem in a classical Alhambra!

As you can see, otherwise, the guitar was in very good shape, being kept well.

However, the tuning machine set on the treble side was causing problems. As I looked at it closely, I discovered tell-tale signs of efforts to unscrew the set. The screwhead closest to the ‘e’ string tuning machine was all worn out – a sure sign that a much larger screwdriver had been employed to open the small screw.

Also, it was evident that when the screw could not be removed, someone had tried to prise out the machine set by slipping in something between the set and the headstock. Try and notice the area of the tuning machine assembly around the ‘e’ string tuning machine and you will know what I am talking about.

Thankfully, when that too failed, it seemed further efforts were not made.

However, the owner knew nothing about it. When accosted, he said that since the instrument had been previously owned, maybe, it was the other owner who may have tried a few things.

The owner also requested that the strings on the guitar be retained. That was a problem. Trying to string a classical guitar is a problem in itself. Trying to unwind strings from classical guitar tuning machines is a bigger problem. But since the owner had requested, it had to be done.

With the strings and tuning machine screws off, the three-in-one sets of machines came off easily. As I tried on the new set of tuners, I wasn’t surprised to note that the screw holes in them and those drilled on the headstock of the guitar did not match up…they rarely do!

So, I filled out the old holes with wood dowels and drilled new holes

And the rest was smooth.

If I leave you with the photographs, you’ll be able to make out the rest of the story.