Breaking G string?
 

Hi all,twice now during tuning back up to standard after tuning down to EBEEBE i've broken the G string right near the tuning peg.The second time I went very slow but still it snapped.Anyone know what I may be doing wrong?Do you need to retune in stages?These are D'addario lights,phosphor bonze.
Thanx.

This is a tough one. Given that the G is a wound string, the wire core on it is usually the thinnest of all the strings. This means that the G is the most likely to break. Also, changing tunings is harder on the strings than just leaving them in one tuning. However, folks do change tunings and it shouldn't always cause a string to break.

If these are the regular D'Addario lights (.012-.054), the should be up to the task. They're good strings. You might, however, try another brand, just to see. Martins or John Pearse are good strings, too.

-Raf

considering the change in tunings and movement of the string, check for burrs or anything that could possibly be culprit at the pin. You probably already did this, but it's all I got anyway...

In addition to the good advice above, you can use a little pencil lead on the nut groove where the string slides to reduce friction if it's a little tight.

Additionally, some strings are far more susceptible to breaking. I found that John Pearce snapped on me three or four times. I took my Collings in for a set up review and the groves along the nut were marginally widened.

Hate when it happens though. You can tap the strings and tell when it is getting really tight when you are going back to G or E (other string that is at risk). I can now tell when it's getting too tight.

Best idea, get more guitars! One for each tuning.

Other thing is, the strings last longer if they don't get retuned all the time.

Stuart

The string should be wound around the post BEFORE threading through the hole. This way the point of stress is at the tangent where the string leaves the post, rather than the edge of the post hole where metal fatigue is at its most severe. This will minimalise breakage.

This is not a bad idea. Some guitars just work better in different tunings.

My Collings has barely been out of DADGAD since I bought it. It will take a while, but in the looooong term you'll save on strings, as constantly retuning will kill them sooner. That's my excuse for having a few guitars anyway, and I'm sticking to it!

Well, my first question is simply: how long have the strings been on there, and how many retunings from standard to alternative tuning and back have they endured?

Because you only get so many retunings before they snap, regardless of how they're wrapped around the tuner post. The simple act of changing the amount of tension in one direction and then back again the other way acts to fatigue the metal of the string.

When I was playing in bars four hours a night and went back and forth on my tunings throughout my sets, I found that I could get two good nights out of a set of strings before they started to pop, usually at the most inconvenient moment imaginable. In other words, if I tried to fudge it and get a third night out of a set, I'd almost invariably break a string at some point during that third evening.

Now, home use is generally such that you're not pounding as hard and as relentlessly as I did when I was working in the Irish bars. But even so, the fatigue can and will set in sooner rather than later on those strings that get changed a lot.

By all means check for burrs and poorly cut nut slots and the like, and do the recommended extra wrap and see if that helps any. But unless you do get a second guitar so that you can keep one in standard tuning and the other in this Open E, you're going to kill strings a whole lot faster than you might want just by the constant retuning alone. No way around it.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

Breaking G string
 

Check to make sure that the string is coming off the peg below, and not on, the hole. If the string is being bent at that point (on the edge of the hole) it will weaken it, especially if you change tunings often. This problem is made worse by holes not drilled straight or properly beveled. Put more string on the peg to make sure the string is coming off the smooth part of the peg, not the hole. Going back, I see where andrewrg was on the right path.

Go cut a section out of a wire coat hanger. Pick a spot in the middle and bend it back and forth several times. What happens?

It breaks. Remembering back to my materials class in engineering school, this is called work hardening of the material.

When you wind a string around the post, you bend it (duh). When you detune - take some windings off the post - the tension on the string straightens it back out. Tune back up and you are bending it again. Of course it breaks. If you were to seek a good way to break strings this would be it.

Do all the things everybody recommends, but if you detune/retune enough, you are going to break strings. Good excuse to buy more guitars!

Thanx for all the tips,I'll give them a try.

Well, cool, but you didn't answer MY question, BC - how long have the strings been on there and how many retunings have they endured?

It makes a difference, because if the strings are fresh and only been retuned once or twice before popping, that points to a mechanical problem like a metal burr on the tuning peg post or a rough spot at the nut.

But if you've retuned the same set of strings more than four or five times, it's simply a function of what Bruce E referred to as "work hardening of the materials." And it's basically impossible to avoid so long as the guitar is being used in that way.

In other words, if you retune a lot, you should simply expect it and perhaps budget for it by having spare single strings onhand.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

The first time it happened the strings had been on about a year and only tuned down about three times.

The second time it snapped right after the first retuning back up to standard.

I'll check for burrs.