Quote:
Originally Posted by bc guy
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.
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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