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Old 12-31-2009, 10:23 AM
Aaron Smith Aaron Smith is offline
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Join Date: May 2003
Location: Atlanta, GA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by michaeljohnr View Post
BB King wraps the entire length of the string.

I'm just saying.......
I've heard this too- but have you ever tried it? If you really like re-tuning your guitar in the middle of songs, go for it.
Seriously, BB got into this habit when he was young, when he had a hard time affording new strings. He did it so that if a string broke, he had extra length around the tuning peg and he could re-use the string. But this never made much sense to me either, because any time I've broken a string, it's been between the nut and the saddle. The extra string around the post wouldn't have done any good. On the plus side, having all that extra string does make bends a lot easier, which is nice if you want to play like B.B.

The truth is that both the Taylor way and the frets.com way work fine. I tend to follow the frets.com way more closely, and I don't like to cut the strings until after they're brought up to tension. The critical part is that a part of the string loops under the "standing" leg of the string so that it pinches it tightly. It is also critical that the wraps line up neatly next to one another on the tuning peg, and don't overlap. They should always wind towards the bottom, rather than the top.

For the perfectionist, there is probably an ideal number of wraps for each guitar. One of mine has Grovers, which are very tall. I prefer 4 wraps around the post when strung to pitch, to help the break angle over the nut. Another of mine has Waverlies, which are shorter- this guitar only gets two wraps around the post. Break angle considerations aside, fewer wraps is almost always better; there is less string that can shift or settle, and affect the tuning. Of course, a player who frequently uses non-standard tunings may have different priorities.
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