Does Anyone Else Half-Wrap Strings?

[Mark Stone]

I was curious whether anyone else here at the AGF half-wraps their strings on the posts? It's a real time-saver when changing strings. A long long time ago, 1971 or so when I first started playing, I had no one to teach me the "correct" method of locking strings on the posts - so I just got in the habit of:

1. Sticking the string through the post's hole & pulling it up tight
2. Cranking up to pitch
3. Clipping the string (or sometimes wrapping the ends up in loops)

And I have done it that way since. In 50 years of playing, sometimes aggressively and sometimes not, in bars/clubs/restaurants/churches and church camps/coffeehouses etc., I have never, ever had a string slip. Ever. When I see pictures of strings wrapped around posts two or three times, I think to myself

I wonder if people know they don't have to do that.

Sure, it's OK to wrap the strings around the posts two or three times; there's nothing wrong with that. And I imagine my post here will not change anyone's string changing methods. And that's OK too. Nevertheless, it's a fact: You don't have to wrap around the post when you change strings.

Here's a couple of pictures of the last Gibson I owned - this was a Hummingbird Pro and these photos are from about 7 or 8 years ago. C'mon, AGFriends, be brave! You can do it! Escape, and be free from the evil string wrapper cult!!

[Cool555]

Wow! Never knew I could do that! Looks unreal (magical) how the strings stay in place. I’ll still stick to my traditional method of wrapping the strings 2-3 times round the pole like Bruce does his. Curious to hear other responses to this method of stringing.

Thanks for sharing Mark!

[AllanAnd]

Very interesting this is!

I will give it a try as I bloody well hate changing strings - so anything that might help the process is highly welcome!

[Horsehockey]

Marginally relevant, but here goes: Pearl Harbor circa 1979. Watch Officer on the bridge of our ship received the erroneous word that the stern (last) line was on board and the ship commenced to get underway with that line still made up to the bollard on the pier and to the electric capstan on the ship. Totally irrelevant (?) but it was the number of turns on the ship’s capstan that gave me and the 7 sailors manning the line on the ship’s transom time to take cover before that 3-4 inch caliper nylon stern line started singing and ultimately snapped with the sound of a shotgun blast. The two navy sailors tending the line on the pier were struck by the remnants of that line and seriously injured… including a broken hip and a lacerated scrotum. Could’ve been worse if it hit either one of them in the head. So count me out on this novel idea. Maybe it would never happen that a steel string would pop out of its capstan and lacerate my eyeball but call me good with more turns on the capstan. Just sayin’

[JayBee1404]

Originally Posted by Horsehockey

Marginally relevant, but here goes: Pearl Harbor circa 1979. Watch Officer on the bridge of our ship received the erroneous word that the stern (last) line was on board and the ship commenced to get underway with that line still made up to the bollard on the pier and to the electric capstan on the ship. Totally irrelevant (?) but it was the number of turns on the ship’s capstan that gave me and the 7 sailors manning the line on the ship’s transom time to take cover before that 3-4 inch caliper nylon stern line started singing and ultimately snapped with the sound of a shotgun blast. The two navy sailors tending the line on the pier were struck by the remnants of that line and seriously injured… including a broken hip and a lacerated scrotum. Could’ve been worse if it hit either one of them in the head. So count me out on this novel idea. Maybe it would never happen that a steel string would pop out of its capstan and lacerate my eyeball but call me good with more turns on the capstan. Just sayin’

I’m with Bill. 2-3 turns on the wound strings, 5-6 on the unwounds.

The usual disclaimers apply......IMHO, YMMV etc.

[dnf777]

I certainly wont argue with your results, but for me, an extra wrap or two is like Linus’ security blanket. Voodoo, perhaps silly, but offers comfort and assurances.

Your pic makes me wish we had phones with cameras back in my teen days. I could have shown you 1/4 wrap to 36 wraps….all on one guitar at once. Didnt always plan things out before acting in those days.

[EZYPIKINS]

Been doing it like that for years.

I'll usually get right about one wrap, or maybe 3/4

If more people did this. They would be less apprehensive about changing strings.

[Italuke]

Of course, DON'T try that with nylon strings. 😁

[rmp]

Used to use that string on string "lock" method, but after impaling my finger tips a few hundred times trying to release the treble strings I went back to other methods

I just cut the strings just shy of the next post, leaves plenty of string to wrap around with,

[RJVB]

Originally Posted by Horsehockey

ultimately snapped

Nice anecdote but I don't see how those 2 words do not make it irrelevant to the discussion at hand (not to mention the fact that guitar scale length rarely changes in ways to put comparable stress on the strings, even with a tremolo )

I *could* imagine that the part of the string going through the peghole undergoes a larger stress when there are fewer windings, though. The few times I had a high E break when putting it back on were always in the beginning of the process, when it had just begun to being put under tension.

[The Bard Rocks]

I have done this with the low E, sometimes the A but find the rest slip, especially the unwound strings. Sometimes I"ll even run them through a second time. No one ever accused me of being particularly neat or fastidious with my stringing.

[Slothead56]

I started restringing my 12 string over Thanksgiving. I still have 6 or 8 strings to go so I may try to this.

Trying to finish before Christmas….

[Gee Man]

I prefer a couple of wraps for both safety and the lower downward pressure at the post/better break angle it accomplishes, especially on taller posted tuners, which the gibby above does not have.

[phydaux]

Originally Posted by Mark Stone

I only ever did it this way once. It was when I first bought my Guild D-25 back in '86. No issues, but ever since I've always made sure I had enough slack in my string to get 2-3 wraps around the post.

[martingitdave]

A couple of notes from my experience:

I if you lock (tie) the end of the string, you don’t need a lot of wraps around the post. Martin agrees.

Some guitars need downward pressure on the nut.

12-strings will slip out of tune this way easily because the strings are much thinner. Also the thinner strings will break without a few wraps to keep downward pressure at the nut.