String-changing marathon

[Wade Hampton]

Yesterday I came home from my usual Sunday church gig and decided to sit down and change the strings on a whole bunch of instruments.

Short version: in one sitting I changed the strings on my baritone, my Double O, my Triple O and my main performance mandolin. It was, as I indicated in the thread header, a marathon.

So I wrote about it below, but do go into some detail. After I finished reading what I wrote, I thought: "Dang, that's long!" So I've inserted this edit to spare those of you who've already learned all you wanted to know.

whm

Okay, onward:

I'd been putting off changing my mandolin strings, because it's just no fun whatsoever to change strings on those instruments: loop end strings and high tension tuning. It generally takes me three times as long to change strings on a mandolin as it does on a guitar.

During the church service yesterday morning, I noticed that not only my mandolin needed new strings, but my McAlister acoustic baritone guitar needed a fresh set, as well.

So after I got home and ate lunch, I washed my hands and sat down to start changing strings. Being reasonable folks, for the most part, you'd probably assume that I started with the toughest one first and began by changing mandolin strings.

But you'd be wrong: I wanted to preserve my morale for as long as I could and started with an easier task, namely swapping out the baritone's strings.

I use a John Pearse baritone set that uses these gauges: .017, .024, .032, .045, .056, .070.

There's kind of a trick to getting that .070 through the hole in the tuner shaft: it's a double-wound string, and so if you clip it off in a fishhook, as I do with all the other strings, (using what's now called "The Taylor Method,") it won't fit through the hole. The double-wound part is too thick.

So what I do is bend the string as if I was going to make a fishhook out of it, but don't clip it yet: I grab the end of the string with my needle nose pliers, and yank it through the hole in the tuner shaft. Once I've got it all the way through, THEN I clip it off to a fishhook, not before, and then proceed with bringing the string up to full tension.

Then I attach the rest of the strings the normal way, which for me is the "Fishhook/Taylor method."

Just this year I started using an inexpensive gadget that I find very useful when restringing guitars: the String Stretcha.

The String Stretcha



The String Stretcha In Action

These are about ten or twelve bucks from StewMac and other online vendors. I find mine very handy, as it speeds up the process of getting the tuning stabilized to a substantial degree.

I've been in the habit of stretching in new strings for more than forty years now, because it makes them stage-ready a lot sooner. But this gadget not only saves your fingers doing that job, but following the company's instructions to only stretch each string twice it also cuts down on a lot of the excess time I was spending on the stretching in process.

(Note to the metallurgists and engineers on the forum: yes, I've been told that, technically speaking, it's impossible to stretch steel and what I do to get strings to settle in is technically something else. Duly noted.)

So what I do once I've used the String Stretcha twice on each new string in succession is play the guitar for a few minutes, then proceed to the next string.

After I grappled with the 28.3" scale on my baritone, I put it in its case and picked up my Martin 00-21. With its 24.9" scale it felt like playing a ukulele in comparison!

That particular guitar sounds its best with John Pearse Bluegrass gauge strings (medium gauge basses, light gauge trebles.) It was a joy to restring, and to play as I was doing so. So the restringing process went almost too quickly and I was done.

I've seen enough threads on this and every other guitar forum I've ever visited written by folks trumpeting the joys of dead, "mellow" strings, but I am definitely not of that persuasion. I like to hear all of the harmonics that a guitar can produce, so I'm a fan of sweet new strings. I can control the treble response with my playing attack easily enough, but there's nothing that I can do to bring out tone colors that have evaporated from the strings because they're grotty and nearly dead....

With the 00-21 finished I put it away and took out my 000-42, custom made for me by Scott Baxendale in 1988. It's the guitar I've owned the longest, and if I had to own just one guitar, that would be the one. When Scott was working as an instrument repairman for George Gruhn at Gruhn Guitars, a 1935 Martin 000-28 came in for some work. Scott thought it was one of the best-sounding guitars he'd ever heard, so he carefully drew up a blueprint of the guitar's bracing and all its dimensions.

I'm the first person to ever order a Triple O from Scott, and I benefited from his accrued knowledge of that instrument style. It's a world class guitar, no two ways about it.

The only strings that the 000-42 has ever had on it in the more than thirty years I've owned it are John Pearse medium gauge 80/20 bronze. I knew that Scott was using pre-war style scalloped bracing on the guitar, so I told him before he even started that I was more or less a "medium gauge string kind of guy." He told me: "That won't be a problem."

And it never has been.

So, again, because it sounds so rich and balanced, that was a fun instrument to restring and play in a little bit.

Now the fun was over - it was time to restring the resentful little demon in the back of the line, the thumbtack of musical instruments, the mandolin.

Have you ever heard unpleasant, intense people described as "high strung?" I'm convinced that comes from the mandolin. If it was a human being, Prozac wouldn't make it any nicer or easier to get along with.

I love playing mandolin. I hate restringing mandolins.

So I skulk and sulk and avoid doing so for as long as I can, but sooner or later I have to face my responsibilities and restring the blasted thing.

Part of the protocol involves starting from the middle and working outwards symmetrically, because you don't want to move the bridge and knock everything out of alignment. That has a nasty impact on the intonation. So I generally start with the innermost D string, then change the neighboring A string, get the next D string, and so forth.

With the wound strings, the double G's and D's, I can use the same fishhook/Taylor method to restring it, which makes the task go faster. But with the unwound plain A and E courses, I have to tie off the strings at the post because they won't stay in tune using the fishhook method. Too much tension on them, I suppose.

So that's an added aggravation, for me, anyway.

The next aggravation is that the strings have loop ends and have to be hooked to the tailpiece, yet love to pop off the tailpiece when they're not under full tension. So what I do is hook the string on, then take a piece of Scotch Magic tape and use that to hold the string end in place. Then after I've threaded it through the top of the tailpiece and over the bridge, I clamp it to the neck with a little Shubb banjo capo, and proceed from there.

It takes a while.

So yesterday while in the middle of restringing my Triple O I realized that dinner time had come and gone, so I ordered a pizza. About halfway through restringing the mandolin the pizza arrived and I took a well-deserved beer and pizza break, then washed my hands and finished the job.

I didn't notice what time I started or keep track of the time while restringing, but it was hours.

Thank goodness I got it done! I feel so much better now!!


Wade Hampton Miller

[Michael Watts]

That was a fun read Wade!

When it comes to stringing survival stories I do remember one day where I did two 12-strings, an F5 mandocello and seven f5 mandolins.

The F style of mando is important because at that time (and possibly still) a string winder could not be used due to the contours of the headstock and as such everything had to be done with bare fingers. IIRC 3 of the mandos were ancient Gibsons whose machine head buttons have a propensity to crumble into dust if you open a door...

Add floating bridges to that equation and you get the circle of hell that Dante omitted to write about as he thought it went too far...

PS that string stretcher (although yeah, it's not actually stretching apparently) looks like a good idea!

[Brucebubs]

My favorite part was the beer and pizza.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Brucebubs

My favorite part was the beer and pizza.

Somehow, that doesn't surprise me....

We have legal recreational cannabis in Alaska now, too, but I don't partake - I suspect my wife would scalp me if I smoked it in the house.

As the wise old proverb goes: happy wife, happy life.

And before that, Michael in the UK wrote:

Originally Posted by Michael Watts

Add floating bridges to that equation and you get the circle of hell that Dante omitted to write about as he thought it went too far...

That's great! I might have to quote you on that.

I kind of like the idea of Satan tormenting sinners by making them restring mandolins.

And if they're really bad, AUTOHARPS!!


whm

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Michael Watts

That was a fun read Wade!

Thank you, Michael.

Originally Posted by Michael Watts

When it comes to stringing survival stories I do remember one day where I did two 12-strings, an F5 mandocello and seven f5 mandolins.

The F style of mando is important because at that time (and possibly still) a string winder could not be used due to the contours of the headstock and as such everything had to be done with bare fingers. IIRC 3 of the mandos were ancient Gibsons whose machine head buttons have a propensity to crumble into dust if you open a door...

Reading your post made me realize that I omitted mentioning one little tool I use that really does help when restringing mandolins: a dedicated mandolin string crank made by Frank Ford, co-owner of Gryphon Stringed Instruments in Palo Alto, California. I ran into Frank at a guitar event in California a few years ago, and - bless his heart - he gave me one of his medium sized "Frank's Cranks" with a gorgeous rosewood handle.

I said: "Thank you so much! Will this work for mandolins?"

Frank said: "Well, I do have some string cranks for mandolins, but they don't have rosewood handles..."

I said: "I don't care about the handle, Frank, but I would love to have a mandolin string crank!"

So we walked together to Frank's car in the parking lot and he got a mandolin crank for me out of his trunk. "It only has a file handle on it," he said. "That's FINE, Frank, this is perfect!! Thank you, thank you, THANK you!!!"

And it really is perfect. If you look at the three cranks in the photo, they've got a soft nylon tuner button pocket at the top that won't damage lacquer or French polish finishes. And they work perfectly.

Frank's Cranks - Maple Handle

Here's the description the crank on the right as it reads on the webpage:

"SMALL – The dedicated mandolin string crank. It won’t fit guitar buttons, but it’s the one you’ll want especially for the “F” style where headstock and tuner clearance can be an issue.

"The cranks fit tuner buttons closely, and that's an important part of their utility:

"1. Seven-degree offset angle for the handle to mimic wrist action and make the winder track more accurately.

"2. Full-length bearing in the handle for stability.

"3. Close fit on the tuner button - again, for stability.

"4. Soft, resilient head to avoid scratching sensitive finishes, even if it does make contact.

"5. The heft of a real tool because it's made of aluminum, brass, steel and wood.

"If you'd like more information, please call me at the shop: 650-493-2131"

Here's the web address for that page:

https://shop.gryphonstrings.com/prod...--maple-handle

Frank also makes the cranks with colorful, near-psychedelic-looking acrylic handles, and also koa handles. I didn't see any rosewood handles on the website, but he's had them in the past. Here's the page on the website dedicated to "Frank's Corner," with some of the brilliant stuff he's come up with:

https://shop.gryphonstrings.com/prod...d%27s%20Corner

I noticed that he's offering them only in sets of three on the website, but Frank's a reasonable guy, and you might be able to get a mandolin crank alone.

And since we're talking about useful tools when restringing time comes ago, this next one is useless on a mandolin but very useful on guitars with pinned bridges - the Snapz bridge pin puller:

˙˙˙

https://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tool...uller_2_0.html

I had been using the usual plastic guitar string crack with the little notch in it to pull out the bridge pins for more than thirty years when I was introduced to the Snapz, and I'll admit I was dubious when a couple of my fellow gearhead friends of mine told me it was a wonderful little gizmo. But I relented, bought one, and now I'm sold on them.

Levering out the pins with a string crank notch works pretty well on most bridge pins most of the time, but the Snapz simply works better all of the time.

https://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tool...uller_2_0.html

I should mention that I have no commercial ties to StewMac or to Frank Ford and Gryphon Stringed Instruments, either, for that matter. I just appreciate their high quality products because they HAVE made my task easier whenever I change strings.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Michael Watts]

Ah the Frank Ford winder - a thing of beauty and I have one for guitar but I didn't know they were also available in mando size. That is very cool indeed!

I actually prefer to gently push the pins out from within the body of the guitar. But that's just me.

[fazool]

Nice morning story.

I also use a Snapz bridge pin puller and love it.

I also am a huge advocate for tugging on strings to remove slack in the posts, etc. during an instalaltion. That stretcha tool looks helpful for that.

[Wade Hampton]

I was doubtful that the String Stretcha would make any difference or be better than simply using my fingers to stretch the strings, but a buddy was putting together a StewMac order and so I asked him to include one in the order, basically just for the heck of it.

Well, it IS better and it's faster, too, in my experience. I've been using mine for about six or eight months now and changed many sets of strings using it. Not on the mandolin - it's got a very short scale and is under a lot of tension, so I don't want to try using the String Stretcha on it. But on everything else: guitars, mountain dulcimers, banjo family instruments.

I am now officially a String Stretcha and Snapz bridge pin puller fanboy. Not as an artist endorser for either, darn it, but as a member of the general guitar-playing public.


whm

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Michael Watts

Ah the Frank Ford winder - a thing of beauty and I have one for guitar but I didn't know they were also available in mando size. That is very cool indeed!

Call Frank from London and implore him (in a suitably English accent) to sell you a mandolin crank to help fill out your set.

I mean, you can lay it on thick, pretend you're on Masterpiece Theater and use a plummy Oxbridge accent to say:

"I say, old chap, but I could rather USE one of those dashed things!"

Or you could just talk like you normally talk, which would probably work better with Frank.

That is, if you're still stuck changing mandolin strings on occasion. If you've reached a position in life where you have hirelings and henchmen to perform unpleasant tasks for you, make THEM change your mandolin strings!


whm

[The Bard Rocks]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

...
I'd been putting off changing my mandolin strings, because it's just no fun whatsoever to change strings on those instruments: loop end strings and high tension tuning. It generally takes me three times as long to change strings on a mandolin as it does on a guitar...

r

I've been counting. My mandolin has 8 strings, so it should only take 1/3 longer. Actually, I spend a lot more time instead changing guitar strings than mandolin strings - mostly because I spend very little time playing mando, not compared to guitar.

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by Michael Watts

That was a fun read Wade!

When it comes to stringing survival stories I do remember one day where I did two 12-strings, an F5 mandocello and seven f5 mandolins.

The F style of mando is important because at that time (and possibly still) a string winder could not be used due to the contours of the headstock and as such everything had to be done with bare fingers. IIRC 3 of the mandos were ancient Gibsons whose machine head buttons have a propensity to crumble into dust if you open a door...

Add floating bridges to that equation and you get the circle of hell that Dante omitted to write about as he thought it went too far...

PS that string stretcher (although yeah, it's not actually stretching apparently) looks like a good idea!

That must have been in Brighton!?

[Wade Hampton]

It takes me considerably longer to change mandolin strings because of:

1. The loop end strings that want to pop off the tailpiece;

2. Having to attach the plain steel strings to the tuner posts differently than the ultra-quick and easy fishhook method;

and

3. Greater care has to be taken overall, from not moving the bridge to temporarily taping the strings at the tailpiece to keep them from popping loose and a number of other minor but still annoying little quirks of the instrument.


Add to that the fact that string loop ends sometimes decide to simply let go when the loop is brought up to tension, and the fact that mandolin strings sometimes simply break when brought up to tension for the first time (especially the A strings,) and it all adds up.

I think in all the years that I’ve played guitar I’ve had only one or two times when the wrap of the string around the ball end has let go. But that happens to me when restringing mandolins at least once or twice a year.

That’s why restringing mandolins is not one of my favorite chores.

Hope that makes more sense.


whm

[Wade Hampton]

By the way, since I’ve been mentioning the various little tools I use for restringing instruments, one time when my longtime instrument repairman was working on one of my mandolins he told me that one of the most useful tools he had was a tiny crochet hook. Which he was using when mentioned it to me.

So I told my wife that, and she got me an inexpensive set of the smallest crochet hooks available.

As a general rule of thumb, I normally only use a crochet hook on the mandolin, and then mainly when I’m having trouble getting a plain steel string off a tuner post. I didn’t have to use it yesterday.

But when it’s needed a crochet hook can be a real godsend, so I had the set within reach as I changed strings yesterday.


whm

I have my 5 coming due this Sat. It is a marathon.

[Wade Hampton]

Make sure to lay in provisions before you start. You might also want to recruit a loved one to dab at your forehead with a small cloth to keep the perspiration from trickling into your eyes, the way that operating room nurses do in movies where the brilliant surgeon is fighting to save someone’s life.

That would be a cool touch...


whm