Round core SPUNG!

Tannin · May 2023

Now I'd have thought I knew how to put a string on a guitar. I've been doing it for 50 years now and reckon I've nearly got the hang of it.

And I know that with round core strings you have to fit them and bring them up to tension before you cut them. (Hell, I do this anyway, with any string, out of lifelong habit.)

And in recent times I've gone overboard and even taken to putting a right-angle bend in the string with pliers before cutting, just in case.

But despite doing everything properly as-per-spec I'm still getting too many round core strings going bad on me.

I've never been one to wind more than the minimum necessary number of turns on the peghead, enough so that it holds pitch, any more than that is just a waste of time. Is this the problem?

What else can I do?

(Apart, of course, from not using round core strings. Which, come to think of it, wouldn't be so hard. There are lots of round cores which are superior to the average mass-produced hex core string (Elixir, Ball, D'Addario, Fender), but then, in my string adventures over the last few years I've found several hex core strings which play every bit as nicely as the better round cores - Galli LS, Phillipe Bousett Acoustique, Santa Cruz, Adamas Composite, to name a few -so simply forgetting about round cores isn't out of the question.)

Anyway, what tips does the Fretboard brains trust have for me?

drofluf · May 2023

AT the risk of teaching you to suck eggs I follow the video on Newton's page: https://newtonestrings.com/do-not-cut-newtone-strings/?v=79cba1185463

Winny_Pooh · May 2023

Long shot but on dead loop end gypsy jazz strings some players wind the end tightly then place it back on the tailpiece. Perhaps slacken, put a nail through the ball end, spin it a few times then jam it back in.

Mellish · May 2023

Round core or hex, I always do the same thing:

String through the post, pull back for slack, take the excess round the post (clockwise E A D, anti the rest), under itself and pull up, so that as you wind, the excess is trapped against the post. Then cut level.with the post top.

ICBM · May 2023

Mellish said:

String through the post, pull back for slack, take the excess round the post (clockwise E A D, anti the rest), under itself and pull up, so that as you wind, the excess is trapped against the post. Then cut level.with the post top.

This, although I don't pull back for slack, I pre-bend a quarter inch beyond the post and insert the string up to the bend. That keeps the wrap on the post to the minimum, usually about one full turn at tension.

I don't find any problem with Newtones doing that. (Or with any strings, not just these.)

ESBlonde · May 2023

I pull the string through to length with a couple of fingers under around the 5th fret as winding length then bend the string sharp at 90 deg on the back of the post and wind on. Up to pitch, stretch, tune, stretch, tune etc. then with pliers put another 90+ deg bend about 6mm out on the slack and cut off after another 6-8mm.
The extra bend has two benefits, if the string slides through the capstan it will “catch” on the redundant bend. It also stops any unwind of the wrap.
I’m trying to remember the last time I had an issue with a string wind/capstan issue, it must be decades and I gig regularly with multiple guitars.

Tannin · May 2023

Cheers all. I'll try wrapping more turns and crossing them over. (But only for roundcores 'coz that's a bit of a PITA.)

ICBM · May 2023

Tannin said:

Cheers all. I'll try wrapping more turns and crossing them over. (But only for roundcores 'coz that's a bit of a PITA.)

You shouldn’t need to do either - just the half back turn and lock under should be all you need. Once the string is trapped by the full tension of the main part of the string, the wrap isn’t going anywhere.

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Round core SPUNG!

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