Things that are more annoying than changing strings on a nylon strung guitar

Stuckfast · October 2023

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A question: do the plain strings on a nylon strung guitar deteriorate? I changed the full set just to be sure but I can't see or hear any difference between the ones I've just put on and the ones that have been on there for about five years (albeit not played much).

digitalkettle · October 2023

I'm not sure but I'm seven days into a new set and it's more or less settled down after being tuned every time I walk past it!

maltingsaudio · October 2023

Re stringing a Ricky 12 string?

drofluf · October 2023

Restringing a slot head 12 string.

The great thing about nylon strings is there’s a really easy way to tell when you need to changes them. Once they stay in tune from day to they’re worn out and you need to put a new set on.

drofluf · October 2023

More helpfully using something like http://www.string-tie.com/ makes restringing nylon strings easier

sev112 · October 2023

That end is the easy bit

drofluf · October 2023

sev112 said:

That end is the easy bit

I don’t have a nylon guitar any more so can’t show a picture but if you put the string the “wrong” side of the roller, come back round the roller, loop round the string and then through the hole in the roller and wind as normal the string will lock.

ICBM · October 2023

Stuckfast said:

A question: do the plain strings on a nylon strung guitar deteriorate? I changed the full set just to be sure but I can't see or hear any difference between the ones I've just put on and the ones that have been on there for about five years (albeit not played much).

My ancient charity-shop nylon-string guitar came with two old black nylon strings for the G and B, they looked appropriate for the guitar so I left them and just changed the others... given the amount of dust and dirt on the guitar and the state of the other strings I would guess they're at least thirty years old, possibly more. They seem fine.

Restringing gets easier with practice, but it's still annoying how much they go flat over the first few hours days weeks. As drofluf says, when they stay in tune it's just about time to change them - the wound ones at least.

roberty · October 2023

Changing the rubber strings on a ukulele bass

sev112 · October 2023

drofluf said:

More helpfully using something like http://www.string-tie.com/ makes restringing nylon strings easier

I was looking at those on Thomanns site this week. They look a good idea but they would seem to be a source a vibration with something hard against the bridge ?

drofluf · October 2023

sev112 said:

drofluf said:

More helpfully using something like http://www.string-tie.com/ makes restringing nylon strings easier

I was looking at those on Thomanns site this week. They look a good idea but they would seem to be a source a vibration with something hard against the bridge ?

I didn’t notice a problem. The string tension helps them tightly enough.

digitalkettle · October 2023

sev112 said:

drofluf said:

More helpfully using something like http://www.string-tie.com/ makes restringing nylon strings easier

I was looking at those on Thomanns site this week. They look a good idea but they would seem to be a source a vibration with something hard against the bridge ?

Aaaargh...get them in Room 101 along with string butlers, nut busters, clip-on tuners, 'barefoot' stomp buttons, etc.

Grangousier · October 2023

To reiterate something said above: I confess I've never actually checked, but I've never seen anything that contradicts it: My guitar teacher at school told me that on the tuner, there's a groove around the inside of the hole - if you thread the string back under the string you can trap it in the groove and it locks. What this means is that you can pull the string as tight as possible before locking it, which in turn means fewer turns on the tuner to get it up to tune, which means less string that needs to stretch out. It still takes about a week to settle down completely, but if you have the same number of turns you'd have on a steel string it can take much longer.

FelineGuitars · October 2023

Ball end classical strings exist and they have gotten better over the years - we keep the Martin brand ones in and the certainly help the process and sometimes you get a better break angle over the saddle too .
You can cut the ball end off and tie them if you prefer

digitalkettle said:

sev112 said:

drofluf said:

More helpfully using something like http://www.string-tie.com/ makes restringing nylon strings easier

I was looking at those on Thomanns site this week. They look a good idea but they would seem to be a source a vibration with something hard against the bridge ?

Aaaargh...get them in Room 101 along with string butlers, nut busters, clip-on tuners, 'barefoot' stomp buttons, etc.

I think that clip on tuners (at least good & decent-ish ones ) are a godsend

And the barefoot buttons on my amp switcher /pedals are great

ICBM · October 2023

Grangousier said:

To reiterate something said above: I confess I've never actually checked, but I've never seen anything that contradicts it: My guitar teacher at school told me that on the tuner, there's a groove around the inside of the hole - if you thread the string back under the string you can trap it in the groove and it locks. What this means is that you can pull the string as tight as possible before locking it, which in turn means fewer turns on the tuner to get it up to tune, which means less string that needs to stretch out. It still takes about a week to settle down completely, but if you have the same number of turns you'd have on a steel string it can take much longer.

There is no groove on the inside of the hole - it's just a plain hole through the roller, although some are drilled fairly roughly and do have tooling marks, which is maybe what he's seen.

But it is true that you should pull the string as far through the hole as you can before tying it in whichever method you prefer, since that does minimise stretching. The two best methods are either backwards around the roller and pulled across under the string, or the same way around the roller and tied under the string - both work.

It's also important to wind the string onto the roller in the direction which traps the coil tightly together and keeps the string from rubbing on the side of the slot - for the E strings that's inwards towards the centre of the headstock, for the G and D it's outwards, and for the A and B it can be either depending on where the hole is on the roller, but usually outwards.

digitalkettle · October 2023

FelineGuitars said:

Ball end classical strings exist and they have gotten better over the years - we keep the Martin brand ones in and the certainly help the process and sometimes you get a better break angle over the saddle too .
You can cut the ball end off and tie them if you prefer

digitalkettle said:

sev112 said:

drofluf said:

More helpfully using something like http://www.string-tie.com/ makes restringing nylon strings easier

I was looking at those on Thomanns site this week. They look a good idea but they would seem to be a source a vibration with something hard against the bridge ?

Aaaargh...get them in Room 101 along with string butlers, nut busters, clip-on tuners, 'barefoot' stomp buttons, etc.

I think that clip on tuners (at least good & decent-ish ones ) are a godsend

And the barefoot buttons on my amp switcher /pedals are great

Sorry Jon but that's -20 cool points

robinbowes · October 2023

I always found this approach fairly foolproof:

https://www.taylorguitars.com/support/strings/changing-nylon-strings

It doesn't help with the tuning issues though!

BillDL · October 2023

drofluf said:

More helpfully using something like http://www.string-tie.com/ makes restringing nylon strings easier

There are quite a few different versions of these tying-off blocks or beads around these days. Another one is Alba Guitar Beads. The "string-tie.com" ones proclaim them to be a "revolution", but as far as I understand Flamenco guitarists have been using similar devices for a very long time. I play nylon strung guitars so infrequently that it can be 6 months or more between a nylon string change, and I have to refresh my memory on the "proper" way to tie them off at the bridge so all the tails are tucked in. Years ago I got a rectangular length of brass that sits at the back of the bridge, drilled it for 6 nylon strings, and made my own ball end strings using old brass steel string ferrules. It works fine and there's a lot less thinking to do. The other end at the peghead just takes repetition to find the best way.

GTC · October 2023

Stuckfast said:

A question: do the plain strings on a nylon strung guitar deteriorate? I changed the full set just to be sure but I can't see or hear any difference between the ones I've just put on and the ones that have been on there for about five years (albeit not played much).

It is usually the intonation that is affected, rather than the tone, on old plain (unwound) nylon strings.

Just when you get used to restringing on a six-hole classical bridge, you could then acquire a six string classical guitar with twelve or 18 bridge holes.

It should be noted that the "Alba" beads mentioned earlier have a three-hole method of tying in themselves. What the 12-hole and 18-hole bridge does is to incorporate this neater and secure method of tying into the bridge itself.

FelineGuitars · October 2023

digitalkettle said:

FelineGuitars said:

Ball end classical strings exist and they have gotten better over the years - we keep the Martin brand ones in and the certainly help the process and sometimes you get a better break angle over the saddle too .
You can cut the ball end off and tie them if you prefer

digitalkettle said:

sev112 said:

drofluf said:

More helpfully using something like http://www.string-tie.com/ makes restringing nylon strings easier

I was looking at those on Thomanns site this week. They look a good idea but they would seem to be a source a vibration with something hard against the bridge ?

Aaaargh...get them in Room 101 along with string butlers, nut busters, clip-on tuners, 'barefoot' stomp buttons, etc.

I think that clip on tuners (at least good & decent-ish ones ) are a godsend

And the barefoot buttons on my amp switcher /pedals are great

Sorry Jon but that's -20 cool points

Ah that’s ok . Happy to be uncool with my polytune clip making life easier.

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Things that are more annoying than changing strings on a nylon strung guitar

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