One bad string!

[Steve_Karl]

Just changed strings on my oldest Warmoth strat that has standard old school frets on it (not SS).
The strings are Ernie Ball 10s which is what I've been using since the late 60's. Well, 8's real early on, then 9s and 10s depending on the guitar ...
... and as soon as I began playing it and bending the G string ( .017 ) I could feel and hear the string scratching on the frets really big time. And it was all over the neck ... low or high didn't matter.
This rarely if ever has happened. I think I remember it once before, a long time ago, but it eventually went away I guess.

So, I grabbed and other G from an other set and replaced it and the replacement string feels right and bends without the abrasive quality of the bad one.

Just wanted to share a strange story.

 

[Cagey]

I think maybe you get a little more sensitive to that if you play stainless all the time. They're so smooth you get spoiled.

 

[Logrinn]

I've had that happened to me too, but I know that it was my own fault.
See, when I put in the string (the g-string) in the bridge (it's a hardtail, so it goes in from the back, through the body) the ballend of the string got caught on the the lip of the ferrule. But since I had by that time placed the guitar "upright" in my lap and was fastening the string on the tuner and winding it up to pitch I didn't see this.
So what happened was that after a few turns the string end popped into it's right place in the ferrule and the reason I know this is because the string became completely slack.
No harm though, right?
Well ...
What happens in these cases is that there is now a bent angle in the string where it crossed the bridge saddle - caused when the string was almost up to pitch, but hadn't yet come loose from the edge of the ferrule. And since the string now moved up a few millimeters (ie into the ferrule), that angle now moved away from the lip of the bridge saddle and is now a few millimeter closer to the neck. I could actually see the angle - even though the string is tuned to pitch. And this angle, this bent part of the string, is now actually making the string part after the angle a very, very minute fraction lower and closer to the body. In essence that string is now closer to the fretboard and was the reason I now heard fret buzzes where there were none with the old string.
I took it off, took a new string - and made sure it didn't get stuck and therefore risked being bent at the wrong place - and the guitar sounded ok again.

 

[Steve_Karl]

I think maybe you get a little more sensitive to that if you play stainless all the time. They're so smooth you get spoiled.

Yea. Tha was one of my first thoughts ... it's not my new ss6100 fretted guitar ... and yea these frets have some serious divots in them and are too low ... and I wish they were ss like my new one ...

 

[Steve_Karl]

I've had that happened to me too, but I know that it was my own fault.
See, when I put in the string (the g-string) in the bridge (it's a hardtail, so it goes in from the back, through the body) the ballend of the string got caught on the the lip of the ferrule.

That's an odd one too, but that didn't happen to me. Hard tail also with this, but my ferrules or holes have never caught the end of a string. They have always gone all the way up. Maybe because I always restring with it flat on the bench and just make a point of feeling it come all the way into place before I thread it through the tuner.

 

[AirCap]

Strings are the cheapest part on the guitar, so it makes sense you'd have trouble with ten cents worth of steel once in awhile.

 

[Logrinn]

I've had that happened to me too, but I know that it was my own fault.
See, when I put in the string (the g-string) in the bridge (it's a hardtail, so it goes in from the back, through the body) the ballend of the string got caught on the the lip of the ferrule.

That's an odd one too, but that didn't happen to me. Hard tail also with this, but my ferrules or holes have never caught the end of a string. They have always gone all the way up. Maybe because I always restring with it flat on the bench and just make a point of feeling it come all the way into place before I thread it through the tuner.

Well, the whole point with my rather long story is that if a string gets bent before you put it on the guitar, there's a risk it's not going to sound good.
Like AirCap says, once in a while you might end up with a bad one.

 

[TBurst Std]

I was witness to a similar thing earlier this month.  A friend and I were playing acoustic for 4 days for a retreat.  Anyways early day 3 his acoustic picks up a fret buzz at fret 4 on the A string.  Inspecting the fret showed nothing.  He then mentions he just restrung and dropped a gauge. I was then thinking relief and as I was looking, I notice a distinct bend of the A string at the 4 fret.  As the first 2 days all was fine, I start asking questions.  Yeppers, end of day 2 the guitar averted a fall at the last moment by catching the neck (by foot) from the front.

The impact dented the string around the fret. Replaced that string and all was better. Glad there was no damage to the fret. 

 

[Logrinn]

I was witness to a similar thing earlier this month.  A friend and I were playing acoustic for 4 days for a retreat.  Anyways early day 3 his acoustic picks up a fret buzz at fret 4 on the A string.  Inspecting the fret showed nothing.  He then mentions he just restrung and dropped a gauge. I was then thinking relief and as I was looking, I notice a distinct bend of the A string at the 4 fret.  As the first 2 days all was fine, I start asking questions.  Yeppers, end of day 2 the guitar averted a fall at the last moment by catching the neck (by foot) from the front.

The impact dented the string around the fret. Replaced that string and all was better. Glad there was no damage to the fret.

There you go!

 

[musicispeace]

"What happens in these cases is that there is now a bent angle in the string where it crossed the bridge saddle - caused when the string was almost up to pitch, but hadn't yet come loose from the edge of the ferrule. And since the string now moved up a few millimeters (ie into the ferrule), that angle now moved away from the lip of the bridge saddle and is now a few millimeter closer to the neck."

That one has got me too a couple of times. Funny thing is that I HATE changing strings way more than most people I know so anything goofy just annoys me that much more. Going to locking Schaller's on the head stock has made life easier though.

 

[Cagey]

I put lockers on everything. On the rare occasion I encounter non-locking tuners, they seem kinda barbaric.

 

[Logrinn]

I put lockers on everything. On the rare occasion I encounter non-locking tuners, they seem kinda barbaric.

:icon_biggrin:
"Barbaric"! Good word for nonlocking tuners.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

You just haven't lived till you've strung a guitar with a Bigsby on one end and Saf-T-Post tuners on the other...  :tard:

 

[rgand]

I put lockers on everything. On the rare occasion I encounter non-locking tuners, they seem kinda barbaric.

:icon_biggrin:
"Barbaric"! Good word for nonlocking tuners.

Agreed.

 

[musicispeace]

You just haven't lived till you've strung a guitar with a Bigsby on one end and Saf-T-Post tuners on the other...  :tard:

Ha ha. That would probably drive me into therapy!  :laughing7: Like the look of a Bigsby but not on the menu for me.