We Can All Use A Laugh

[Pelagaard]

While stabbing my fingers with strings certainly sucks, I've done worse over the years.  Back in university, I worked for a piercing shop making custom jewelry, and I threaded a barbell into the tip of my right index finger.  I had just finished grinding off a burr while it was still in the micro lathe, so between the heat from grinding and the rotation from the lathe, it went right in before I knew what was happening.  Ten years later I still have a scar and slight indentation.

 

[Cagey]

Yeah, I put like three pair of pliers and a knitting needle to fish 'em through in the same box with the clippers and string winder - you don't actually have to get too near to them. And if it's something weird like a Bigsby or a steel guitar headstock, you can do some pre-bending to get them to behave a bit. If they ever make slavery legal again and I score one somehow, that's gonna be their first job.

I'm surprised to hear you say that, given some of your background in kitchens and knives. Usually, you develop a second sense about what's sharp and/or pointy, and injuries are scarce. I know I make my roommate cringe the way I handle knives, as I have a nice collection of Japanese knives that are sharper than dammit. I mean, you could shave with these things, and I keep 'em that way. If you know how to handle them, they're no danger at all. It's when you get sloppy that they'll take your finger off painlessy.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

And of course a blunt knife is way more dangerous than a sharp one.

I used to worry when I was bringing strings up to pitch, until I realised that one man's B string is another man's high E (an 11, for instance). That took the edge off the feeling of taking the string to its limit.

 

[Cagey]

I can't remember ever being hurt by a cut/snapped/broken string. Usually, it's the short bits sticking out from the pegs that'll nail you. And judging by that pain, you never want to hit your eye(s), so there's a fear of string retribution that's probably over-wrought.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

I do think, as well, that part of it is the soundtrack to what you're doing. That gradual, gradual increase in pitch, always going up and up. Like the soundtrack from a suspenseful scene in a film that's leading to... something.