New strings from Clifford Essex Music, etc...

[Trapdoor2]

Just wanted to say today I received 3 sets of strings in the mail from Clem Vickery/Clifford Essex Music. He's got them posted to ebay and I was pleased to get them in only a week's turn. A little expensive to get them here, but they've always been worth it.

I've always liked these strings and of course, I also got some extra 4ths. I'll find a banjo around here to toss them on and report back.

I just mounted a set of Joel Hooks' Aquila nylguts on my CE Special...this is the "Stewart" gauge set and it is heavier than the LaBella 17s he re-created. I find them more comfortable to play than the 17s but I still had to deepen the bridge notch on the 1st as it kept popping out. I'm used to more feedback (stiffer strings) and find myself playing about two inches closer to the bridge than "normal" for me (which is closer to the neck/pot joint).

I normally mount Aquila strings and then pull the daylights out of them to get them to settle in in less than a week. Although I've never had trouble with that procedure (I've never experienced a 'false' string), Joel doesn't like it...so, his strings, his procedure. I didn't do it this time. I merely tuned everything up a full step and...blew the 4th. Gee, I haven't snapped a string in years! Thankfully, Joel provided a backup 4th...actually quite a bit thicker than the set's original 4th (which was suspiciously wimpy looking anyway). It didn't snap and the whole set has settled in after just two nights in A...

Sets of strings often last me years. What I took off were true guts I'd gotten from Clem 5+yrs ago. They were notched underneath like hacksaw blades (and on their second 4th)...but still playing fine.

[Steve Harrison]

Hi Marc, I've been using CE heavies on all of my banjos for many years. I've never had a dud and with hands the size of navvies' shovels, they suit my style of playing...Steve.

[Joel Hooks]

Stretching causing false strings is well known in the Spanish "classical" guitar world.  In fact, I just read an interview with Chet Atkins where he warns against stretching. It was a non sequitur in the interview so he felt it was important enough to throw in.

The first batch of strings I received from Aquila were shipped with the wrong 4th string.  It was WAY too light.  Instead of ripping open all the packages and replacing it, I just shoved the correct size in the front.  I did stick a label saying to use the other string and throw the one in the package away, perhaps you did not get one with the label Marc (or did you ignore the label?

That was several gross of strings ago at this point. 

[Trapdoor2]

Nope, no label in the package (although I'm a pro at ignoring instruction pamphlets). For some reason, I had to look up the color coding too.

You get a lot of voodoo in the music world, IMHO (WWED?, What Would Earl Do?). Stretching strings is such a subject. Some people don't, others do. The classical guitar teacher (and gigging pro) at my first music shop haunt, showed me how to stretch them when putting on a new set. He never talked about 'false strings' at all...and he was a picky player (He was Berkeley trained and his wife was/is a concert pianist, they gigged together). He would only use Savarez strings, everything else was crap (in his opinion). Classical players tend to be just like anyone else. Some do, some don't.

Steel strings have the same voodoo, I was stringing up my banjo at a bluegrass camp and several people looked on in horror as I stretched the snot out of them. The next day, we had a string change seminar taught by a famous banjo person...and he stretched each string like they were rubber-bands. Meh.

As an engineer, I know you cannot create issues with either nylon or steel with your fingertips. The material does not know the difference between being tuned up a step or being pulled sideways by a such a soft surface as your fingers. They stretch uniformly along their length. If you use pliers...different issue.

Homogeneity in many materials is always a problem. Natural materials are the worst, mass-produced are usually the best. Home-grown (Aquila) strings may be somewhere in the middle. Discontinuities are always going to be a problem with both tone and longevity. Taking tension up past a full tone (design limits) surely will cause any "bad" spots to show up...and that is easy to do with the fingers. Guilty as charged.

Also, people perceive the world differently. It is easy for me to see that someone with excellent hearing might detect issues I would never hear. I'm pretty pitch sensitive (I'm told I intonate the Viola and Cello well) but hearing losses have reduced my ability to hear finer noises. Miz Diane can hear a mouse fart from 100yds...but her sense of smell is poor. She can't smell when the milk has gone off. I can smell it from across the room the instant the fridge door opens.

I've just never experienced any issues with the stretch method. Do whatever voodoo makes your ears happy. I certainly do.

[Trapdoor2]

I think my hands/fingers just like the extra tension. Probably comes from years of bluegrass playing. These sets were 'mediums', which is what I have preferred over the past 20+ yrs. I bought a set of Chris Sand's 'heavies' from Chris back in 1992. They were a bit much for me.

Steve Harrison said:

Hi Marc, I've been using CE heavies on all of my banjos for many years. I've never had a dud and with hands the size of navvies' shovels, they suit my style of playing...Steve.

[Joel Hooks]

The only complaints I have had about false strings came from stretchers.  I know it is anecdotal evidence, but changing the strings and not stretching solved the problem in both of the two cases.

The stretching was done by pinching the strings in a "S" fashion at various places along the string as taught in some videos.  This was not the grab and pull method (which I would not do to my poor necks anyway).

[Trapdoor2]

I was taught to pull the string sideways into a "Z", about the width of the neck. I have taken them well beyond that (when I was learning) as I am pretty ham handed. I have seen and read about pulling them up...nope, not doing that. 

Steel strings' limit of elasticity would be painful (perhaps requiring stitches), so no worries about exceeding it. Thin nylon can be taken too far (I think) but it still tends to have a pain limit. This time I used your advice and simply tuned up a step. It works. I'm retired, I can wait!

I do not want to be a seller of anything. Customers do weird things...and then complain that their broken items were bad "right out of the box". A guitarist I knew liked to hang weights on his strings before using them. If the tension said 30lbs, he'd rig up a weightlifting weight and hang it overnight. He claimed it "pre-stretched" them. I told him jokingly that water masses 8.34 lbs/gallon and he could use a 5gal bucket and a tuner...just pour water in until it was at pitch...

I often wonder if he did that...I had visions of Jerry cans hanging in his garage.

[Steve Harrison]

Hi Marc, from the dim and distant past when I studded engineering at tech.college Hookes Law on elasticity 'springs' to mind regarding instrument strings. Materials under tension should return to their original length when the tension is removed unless the molecular structure breaks down and it exceeds its elastic limit. This is possibly why strings that have been used for a good length of time can become hard to keep in tune. Just a thought....Steve.

Trapdoor2 said:

I was taught to pull the string sideways into a "Z", about the width of the neck. I have taken them well beyond that (when I was learning) as I am pretty ham handed. I have seen and read about pulling them up...nope, not doing that. 

Steel strings' limit of elasticity would be painful (perhaps requiring stitches), so no worries about exceeding it. Thin nylon can be taken too far (I think) but it still tends to have a pain limit. This time I used your advice and simply tuned up a step. It works. I'm retired, I can wait!

I do not want to be a seller of anything. Customers do weird things...and then complain that their broken items were bad "right out of the box". A guitarist I knew liked to hang weights on his strings before using them. If the tension said 30lbs, he'd rig up a weightlifting weight and hang it overnight. He claimed it "pre-stretched" them. I told him jokingly that water masses 8.34 lbs/gallon and he could use a 5gal bucket and a tuner...just pour water in until it was at pitch...

I often wonder if he did that...I had visions of Jerry cans hanging in his garage.