D'Addario to Launch New GJ Strings February

djangology

To this day I have never got a bad string from Savarez. I've gone through about 40-50 sets now. A few times I had a bad string that unwound itself, usually the G, but the guitar I was using had bad frets and so it wasn't the fault of the strings. Personally I think you have bad frets on that guitar. You should examine them.

djadam

It's not the frets. The coil on the G string breaks with normal wear, but that's not what I'm talking about. I've had a surprising number of their strings break at the loop end during initial wind-up. Seems random which string it will be. I've also had some break at the other end during wind-up.

Then there's the occasional A string which sounds dead. Often that's fixable by manually winding the loop, but sometimes it's not and it's always an annoyance.

I've tried a bunch of strings on my guitars and I've never had a bad string from another manufacturer, but many from Savarez. But they sound best to me...

Bob Holo

I had a loop-breaking problem for a while. I had a burr on one of my posts (actually - burrs on a bunch of them to lesser extents) on my Dell Arte and my Gitane. You may not see them or even feel them because your finger is too big to get in where they're sharp. The burrs don't have to be big enough to cut through the string - only big enough to nick it and give its surface a cleavage plane - a weak spot.

Next time a string breaks there - de-burr the hole in the post using whatever you have that's appropriate - maybe floss it with the string - get up in the hole and burnish it with ?? the tip of a mechanical pencil or whatever you have that will burnish the hole. Mine stopped breaking there after I did that... Well, I still break strings, but they break at the bridge or a commonly used fret where you might imagine they'd break as a result of taking a lot of abuse. Actually, come to think of it - I burnished the holes in the tuners too as I'd had a few break at the tuners. My Park isn't a string breaker - maybe Shelley is savvy to this and pre-treats the hardware. I pre-burnished all the hardware on my guitar before installing it - so it's not a string breaker - and the Busato has 57 years of pre-burnishing no need to treat it.

Hmmm... I wonder how many times I can say that word.... sorry to ramble on. At any rate - that's how I solved the problem - hope it works for you.

Charlie Ayers

Speaking of Argentines, I get frequent packages with a dead A string. Fortunately I read the advice of someone on the yahoo group (John LeVoi, maybe?), who suggested giving the string and extra few twists, if it seems dead initially, and that seems to fix the problem for me....

Charlie

badjazz

what do you mean by 'an extra few twists'?

djadam

If you look at the loop end on the A string, you can see where it's twisted. If you tighten that by a couple extra twists, it often fixes the dull A string problem.

Bob, it's interesting that you mention the burrs. I wouldn't be surprised if that were a contributing factor, at least on my Gitane. Still, I never had it happen on a non-Savarez string. And it happened on my Park last week as I gave it its first set of Argentines.

All this talk about burrs and twisting loops makes me wonder if ball-end strings are preferable.

Charlie Ayers

I usually use loop end strings, which makes this more simple: after stringing up, if I find a dead string (it's almost always the A), I loosen the string, remove the string at the loop end, from the tailpiece, and twist it 2 or 3 times, counter clockwise, then re-attach the loop and tune it again.

Charlie

wayne nakamura

I think a lot of the undwinding can be attributed to the fact that the windings are not wound on a hexagonal core like most strings. They are wound over a round core. This is also why you should not cut you strings before stringing the guitar. The windings may unravel.

I've always thought that pulling the ball end strings through the tailpiece will "de-burr" your strings! In other words the scraping sound you hear when you restring with ball ends is the sound of the stronger steel post on the tailpiece "shaving" the softer copper windings on your strings.

I have posted the info below from

http://newtonestrings.com/mechanics.htm

Mechanics of String Making
The major reason in terms of why our strings may feel or play differently to those from other companies lies with our use of round core wire in all our Phosphor Bronze strings and some of our Nickel and Stainless Steel strings too.

This is what I learned on the day I watched a piano being restrung'. Piano strings often utilise a round core wire and it struck me that piano strings must be made to last many years and maybe round cores had something to do with their longevity. Most guitar strings are made on a hexagonal core, because it is easier to mass manufacture strings and achieve fairly consistent products. We have consulted many, many players who use our strings to find out what they like about them, and the most common response about our round cored ranges of strings are as follows:

- Our round cored strings have a slightly lower tension to pitch than hexagonal cored strings, meaning less strain on the guitar neck and soundboard.

- A longer life due to there being no angular surfaces under the wrapping wire where dirt can accumulate, deadening the string and increasing it's susceptibility to corrosion.

- Being at a slightly lower tension allows a heavier gauge set to be used without compromising the 'feel' of the guitar to much and providing the benefit of a fuller tone.


Although I didn't know it at the time of developing the 'Master class' range, all wound strings used to be made using round cores, but the consistency was so poor that when hexagonal wire was introduced these strings took over and round cored strings became a thing of the past.


It's my belief that Argentines are still made with round cores, hence the lower tension and the occasional, pre-unwound "A" string. I'm not so sure D'addario will manufacture this way. It's easier for the winding machines to work with a hex core.

God I'm bored today.

Wayne Nakamura

Elliot

Interesting. Somehow though, one would think string tension would come up as a point of concern somewhere along the line....I guess a product is only as good as its beta testers.