Trimmed string disposal.

ICBM

littlethoughts said:

I wonder if some of the more weird and wonderful string types should be recycled though, or if they just end up getting binned at the other end...or worse, what if all you lovely people conscientiously putting your strings into tin cans are buggering up the reprocessing by mixing metals i.e. nickel wound strings contaminating aluminium cans.

I doubt it. If you look in the metal skip at a dump you see things like whole bicycles in there, which contain who knows what mix of metals - certainly at least steel (various different types), aluminium, brass, small amounts of chrome, nickel and probably phosphor bronze, not to mention plastics and rubber. And then other types of metal get chucked in too.

Whatever smelting process is done must be capable of separating out the various components or it wouldn't be worthwhile recycling it at all.

Chairs

I’m retroactively amending all my comments for privacy’s sake. I know they’re cached in places, but this is still a best attempts effort. Mods - if any rules have been broken, please revert this post.

EricTheWeary

Chairs said:

If we're talking about the ends I carefully cut them off, place six in the string pack. I then only count five strings and realise I've dropped a high E somewhere that's nigh on impossible to find by anyone that isn't a magpie. Then a few days later it appears under my foot as I've walked somewhere and it's jabbing into me and making me swear like a sailor - usually when I'm in a hurry.

That sounds about right! Or caught up in the brush on the vacuum cleaner.

I did once try a high E for cutting cheese but it didn't work well.

equalsql

I wonder how many of us have the painful memory of spearing a finger tip when handling these buggers?  :-S 

Chairs

I’m retroactively amending all my comments for privacy’s sake. I know they’re cached in places, but this is still a best attempts effort. Mods - if any rules have been broken, please revert this post.

ICBM

equalsql said:

I wonder how many of us have the painful memory of spearing a finger tip when handling these buggers?  :-S 

I always seem to manage to do it every couple of months no matter how careful I try to be. It's a particular hazard with customers' guitars were the twats have tied the string several times backwards through the hole or some other patent method which does not actually help it stay in tune at all but does make it very difficult to remove...

I try to always reach for the pliers at the first sign of it not coming off straight away but that isn't always completely foolproof.

Gave myself a nasty infection with one many years ago, on a particularly filthy folky's guitar - after about an hour my hand was starting to swell and turn purple so I went to the doctor's, fast. He took one look at it and said in that matter-of-fact medical way "that looks like the beginnings of blood poisoning, that can be fatal you know" :-O . Gave me an antibiotic injection and it was actually OK a few hours later. God knows what was on the string though.

Richardj

I make sure there is always a handy (empty) beer can to hand for the offcuts. The old ones get coiled into the can as well. If they don't go in easily I just empty another can for them! The recyclers can seperate the various metals so it isn't a problem.

Iamnobody

Chairs;264254" said:

If we're talking about the ends I carefully cut them off, place six in the string pack. I then only count five strings and realise I've dropped a high E somewhere that's nigh on impossible to find by anyone that isn't a magpie. Then a few days later it appears under my foot as I've walked somewhere and it's jabbing into me and making me swear like a sailor - usually when I'm in a hurry.

This.

drwiddly

equalsql;264267" said:

I wonder how many of us have the painful memory of spearing a finger tip when handling these buggers? :-S

How is it that one little jab from a string can paralyse your whole hand?

imalone

drwiddly said:

equalsql;264267" said:

I wonder how many of us have the painful memory of spearing a finger tip when handling these buggers? :-S

How is it that one little jab from a string can paralyse your whole hand?

Acupuncture. I have managed to improve, at one point I was doing this every other time I changed strings.
Always hunt down that missing E string end, because otherwise it waits in ambush.

thumpingrug

stickyfiddle said:

I coil them up into circles like new strings come in, then put all those in the string packet to go in the bin.

This

Lew

I'm collecting them for a musical Saw inspired game for my enemies. I've collected 100,000 gauge 18s and one gauge 14.

Sometimes string changes feel like I'm taking part in a blood sacrifice to try and get some tone.

Always the fucking g string. Without fail. I look like a very misinformed junkie.

equalsql

It's when you see one part going in and coming out the other side...clean through the meat. Something you never forget..that's when you realise just how many nerves are clustered in the pads of your fingers!

SNAKEBITE

I always coil them up and make sure the old strings are not going to spring open at just the wrong time.

If it were just me it would be ok, but with cats, dogs, rabbits and kids around I just know that one of them is going to get impaled and cost me a fortune.

I was considering of using one of those magnetic tool trays to drop the ends/ coiled strings into as I went along, just to stop the inevitable lost high E cut offs.

imalone

SNAKEBITE said:

I always coil them up and make sure the old strings are not going to spring open at just the wrong time.

If it were just me it would be ok, but with cats, dogs, rabbits and kids around I just know that one of them is going to get impaled and cost me a fortune.

I was considering of using one of those magnetic tool trays to drop the ends/ coiled strings into as I went along, just to stop the inevitable lost high E cut offs.

Not a bad idea. I've got a magnetic bear that can be put to the same use, or a fridge magnet would do. Some people even stick magnets to their guitars I suppose...
Found a length of wound D last night. Don't remember losing it. Think maybe plectrums transmute.

Corvus

ICBM said:

  Gave myself a nasty infection with one many years ago, on a particularly filthy folky's guitar - after about an hour my hand was starting to swell and turn purple so I went to the doctor's, fast. He took one look at it and said in that matter-of-fact medical way "that looks like the beginnings of blood poisoning, that can be fatal you know" :-O . Gave me an antibiotic injection and it was actually OK a few hours later. God knows what was on the string though.

Folky essence. It's how they spread folk music, intravenously. Another hour and you'd have been putting a finger in your ear and singing "there once was a maiden" and starting to think that praps Morris dancing is getting a bit of a bad rap.

impmann

They go in the bin here. As I'd wager most dead strings go.
The amount of recyclable metal in a single length of a guitar string will be negligible - there will be more metal stuck to the side of a smelting crucible than held in a string.
If it was any different the string makers would offer a recycling 'service' FOC.