Restring classical?

Maverick

I've had a set of savarez high tension's laying around for a few months...

It's time to fit them on my La patrie charity shop special!

Any good tutorials on how to resting a classical. The bridge tie seems straight forward but there seems to be many different ways to tie around the tuning peg and i want to do it right.

P/s Any good place to buy miniature gold screws for the tuners 2mm thread/ 3mm head/ 8mm long. Mine is missing one.

BahHumbug

I’m fairly sure that some of the string manufacturers have videos on YouTube which cover all the trickiness quite well.  If you just search for vids by D’Addario or Savarez, you’ll find something good.

ICBM

This is how I do it -

1. Set the hole parallel to the neck.

2. Pass the string through the hole from the far side (from the end of headstock towards the neck). Pull reasonably, but not completely, tight.

3. Bring the loose end up past the main part of the string, over the top of it, and under the string where it's on top of the roller.

4. Holding the loose end beyond the headstock so it can't slip, wind on enough tension to trap the end under the main part of the string. Then tune up.

5. Cut off the excess about half an inch beyond the roller when you're sure everything is stable and you're well on the way to the tuning settling down - they will continue to go flat for a *long* time.

(If you're unsure about possible slipping, leave cutting until you're really confident they're not. Sometimes the top E and B can be a bit slippery and refuse to lock tightly with just one pass under the main part of the string - if so, do two.)

If you want to be super fussy, the direction the strings wind onto the rollers will control whether they rub on the sides of the headstock slots. On the E strings, they need to wind *inwards* towards the centre of the head, so in stage 3 bring the loose end up on the *outer* side of the string, then over the top and back under so it's pointing outwards, then wind on so the wraps are on the inner side of the tie. On the other four strings, do the opposite so the loose ends point inwards and the wraps wind outwards.

When done, it looks like this... (well, apart from the thumb holding the A string out of the way so you can see properly, and the cheap blue kid's guitar ).



I have the screws you need, PM me your address - and preferably a pic of the ones you have so I can match the head shape and colour accurately.

Maverick

Thank you. That is very helpful. Much appreciated.

ToneControl

a tip from me
be very careful with carbon strings, I have damaged 2 classicals because of them, they are way slippier than normal strings
If you use them, use double or triple the windings at the bridge for the plain strings, and at the other end the only reliable method I know is to go through the peg, then twists the loose end many times around the string, then tighten the twisted pair so that it overlaps itself a few times

sev112

ToneControl said:

a tip from me
be very careful with carbon strings, I have damaged 2 classicals because of them, they are way slippier than normal strings
If you use them, use double or triple the windings at the bridge for the plain strings, and at the other end the only reliable method I know is to go through the peg, then twists the loose end many times around the string, then tighten the twisted pair so that it overlaps itself a few times

Hi, can you elaborate please - never heard of carbon strings, and what is it that makes them different for stringing and potentially damaging guitars?  Ta

sev112

And after about 35 years of using high tension, I played a friend’s takamine in summer with normal tension on and remembered what they felt like so have got some to restring mine with that I’d forgotten about, so I shall do that today - thanks for the prompt

ToneControl

sev112 said:

ToneControl said:

a tip from me
be very careful with carbon strings, I have damaged 2 classicals because of them, they are way slippier than normal strings
If you use them, use double or triple the windings at the bridge for the plain strings, and at the other end the only reliable method I know is to go through the peg, then twists the loose end many times around the string, then tighten the twisted pair so that it overlaps itself a few times

Hi, can you elaborate please - never heard of carbon strings, and what is it that makes them different for stringing and potentially damaging guitars?  Ta

many people think they sound better
they are made from a different material 

What are fluorocarbon strings?

First, they are not carbon, but rather a special polymer called polyvinylidine fluoride (PVFD) also known as fluorocarbon. ... Fluorocarbon strings, like gut, are very dense and hard, and are able to produce an extremely bright sound for live performances.

the surface of the unwound strings is very slippy, that's all
if it slides out at the bridge end, as the knot unravels, it whips into the soundboard and can remove a small chunk of wood, or just tear it up

ToneControl

sev112 said:

And after about 35 years of using high tension, I played a friend’s takamine in summer with normal tension on and remembered what they felt like so have got some to restring mine with that I’d forgotten about, so I shall do that today - thanks for the prompt

I use to play hard tension, but I think I now prefer standard again

Grangousier

There's a groove around the inside of the hole in tuning peg roller - if you thread the string through the roller, then around and back under itself as it goes in, you can get the wrapped string into the groove and the string tension holds it in place. It's straightforward to do, but difficult to describe. Works for me, anyway, but the strings still take a week or two to settle down. 

Maverick

Got the new strings fitted today. There wasn't much string to work with, with the Savarez strings. (Not sure if there are fakes?) so i just did a simple knot, seems to be holding ok.

Thanks for all the suggestions and a BIGThanks to ICBM (Legend) for sending some gold screws.