Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I cut them about 1/4" from the peg and bend them downward with pliers so they don't ***** my fingers when restringing.

I have a friend who doesn't cut at all - the strings stick straight out. Sometimes the end of his guitar case will have little string ends poking out.

kiramdear wrote:I Lennonized the string ends on my 320 jetglo with the Accent tailpiece. Next I'll take a meat tenderizer to the body edges, and re-create that nasty crack in the headstock. The other mods would start costing me, so they can wait.

You can bend the Ac'cent arm for free!

Being they are basses, I do like CJ said.

I voted "Unclipped, springing out in all direstions"

Not only because of the charming typo, but because the poor candidate had no votes.

I don't really leave them unclipped though...that is so high school punk rock band style . I likes em nice and crew cut

dpowell wrote:You can bend the Ac'cent arm for free!

Ha, right you are. And I'd like to, seriously, after living with it for a while now. I understand just why he did it. That little bend would make playing seated a bit more carefree.

Ooops, pardon my bad typewroter above. What a maroon!

You've got to cut just enough string to get a complete wrap or two and no more, or so I'm told. Too much or too little can be detrimental.

All my basses have the kind of keys where the end of the string pushes into a hole in the key so you can't even see the ends.
I also used Rotosounds for years and they recommended bending the string in a 90 degree angle right where it would bend around the peg before cutting it and inserting it into the hole. This keeps the outer wrap from pulling and deadening the string when you tune it up, it works too. I use flatwounds now but still do this. I wrap the string 2-3 turns around the peg.

Thanks for playing, everyone.

What I thought would be a purely humorous thread has turned out to be very instructional, in true RRF style. Congratulations!

kiramdear wrote:Ooops, pardon my bad typewroter above. What a maroon!

Shouldn't that be Ms. Maroon?

Nicely clipped.
But i've never been able to put them on right,i've only been at it for nearly 30 years too!
But i read recently that Joe Brown was putting his on wrong for years aswell!

Clint wrote:

kiramdear wrote:Ooops, pardon my bad typewroter above. What a maroon!

Shouldn't that be Ms. Maroon?

Har, you got me!

Since I'm new to this whole SKINNY STRING thing, I've only replaced one set of strings on my guitar......and they were clipped nice and neat!

I'm afraid to say, I LIKE JANGLE!

Guitar is neatly trimmed... bass - I shove the string into the hole in the tuning peg and you never see it. Not sure what that would fall under???

In the late '60's I did the little loops & curls because I saw a photo of the Buffalo Springfield and Steven Stills had them that way. Thought it looked cool. But since then, I cut them about 3/16 inch from the tuner post and bend them down to prevent blood from appearing on my guitar

I always make sure mine are cleanly cut. Plus, I don't smoke, so what do I need the ends for if I don't have a ciggy butt to put on my string?

JakeK wrote:I always make sure mine are cleanly cut. Plus, I don't smoke, so what do I need the ends for if I don't have a ciggy butt to put on my string?

people don't put the cig butts on the strings, they put them under the strings between the nut and the tuner.

Though, having a lit cigarette stuck onto the end of six floppy strings is a pretty novel and compelling image.


Exhibit A (God..) :