Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

...so I just broke a string on my 12 and I'm going to have to change out the string. I'm mostly a bass player so string changing has been a breeze for the most part. OK, so I've noticed that the post are different on the guitar. What's the best way to do a string change on a gui-tar? The main thing I'm worried about is cutting the excess string in the right place. How do you know where to cut?

Cole

Cole -

There are a couple of ways to skin this cat:

1. When you unwrap the old piece of the string off the tuner, flatten it out and see how much WAS there, then ADD that back to the amount that would be the straight length up to the tuner.

2. do not cut your string first, put it through, do the kink, wind to tension and cut afterwards (this won't work on the strings going into the slots on a 12).

3. I usually leave about three inches (more or less, depending on the string guage) and cut and kink it about 0.25" back from the cut on the strings going into the slots.

I always then keep tension on the string as I wind to pitch. This usually involves about a handwidth of slack on the hand holding/guiding the string into the tuner up around the nut.

I think this is something that you can comfortably eye after years of experience.

Hope that helps...

Thanks Gary for your advise.

Cole