Well I went ahead and swap the strings, and I now have the new Elixir on my
Martin 000-15m. Wasn’t sure at first, found it to be a little too bright, so I
played around with a few different pics and now I have a combination that’s
really nice.
meantime I’ve dropped one of my pics through the sound hole, and no amount of
shaking will set it free, so I guess it’s stuck in there until my next
restringing.
I don’t know how well I have strung this instrument, and it certainly kept
slipping out of tune for a little while, but now seems to have settled down a
bit. Just need to finish off fine trimming the string lengths now so there’s no
nasty sharp bits to attack me.
don’t know if anyone has any tips, but one thing I did notice that might be an
error in my stringing attempts was that with a couple of strings, when they
were getting close to being in tune, they twanged! And slackened off
considerably. Once I had held the tuning peg near the hole where the string
goes through for a couple of turns, things became more secure and I was able to
tune it as required.
Andy Collins
Sent from my iPhone
On 27 Aug 2020, at 8:34 pm, (Redacted sender stevehdryden for DMARC)
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hey Chris,
Each and every person to their own my friend. I’m certainly not saying that
is how it should be done, simply what I do, nothing more. You carry on doing
what you do, I’m sure it’s right for you smiles. As for Martin Guitars,
never actually owned one so can’t really speak with any authority but, I’ve
never heard anything bad about them. Certainly not in terms of tuning
issues. For myself, I quite favour Faith.
Steve
From: vibe-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <vibe-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of
Chris Norman (Redacted sender "chris.norman2" for DMARC)
Sent: 27 August 2020 18:59
To: vibe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vibe] Re: Guitar strings for a Martin acoustic
Sorry mate, I do them all at the same time after stripping the guitar (mainly
to wipe the salt off the body), then to wear them in I take them between my
index finger and thumb, and pluck them extra hard to make a snapping sound
like slap bass. Sounds terrifying, but 2 rounds of that and they're in for
good.
Also, the Simon Patric I'm using rarely goes out of tune, not like them
Martin monstrosities! :)
Take care,
Chris Norman
On Thu, 27 Aug 2020 at 15:10, Redacted sender stevehdryden for DMARC
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Andy,
Sorry mate, I’ve just been up to the neck with things over the last few days.
I think, the suggestion of Elixir strings and Martin strings are sound.
I’ve even used Martin strings on my Faith guitar and they are great. It does
also depend on your style of playing. You might have mentioned this before,
if so, my apologies as I’ve forgotten. But, a heavier gauge is nice for
strumming as you get a really deep resonant tone. They’re not so good for
fingering as they’re thicker and therefore more difficult to manipulate,
particularly if you want to bend strings. A little string lubricant will
certainly help to lessen the audible squeaking noises you can get. Also, try
to train yourself to reduce the level of pressure on the strings when you
change chord. Obviously you will do this anyway but, I mean even less
pressure than you might leave. This would particularly be the case when, as
I think you mentioned, you were using power chords.
As for changing the strings. The way I do it personally is one at a time
starting with the bottom E. This helps with maintaining the tension and
integrity of the strings. Never ever take all strings off at once. I tend
to only feed the string through the tuning peg only once for E A D and G but
leave a reasonable amount of string slack so as to allow the peg to wind in
the slack. I never tighten the string right up as this applies a
considerable amount of pressure on the string at the point of the edge of the
hole. I generally double thread the B and E strings just to give some extra
strength but, again, leaving some slack to allow the winder to pull in the
slack. Once all the new strings are set up and initially tuned. For a few
hours and even more, I will constantly give the strings, each of them, a
gentle pull to give them the opportunity to stretch a little. They should
settle in a day or so. I’d also keep them lubricated with a little guitar
string oil.
Hope that helps a bit mate.
Best wishes
Steve
From: vibe-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <vibe-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Andy
C
Sent: 27 August 2020 13:58
To: vibe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vibe] Re: Guitar strings for a Martin acoustic
Thanks everyone for all the help and shared experience on this topic. Chris,
I live in Devon, so a bit far to travel up to Coventry, especially with all
the considerations these days. I bought my guitars from Andertons in
Guildford, and all the reviews I read before doing so, commented on how well
they played straight out of the box as it were. Have to say that does feel
pretty true, they have already been well set up with a low action which is
what I like.
as to Elixir strings, I’ve actually found a set that I’ve had for a few years
but never used; they are the nanoweb ones. I’m going to give them a go later
today. I would really appreciate some stringing tips to help get a good
result. Is it best to begin with the thinner strings or the thicker strings
when attaching them? Do I push the string just once through the hole in the
tuning peg? I read somewhere about thumbing/stretching the strings when
they’re new and are being attached in order to help them stay in tune.
All help much appreciated.
Andy Collins
Sent from my iPhone
On 27 Aug 2020, at 11:46 am, Chris Norman (Redacted sender chris.norman2 for
DMARC) <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I've never heard -or felt - strings wear "in", but definitely feel them
wearing out quite quickly.
It entirely depends on how much you play, and your body type. I'm a pretty
sweaty player, so I'd warrent my strings go off faster than my wife's, even
though she plays more than I do.
To check, run your hand down the strings from the neck to the bridge. Where
your pick has been, you'll likely feel scuff marks. They get there fast, but
they definitely get worse.
As a rule of thumb: If you're wondering whether your strings need replacing
or not, they probably do.
Also, a good guitar setup can make all the difference. I didn't realise this
until fairly recently, and my god has it made a difference.
The bloke we use in Coventry is an absolutely wizard. One of his clients
comes all the way from Wales with his instruments, just so John can do them
up. If you're living near Coventry, or you don't mind traveling, I'd highly
Recommend Noise Works on Far Gosford Street.
I'm not saying everyone should come to Coventry, but I do know there's plenty
of ways to do a bad guitar setup.
Take care,
Chris Norman
On Thu, 27 Aug 2020 at 08:12, Andy C <andyc003003@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thanks David and Chris.
It rather sounds like it’s a problem here to stay because the problem really
isn’t so much in the string type as it is in the hands that play. I’m still
using the same strings that came with the instrument six months ago, and I’m
beginning to think the problem is getting worse not better with age. I also
have an electric with its original strings on from 12 months ago. This last
year is the first time that I’ve started being serious about my playing, and
have dedicated more practice time to it. I know strings wear in before they
wear out, but those of you that are more experienced players than me, how
much life is there in a set of strings used on a daily basis?
Andy Collins
Sent from my iPhone
On 26 Aug 2020, at 11:28 pm, DandGReay (Redacted sender dandgreay for
DMARC) <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi, Andy,
This is a subject dear to my heart. I'm a very squeaky player. Sometimes I
put it down to feeling my way around the frets. I use a lot of rather
tortured jazz chords and go up and down the neck a lot. String squeak is
the bane of my life. I recently made some recording sfor a solo album and
bought loads of sets, coated and non-coated. I even went to the lengths of
putting six bottom E strings on my own Martin OOO to see which squeaked the
least. Guess what! They all squeaked exactly the same. The one thing I
thought made a difference was the gauge. I normally use Martin lights with
the E string at 12. I thought 11ss, with their slightly lighter winding
squeaked less than 12's. I didn't try 10's, but the same may apply. Of
course, power chords on 5 and 6 are likely to be pretty squeaky. The more
wound strings you play and slide about on, the more squeak you'll get. I
did once find some ground strings, which are wound and then ground smooth.
I think they were D'Addario and supposed to be for blue grass. I tried to
find them recently on the Strings Direct website where I originally got
them, but couldn't find them. Trouble was, I didn't really like their tone
much anyway. On an electric jazz guitar I use tapewound strings for less
squeak and an authentic sound, but I've never seen these for acoustics. I
believe John Williams put a lot of work into learning to lift the fingers
off the strings when moving up the neck to avoid the squeak, but it takes
some doing! A sound engineer I recorded with recently said you should rub
your fingers on your scalp to get a little grease on them to help avoid it.
I also find new strings squeak more than used ones and that using
lubricants such as Fastfret make it worse. Hope something in my ramblings
is helpful,
Cheers,
David
-----Original Message-----
From: vibe-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:vibe-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of Andy C
Sent: 26 August 2020 22:27
To: vibe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vibe] Guitar strings for a Martin acoustic
I bought this Martin acoustic 000-15 M 12 months ago, and it came with the
recommended strings for this model. The whole guitar is solid mahogany and
it has a lovely tone and is very playable. However, I’m getting a lot of
string squeak, particularly playing power chords on strings five and six.
anybody got any suggestions for strings that produce warm tones but with
less finger friction sound?
Andy Collins
Sent from my iPhone
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