The most stressful part of anything string related is the "DEAR GOD IT MIGHT HIT ME IN THE EYE" feeling that I have, despite that literally never coming anywhere near happening to me. Still, the FEAR IS REAL
Absolutely. I have a floating tailpiece and I shit bricks when I set the string in the tail and then tighten everything up. I even tape the underside of the saddle in order to save my brain.
Hah, ditto. I enjoy the sound of cutting 'em off (almost like the loud THUNK when you toss something in a dumpster), it's somehow gratifying. But I wait for my eye (or possibly finger) to take a high-E at high speed. No bueno.
I do loosen the tension a bit on the tuners before I cut the strings. That has nothing to do with considerations about the neck, though. If there's not much tension on the strings, I have more control over what happens with the strings after I cut them. There is no strings potentially flopping around like they do in your intro. I don't like that and I don't want to pay attention to it, so I avoid it in the first place by just loosening the strings a bit before I cut them.
That has the added benefit of allowing you to pinch the loosened strings together and cut them all with one squeeze of the cutter. It also reduces the risk of scratching the guitar paint with the cutter as you can pull the strings away from the body
My only fear would be the string scratching the finish when it flies off. Otherwise nah, no problem. I take the slack off my strings and then snip them at the twelfth fret so that both sides of the cut string are as big as possible and hard to lose track of if I drop one.
i agree. i think it happens alot and people dont even realize. "where did this scratch come from?" never connecting it to having just changed their strings...
I don’t think cutting strings is dangerous to the neck at all, the Floyd rose dive bomb example you used is a really solid point too that should help people realize that guitar necks are built like tanks to be honest. The only thing I do different is detune my strings until they are flop before cutting to prevent them from flinging arround violently and risking the finish on my guitar from getting scratched up. (Ask me how I know about that). Great video!
I work in a guitar shop and I'm telling this to people all the time. "Take all your strings off when restringing" It won't hurt the neck, it's easier to clean and you won't accidentally cut the wrong string off when restringing. I do it to all my guitars and the ones in the shop, even guitars with Floyd Roses and Bigsbys. Never had any issues.
@@thewickedwizard I should be using 5 springs but with the heavy duty springs I can get away with two for easier trem use. Getting those things back up tension is a chore
@@chaosclg I just put a wax cap from my weed under the trem. That or a rag. It holds in neutral, slap new strings on and the tension is identical to before. Just gotta stretch the top 3 strings and tune up. I’ve even left my jem jr for 3 days with no strings and a rag holding it in place. Took me 20 minutes to restring and tune. Idk why people find Floyd so hard to do, I find hard tails harder to restring, I put the ball end at the tuner and you can’t do that on most hard tails. Doing this makes it insanely easy to cut and pop into place. I only get 1 wind at most per tuner peg.
For the love of God, DO NOT DO THIS! I've been a luthier for 20 years, and it's not a myth, I've had them come in with torqued and twisted necks. The problem comes when you do it on a cold guitar, if it's in your home or at a neutral temperature it's probably fine, but why take a chance? Just because you've always done something and it's never had an effect DOESN'T mean it doesn't happen. I still wouldn't recommend doing this without at least loosening the tension first. And YES, loosen the tension on planes. It won't snap the neck but it can cause twists, and a twisted neck is a ruined neck, they can't really be repaired. It's NOT the pressure, it's the radical change in temperatures that happen in the cargo hold (this is what also kills pets stored in the hold from time to time). Yes, you can carry them on, but you can't carry 3 guitars with you, you'll have to put some in the cargo hold. I had a Les Paul Jr come in with a neck broken in 3 places because it was in a cold car in a gig bag, and he dropped it taking it out of the car. It was maybe 2-2½' off t ground, but that was enough. Again: just because it hasn't happened to someone, doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Is the few seconds it takes to loosen the tuners a bit before cutting them really that much effort? I cut them too, but only after I've loosened them enough that I can easily lift the string from the nut slot. I've watched this channel for years and this is the first really bad take, but it's a really bad take. It's not good form to tell people "oh don't worry, just do 'whatever' because it hasn't been an issue for you. This is an irresponsible video, unless you're willing to pay for your viewers repairs that take your advice and have a different result. People can own acoustic guitars for years and never do more than restring then and they'll be fine, but we'd get scores of acoustics come in with cracked and split tops or binding separation because they weren't humidified enough. Again, just because it hasn't happened to you doesn't mean it won't happen to others. Oh, and if that happens to you: it's damaged because you didn't humidify it properly, the factory can consider that that it wasn't properly maintained and they may not cover it with their warranty so you'd have to be paying for it out of pocket.
I think for a lot of people the precaution for loosening the strings a bit before cutting is out of fear of the string snapping back and hitting them in the eye.
I am a bass player, and I have two main basses, one 35 inch scale 5 string and a passive 4 string sting ray. My 5 string gets new strings every month, and the aged strings get saved and handed down to the stingray (the b string is discarded) I like the more dead thump on my passive ray, and If I break a d or g string (I play pretty aggressive slap) I always have several perfectly aged sets on deck. It's a weird system, but it works for me.
I am sort of embarrassed to admit it, but I was one of those people who thought it was no good to relieve all the tension at once before watching this video. The Floyd Rose example was the lightbulb moment for me and I honestly feel silly now.
I mean he's doing it on an Ormsby, if you did this on a lower end guitar you can definitely cause damage, I know this because I have seen it whether this video says otherwise or not
@@chaosclg I think that what you saw was caused by other factors and you perceived it as an issue caused by releiving the string tension. That's more than likely what happened.
I'm surprised you never mentioned boiling strings. Back in the day, I used to take strings off, boil them in hot water and then re-use them over and over.
this is why I dont cut mine, I keep them in case I run out of strings, and break one and quickly need to re string, just seems wasteful of a good back up resource to me
"cutting the strings without releasing the tension before will cause the neck to snap!". Well, that myth might have had its roots in the very "authentic" world :-)
I do now loosen the strings a little bit before cutting on my newest or most cherished guitars. I always agreed with your thinking that the temperature/pressure argument didn't make sense. I got an Epiphone Slash guitar a year or so ago that came all the way from China perfectly in tune and with an incredible set up. I only loosen the strings now so I don't whipped in the eye or put a scratch on the guitar finish. I put a super annoying scratch on the most expensive new guitar I ever purchased one time cutting the strings under tension and was depressed for months every time I looked down at it. Now after years of playing that guitar, it is pretty much naturally relic'd so I don't really care now. But it's kind of like when you get a band-spanking-new car and you're paranoid trying everything to avoid getting your 1st ding on it, but after your 12th parking lot dent, you're way over it.... 😄
For an even quicker job I often saw the neck off and glue a new one on to save cleaning the fretboard too. In all seriousness I've done it both ways over the years, but always use the trem/whammy bar argument like you mentioned here.
I unwind my strings because I find it pleasurable, not because I think it's the best method. Whenever I have to change strings, I'm not counting my minutes or need to be the most efficient at it, I just take it as part of the hobby and enjoy it. Having fun is quite good, you know? A lot of people forget this.
I'm only 40 seconds in and REALLY looking forward to the rest of this video. I'm a guitar player of 30+ years (although I have maybe the skills of a 3 year player, lol) and changing strings has ALWAYS stressed me out!
Whilst I agree with everything you have said, the only reason I don't cut my strings, is, they do occasionally scratch the finish, which I do admit is a odd thought when you consider most of my guitars are between 37 and 25 years old and therefore are road worn.
I typically loosen string before cutting strictly as a SAFETY measure, just so the string isn't whipping back and plucking your eye out. As far as floating terms, I STRONGLY recommend trying to shim the term at somewhere near the resting position you want it to be, because you may find that returning your tremolo to the 'zero' position you want could be very challenging, keeping some tension on the trem springs seems to help this. I could go into a scientific discussion of springs at rest storing potential energy and the time that it takes to expend that, but I won't.
What's funny, is now everyone in the comments is agreeing with you, and now the problem is worrying about scratching the finish lol. You can't win KDH!❤️🎸🤟😝🤟
I just unwind them enough to be able to pinch them all together and cut them all at once. I’ve just always done it that way. I’ve also watched my guitar fall headstock first into multiple objects and it’s still going strong.
@@withinthrall1445 My SG was thrown out of a second floor window by an angry teen(original owner) when the kid's dad told him to turn it down, lol 😆. The headstock got broken on the diagonal. The second owner duct taped the headstock back together, which didn't work well. He had it for almost thirty years, and gave it to me. I got it about 25 years ago, and had it properly repaired. I've been playing it ever since. It's a road dog, but that's ok. Those old P-90s sound sweet.
@@aprilkurtz1589 what a brilliant use of logic on that kids part lol. But hey you definitely won at the end there. I recently repaired an old aria pro ii I found at a pawnshop for $40. Had a fracture on the neck but nothing glue and clamps wouldn’t fix. Had a real Floyd in it instead of a licensed for a special and I wasn’t passing that up for $40 lmao
@@withinthrall1445 LOL! I think the kid was 16 or 17. That was a nice buy for $40! It's amazing that when done right, the glue joint is stronger than the wood around it. I accidentally parked my car on the SG and nothing broke!
A friend of mine had the best quote ever regarding guitar setup: No matter how much you want it to be just a guitar, it wants to be pieces of wood and metal that are subject to the elements.
I unwind them a bit before cutting them. I don't want a string flying into my eye! Also, a trick I learnt on Thomann, to restring a Floyd Rose you should put the back plate underneath the trem between the body and the fine tuners. So when you string, the trem is stopped by the back plate blocking it off and keeping tension in the back strings. It make restring and cleaning those things so much easier!
Only reason I detune the strings before cutting them is that I don’t like the sharp ends flying around, out of fear that they might poke me or scratch the instrument. I’m a bass player however, so cutting bass strings is a tad more violent. The reason for detuning a guitar before transporting it is mostly down to the risk of the case getting dropped, and the impact getting transferred into the head stock, thus breaking it off if the impact puts pressure on it in the same direction as the tension from the strings. Les Pauls are particularly prone to this due to how the headstock is set up on LPs.
My favourite guitar myth to restring is that Strats are "recording instruments" (yes, Glen, I remember you said it in the last video and you'll never be forgiven 🤣). They can be heavy as hell at gigs in the right hands 🤘
That DID stress me out, but not because of the neck. I was like, "If that's under tension it's gonna whip around and scratch the body." Also there was a moment where it looked like your cutters might not quite be sharp enough or have enough leverage. That was also stressful.
I have a scar from when I cut all the strings at once while it was tuned higher than e standard so now with all of my guitars with trem bars I just pull the bar down like a quarter to half a way down
KDH, u just hit me right in the face.ive been watching your vids for a while now. I especially enjoyed the restring Sunday vids. But every time u cut a string under tension I kringe inside 😬. Todays vid was a treat 👍I get it bro, no difference in tension when using a Floyd. 👀 I totally see that. Cutting under tension is fine..😬..although it's killing me to write that. Just know that this video was a fantastic experience. Just what I needed u to show. U must have gotten a few responses about Cutting strings. So glad you did this. Keep 'em coming. Go KDH & Sixstringtv
I have an engineering background and have been building cabinets for many years, and have built quite a few guitars. I work with all sorts of materials from all metals (main job) to wood and polymers. You are absolutely bang on on everything. Guitar necks are effectively braced with the truss rod counteracting string tension. No air pressure change in cargo compartments will do anything. Humidity is very much mitigated because guitar cases are relatively sealed. Not air tight, but more than enough to slow the ingress of ambient moisture. Anyone who thinks guitar necks are so fragile can just go to their local hardware store and pick up a 1" x 3" board of hardwood and try to bend it over their knee and see how it responds. Trees figured it out a long time ago 🤙
I think the cutting off string myth stems from older archtop guitars, i've experienced one where i needed to adjust the neck more than it needed to begin with, due to the humidity it's been in. Cutting the strings off it self doesn't really do much as you stated correctly. The owner asked me to do it quickly while he was waiting in the shop, i did not have the time to have the archtop to aclimatise to our workshop. End result, a little crack near the body joint from what i assume is the rapid release of the tension since the archtop had been in a very humid environment.
Excellent points! I stopped taking all the strings off at once because of Floyd Rose issues. Took quite a bit of work to get that thing set up again. My guitar teacher told me to change the strings one at a time to prevent issues with the tremolo getting all out of whack.
Hi KDH...!!! I HAVE a thought for you when trying to show how straight or bowed a guitar neck is, an old luthier trick I learned. Take ANY 36" ( 91cm. ) up to a 48" ( 121cm. ) perfect straight edge... A steel or wooden level, A metal T-square, anything that is perfectly straight and resistant to bending. Place it on the neck edge, or on the frets, although on the frets can cause variations due to some frets being more or less worn out. That method will show you the "hills & valleys" of the neck, or in other words if it is bent or not. This of course is great for seeing status quo of ones neck, especially if the "old eagle eyes" that allow us to see such things have gotten a little askew from age, AND in illustration purposes for your viewing audience. I believe you when you state that the neck is "perfectly straight," others may not... the straight edge just "hamer"s it home. 🤔😉😁 ANYWAY, KEEP ON KEEPING ON BROTHER ROCKER!!!!!!!!!! PEACE !!!!!!!!!!🤘🏼
Ben Crowe of Crimson Custom Guitars argues that cutting strings while they're under tension might (1) damage the tuners, or (2) cause the suddenly loose strings to fly in random directions, which could lead to them striking and damaging the finish on the body.
I detune a whole step for acoustic transport and long term storage. I loosen slightly before cutting the strings off. I also remove all strings every time and clean the fretboard, nooks, crannies, and neck joint/pickup rings.
Ex Tour Manager with mid-sized rock band back in the 00s here. When we were flying, all our guitars were travelling in the cargo hold (when you're checking in 25 flight cases, carry on not an option lol) so in that case the techs always loosened the strings on the guitars as a precaution. I'm not 100% sure it was necessary but with the temperature drop at altitude in the hold, it was just a precaution. As to the shows where we did carry on with gig bags only, it was never an issue we ever thought about as they'd be with us in a pressurised cabin. Like a lot of people have mentioned, I do slack off the strings slightly before cutting them off as it's just a habit more than anything. Never thought about damaging the neck though - more a case of avoiding a pinging string flying into my face lol 😎
I think you have something there about temperature change. Particularly if it goes below freezing. I had an Ibanez in a storage unit all winter once, and the neck had broken at the scarf joint. I'm still not 100% sure how it happened, but I've always suspected it was caused by below freezing temp.
@@user-ellievator Good point, because temperatures can drop to subzero at the altitudes airliners fly at, and the cargo hold is unpressurized. Although this is not too big a problem as some airliners actually do control the hold temperature, there are controls for it in the cockpit in the same spot as the cabin temperature control. I believe actually most common airliners do this but I doubt they heat it up to a comfortable temperature, more or less just to keep cargo from freezing because you can't just freeze people's cargo.
@@JohnDoeWasntTaken the cargo compartment is always part of the same pressure vessel as the cabin. It’s all one large cylinder. So the pressure differential is pretty minimal. The real difference is just that there generally aren’t many or any vents down there so it’s just whatever comes through the floor. All the bleed air that pressurizes the cabin usually comes out from the ceiling.
I once had a piece of wire from a fence I was fixing shoot up my nose and caused a bad nosebleed. Could’ve been so much worse. Wire under tension is dangerous. Wear eye protection.
I agree that it doesn't hurt to cut them, but I unwound them due it being easier to dispose of them after. I coil them up after use when I throw them away.
Love this video! It came just in time too, someone talked me into unstringing my guitar because I am not planning to use it in a while, and he told me that the floyed's tension is going to warp my neck if it will stay stringed.
When checking your guitar on a flight... Have an extremely rigid case & expect that case to have major damage (if not destroyed) when you pick it up at baggage claim. Most importantly, insure your instrument (and case it possible). Sure, they won't pay you what it's worth, but it's better than nothing.
I've flown many times with my Fender Strat in the hold and recently sent my Gibson Firebird by sea freight where it was 'in transit' for around 8 weeks. I've never detuned my guitars and they've always turned up just fine. Great video dispelling a few myths....and Fender should know better than spreading fear although maybe it's more of a 'covering their arses' sorta statement as opposed to a factual one.
It's six of one half dozen of the other. If you replace them one at a time there seems the guitar seems to settle down quicker after the string change. But if you take them off all at once then you can give a instrument a decent clean! I'll go one way or the other way depending on how much time I have. However, I like to keep my old strings as they are kind of getting a bit pricey now. One advantage of this is that if you break a sting on a guitar where the set is getting on a bit then that re-used string matches the tone of the other strings better and since it is already broken in it's tuning becomes more stable much faster. They still require a little stretching, but not nearly as much. This is typically putting it back on the instrument it came from so string length is never an issue. That is not always the case though. If I break a string on one of my fixed bridge axes then what is left can be fitted to a Floyd Rose equipped instrument when it breaks a string! I should say this is mainly with the wound strings. I am not so keen on reusing the unwound ones. The wound strings are usually the ones that get beaten up playing metal style rhythms. I hardly ever break the high strings, though it does happen. I don't change my strings very often. That's mainly because these days I do mostly recording projects and seldom play live. The main motivation for me in string changing was always to avoid one breaking while on stage. I dislike changing them for recording. I much prefer having the stable pitch of a well played in string over the fresh tone of a new set.
I agree it wont damage the neck, but truss rods exist for a reason and tension is a thing. I also agree regarding recording, new strings for recording is one of the most overrated notions in the Guitar world IMO, i'd rather have a settled instrument than a bright one, plus amps/sims have treble and presence controls
I think the whole cutting your strings myth, along with quite a few other guitar myths originated from luthiers wanting to scare people away from fixing their own guitars back in the 60's and 70's. So that way they (the luthiers) could get the work for themselves lol
I have similarly acidic sweat, and recently tried Elixir strings. Gosh, it’s great not seeing strings start to erode within the first hour of playing and them actually sounding and feeling fresh for quite a while!
Cutting them off is just faster and better when using an Evertune or Floyd. Also stops you from having to drag bent string ends over the saddles on the bridge.
Before cutting the strings, I block the trem in neutral position (a piece of wood or a stack of play cards), then polish the frets, cleanup the fretboard, then put new strings one.
If you want to talk myths, acidic sweat is very much one of them. I asked an bilogist about this and he said there's no reason anyone's sweat would be more or less acidic than anyone else's. And yet guitar players constantly attribute corroded strings, tarnished tailpieces and rusty pickup screws to the xenomorph-level acidic sweat only they have. It's complete bs, just wear and tear. Gonna need to do an audioaudit on yourself/acidic sweat next!
@@CharlieMoney777 its hilarious how every single time someone says anything negative about Gibson, there's always one of you losers spewing "CAN'T AFFORD! YOU'RE JEALOUS/POOR!" without fail.
@@CharlieMoney777 well, at least I don't cover up my inability to play and write, with expensive gear. 🤣🤣🤣🤣 funny how you think I can't afford one. I had one. It was a massive piece of fucking shit. At least I'm not some gullible idiot who believes everything the marketing team tells me lololol
@@CharlieMoney777 I'm not offended in the slightest because I don't need neither overpriced garbage, nor to insult someone's income level to feel good about myself lol. I feel good about myself because I'm smart enough to value a guitar with my own judgment and not on whether people will think I'm cool or not lol
i release tension before cutting the strings. simply because ive had multiple incidents where the end of the string sprung back and stuck into my hand, doesnt feel that nice. and always fresh strings for me.
Pretty much... If there's anything to query here, it's that not all guitar necks are constructed the same with the same materials... or new. Newer necks (esp. Multi-laminate, torrefied, carbon reinforced necks etc.) behave differently compared to an old vintage neck that's had may have had half it's lacquer worn off and may have had moisture damage. If the wood isn't as strong, then more of the string tension is taken up by the truss rod - such that without strings the rod is putting more stress on the wood. That's not to say that cutting strings is going to be a problem. I've not put a temperamental neck to the test (!) but I'd guess that most necks will come back to their previous shape just fine... with time proportional to how long the strings have been off. If there was reason to detune a solid body for travel I wouldn't do so without unloading the truss rod. I think that some of the advice out there might be confused with acoustic top cracking from humidity/temperature related expansion contraction events.
As for my habits, I do loosen my strings, but then cut them down the center while I can get a hand around them to keep them from floppin' about. Basically for all the reasons you said.
I usually loosen them up quite a bit before cutting them. I just always felt like it was the "right way". I also got to admit your sweat doing that to your strings, is pretty wild. I've never seen anything like that before.
I'm the same. Even when I'm wiping them several times per day, my elixir strings won't last more than 2 months, which is still twice or thrice the amount non-coated strings last for me
I can play the same strings for years. Literally. Yes, they loose some zing but they stay shiny. Whereas I know a guy who, if I let him play one of my guitars for an hour or two, will destroy them. I take it out of the case a week or two later and the strings are f&cked. All rusted.
Happens to me too, need to change strings every 4 weeks depending on how much I play and if I think about to wipe the strings after each session. Wiping them makes them last like: 2 weeks longer, but usually I forget and they look like this kind of shit after 4 weeks. Wiping them still blackens them but they keep their sound a bit longer and they don't crust up too much, but after 6 weeks they're definitely gone. I also live in a very humid sea climate (the Netherlands, roughly same climate as UK) so this doesn't help either. Especially in autumn they're gone so fast. Late spring / summer they seem to last a bit longer though.
My Strats have 'top-loading' machine heads (which I prefer). I loosen all the strings until I can pull the wrapped portion off the pegs, then cut so I can pull them through the vibrato block. It just makes sense.
Have flown from the UK to Brazil and back multiple times, pretty drastic temp and humidity changes, all of the guitars that have done those trips are still fine
I don’t cut the strings at full tension, I loosen them a bit before I cut them, but that’s so the strings don’t snap and fly around, I have cut my hands from that and also had a snapped string fly close to my face- so my concern is my safety I don’t reuse them as there is a reason I am changing them.
I'm a touring musician and guitar tech. I've flown guitars dozens, probably hundreds of times. Mostly there's no problem leaving a guitar in tune, however I have seen a couple of problems. One time an SG headstock came off mid flight, difficult to know if that was cabin pressure or baggage handlers. The other time, all four strings were snapped on a bass. That can't be baggage handlers, also that was on a Gatwick to Guernsey flight about 25mins. Maybe the quick up and down, caused it? But that is a real fear, doesn't happen often but can happen.
Regarding guitars on planes... Temperatures might differ somewhat, but pressures are always the same in cargoholds as the passenger cabin. The floors aren't made to maintain a pressure difference. They also get the same dry air from the air conditioning packs, so there won't be much moisture there either.
I saw a video when Kiesel (still Carvin than), we’re fixing Jason Becker’s guitars, and the tech put pressure on the strings around the 12 fret (like a capo) and sliced all the strings, so that’s how I do everything really.
My only argument against cutting them in the middle like that, or cutting them at all, is having to deal with 2 pieces per string. I prefer just unlocking the tuners, slipping the strings off and then wrapping them all up into a circular shape like as if they were in a string pack and tossing them away. Makes the clean up process much neater.
I'm really just used to saving strings when I had no money and because I used to do some experiments (such as converting an acoustic guitar to a bass and an octave mandolin) so it would save me to have some strings I won't mind abusing rather than a trip to the store for fresh ones.
Loosen the strings not because of the neck but because of the tuners. This mostly worth mentioning in non locking tuners because it can cause undue wear over rime where you can start to develop small amounts of play in the tuners, giving wobble and tuning instability. That being said, it goes a while in most circumstances for this to happen but it certainly can. If you have older guitars you or someone else has played for years, you’ll likely notice play in the high string tuners because those are the strings that break the most while playing. The abrupt snapping from full tension to no tension will “shock” the tuners. I’ve never noticed this on locking tuners, only on older standard tuners or, of course, very cheap tuners on cheap guitars. You can also help combat this phenomenon by using string “locking” techniques on non locking tuners with multiple wraps of the string. This will resist shock to the tuners a lot more than stringing the guitar with regular techniques and few string wraps.
Strings are so cheap, I don’t reuse them. I keep lots of the same set to hand. Just incase there is a stringpocalypse. I also cut the strings off. Only thing I do when cutting is secure the tail piece as I don’t want to scratch the finish on my Gibson. (Btw I don’t baby my guitar) I just want it to age gracefully. On my others I don’t care too much.
The most bizarre place I’ve seen this idea was a warning - can’t remember exactly what it said, but iirc something about not removing all the strings at once to avoid damaging the neck - in an Ibanez manual. Ibanez. The company that makes guitars for Steve Vai…….
You ended this debate with " what happens when you dive bomb a floyd " I had never thought of that and it releases all the tension in fraction of a second. Job done KDH.
Totally agree with everything you said. I have a vintage bass that needs a truss rod adjustment every few months (that neck moves enough that it deserves to have a sweatband on it). You wouldn't believe how strong the neck is. I don't baby it, it gets taken places, moved between extreme temperatures. And the neck is fine, every 3 months I look at it and turn the truss rod one way or the other and thats it. I don't believe a pressure change could cause a crack or anything even close to a warp.
When re-stringing my guitar (which happens once in a blue moon) I take the strange "pleasure" of changing each string one by one. I don't think my sweat is so acidic so I keep the old ones, even if they are close to useless. Regardless I use fast-fret and similar string-cleaning products a lot. I don't know if you have covered this topic in one of your videos.
I cut the strings off unless the guitar has a wraparound bridge and even in that case a folded up polishing cloth can allow one to do so. I just got finished with upgrades on an epiphone sg special and I replaced the bridge with one that is intonatable, new nut, tuners,pickups and electronics and I learned that as i went
My hands/oils takes maybe 1 year to get crud on my strings but, I had a Buddy who was an amazing natural talent he had a feel as if a PRO, he would grab an axe during Jams and the next day the strings were gritty, dirty messes ughhhh. I wish the kid was still around, he was younger than me, his dad played for the NY Football Giants in the 80s. He had the most beautiful Simi-hollow Hammer. I recorded almost all our jams for maybe 3 to 4 years. He was murdered in a bad part of town and his parents and brothers were heartbroken, same as me. Last year, I mixed down all the tunes and some chatter between songs. I dropped a few copies into his Mom's mail box, I hope they get comfort from them, like I do. Miss you Mr Brandon Sherwin!
you're so right about every single point! I personally prefer restringing one string at a time because I find it more conveniant for tuning (especially since I only have one guitar with a hardtail), but whenever I wanna clean the fretboard I take off all the strings. I have the same experience when flying with guitars or shipping guitars online. Many guitars I have right now were ordered from Germany and Japan and they arrived set up perfectly and in tune, no issues at all
I think the pressure change argument is BS. But moisture does affect wood. That's well known. When wood gets wetter it's more prone to warp and it's good practice to not put too much stress on it. You might be able to compensate with the truss rod but sometimes it's not only going into more relief it backbow but in some rare cases it can twist. Not by much but it can affect playability. And classical guitars don't have truss rods mind you. So it's just good practice.
@@EbonyPope does putting silca gel in the case help or does it hurt it even further? Next time I fly (with a hardtail guitar) I'll try detuning and see if I get any difference
@@Mr.Goldbar Not to my knowledge. Silica Gel is there to bind excess moisture. It also depends on what kind of finish your guitar has. I guess guitars with Polyurethane finishes aren't all that sensitive because they are mostly sealed off except for the pickup cavities of course. There are many factors. On the contrary in very dry climates you should keep your guitar in a case to along with a humidifier. Do you know what fret sprout is? It's when the wood gets dry and the fret ends start poking your fingers because the wood got so dry that it contracted much more than the metal frets. Or it can lead to cracks in the soundboard but this is mostly an acoustic guitar problem too. I wouldn't obsess over it but it's good to keep an eye on your moisture levels. Especially if it's an instrument you want to keep for life. There are also many other tips. I got them from a luthier with an absolute excellent RUclips channel with a very soothing voice and entertaining humor. Take a look at the channel "twoodfrd". He makes excellent content and you'll even learn how to fix a thing or two on your guitar yourself.
i do loosen them slightly they tend to fly vast distances on hard tails such as tune o matic with stopbar, last time i cut them with tension i found the first and 6th string from narnia.
I would be more worried about one of those cut strings scratching the fretboard or finish when it snaps under tension. Also I use Floyd rose on my guitars, if I just cut the E string it's going to transfer all that tension to other strings, not that it matters but for those reasons I prefer to detune all the strings before cutting them
You monster!!! No, I 95% agree. My stress comes from a different place though; mine is my mothers voice saying "You'll take someone's eye out!!". The first guitar book I had when I was starting was a folk guitar book from the 70s (near useless, but anyway). But I remember it saying "Be careful changing strings because they can be a bit 'whippy'". And ever since then, I've always imagined getting caught in the eye by a high E - enough to stress me out slightly by watching the intro there. In 25 years, it's never happened, though... So I hazard to say you're safe enough snipping them off. As far the strength of necks, ever since I watched that video of Jack White nailing a pickup to a plank of wood and stringing up to couple of nails hammered in..... yeah, guitars aren't precious babies. They're just a few bits of wood glued or bolted together. You have to put in more effort than a snip to fuck that up. I had the wrong idea starting out because first you learn that there are some things to be careful about (like you don't want to over-tighten a truss rod, or if you mess with your action, your intonation may go out - so at first you think, it's a delicate, finely-calibrated machine!! Cause parts of it kind of are.... a little bit anyway. But really; that's a bad overall impression. It's a few hunks of wood. You calibrate that as finely as you want, but that's essentially what it is. Despite Fender not wanting to be liable for necks breaking on airplanes (I don't know why else they would say something like that...). Sometimes common sense goes out the window a little bit with these things.
I once had a half inch bit of guitar string that when I clipped it off it went straight into the pink of my eye. I blinked twice and it felt like fire. So I held my eye open, grabbed the needle nose and made it to a mirror in time.
When I was young with one or two guitars I use to save and reuse strings, after a while I would end up with BAGS (12x12) zip lock bags of used strings with dangerous pointy bits all throughout with some stuffed in packages with sharp syringe like metal poking out, at some point, it was hard, but I just tossed them all out and never looked back, and I like my necks to feel like wood not goo.
Is it such a big hassle for you to loosen them a bit before cutting them? I restring around 100-120 guitars per year, and I'll highly advise against snapping them at full tension. Snapping full-tensioned strings will inevitably cause scratches in the lacquer. Not even saying it might hit you in the eye or the finger, but it's simply *careless*. You're saving mere seconds for a process that, best case, is repeated weekly. You'd save more time learning to lace your shoes quicker, or switching to velcro. Or getting up a minute earlier that day. And about floating tremolos: Block the tremolo with a piece of wood, open the locking nuts, loosen the strings a bit, clip em behind the nut, dispose the "pigtails", remove the rest of the string in usual fashion. Don't cut them in the middle of the fretboard, don't cut them close to the trem, cut them behind the nut without too much tension in a controlled manner. It's not that complicated. And if the trem was blocked, getting it up to pitch is a lot easier too (see the Thomann vid with Steve Vai's guitar tech, he explains it well). No excuses, not on an Epiphone, not on an Ormsby, not on the 35€ nylon guitar your kid owns... Yes, I can confirm that the neck does not really care, even if left without strings for a week, but I hope YOU care. Been a subscriber since basically "day one" (you had 2500 subs back when I subbed, IIRC), really thought you liked your instruments, I see you in different light now. 😕
I unwind it from the locking tuners, cut them, then pull them through the body. I have an aversion to cutting things under tension. Not because of the neck but just to be safe as a habit.
The neck is a 3" diameter half cylinder of maple. You could bolt the thing to a floor joist and hang off it if you wanted! The reason they build it out of hardwood is because it is STRONG. Strings maybe add ~100lbs of tension on the neck. Really not enough to cause a dramatic flex. A piano by contrast has over 200 strings and tens of thousands of pounds of tension, which is why an iron frame is needed. If your guitar neck is badly warping by the sudden cutting of 6 strings you need a more structurally sound neck... To add, the air pressure in an airplane is only slightly less that normal atmospheric conditions. The cargo hold might be a bit colder than the cabin, but if it's in a hard shell case it's going to make little difference. If you think you should detune your guitar before getting on a plane due to pressure changes, then don't ever consider playing in Denver, or worse, La Paz.
I think a lot of advice on changing strings applies to classical guitar and some more fragile acoustics. People just assume it applies to electric too.
For sure, a truly pricey Spanish guitar is so light it barely exists. It's intentionally made that way to produce more sound. I'd be very worried to subject one to any quick change.
I hate to reveal this, but I am one of those people… However, I don’t think cutting the strings off makes any sense. Because why make more work essentially pulling out two strings when you can loosen the same one string and pull the whole thing out at once…? What’s so hard about unscrewing the tuner knobs if you have to do them up again anyway? They have tools to eliminate turning your hand so much too, so I guess it’s just personal preference depending on how you restring your guitars, and there’s no right or wrong way to do it.
With a Floyd the easiest way I've found to change all the strings at once is to block it so it's level, don't make it tilt up at all. You can use all kinds of stuff, wood blocks, coins, guitar picks, whatever will hold it in place once you take all the strings off and relieve all the string tension. Then you just do your cleaning and conditioning, put new strings on, then tune before you remove the block and you're good. I should note that only works if you're using the same gauge of strings and same tuning. Also if you feed the strings through the tuner first on a Floyd you can use the ball end as kind of a locking tuner but not as good lol plus then when you change strings it's easier to remove
Some guitars do it some guitars don't I've had a Squier Strat and I live in New England and when the weather changes the neck does a little jig and I have to adjust for it it's just a little turn of the truss rod and it goes back to where it was I've mostly noticed it when the weather went from cold to hot
Hey KDH, ever looked into what the B-52s guitarist was doing in 1979? He stuck 2 Bass Strings, .105 and .085, on his 1966 Mosrite MK V (24.50" scale) and tuned those lower two to C and F (4 notes below standard tuning.) He then had two .018p strings in the B and E slots, tuned to F. The tension of the Bass Strings is a lot like taking the bottom two strings of a set of .13s, then tuning them up 7 notes to B standard. And the 66 Mosrite has a thin neck! (1.560" width at the zero fret, and 0.860" thickness/depth from frets 2 - 12 or 13.) So no, I don't think that guitar necks are all "oh so fragile." Sure, you might want to de-tune it between each performance if you were playing like that so the wood can't warp over years, but yes, it does seem silly to me that a guitar neck can't take some "above average" stress. Just don't drop the guitar.
When I break a string on my floyd guitar near the bridge and don't have any extras, or want to save money or don't have time to go to town to get new ones, I cut the string where it snapped and put that into the bridge, I leave a bit of extra string after the tuners for that reason.
I haven’t just cut them off like you do, mostly for no real reason. I’m not scared of destroying the necks of my guitars. But, it does make sense that there won’t be any adverse affects to removing the strings as you do.
I loosen all of my guitar strings at once and cut them all off at once. I do that mainly so it doesn’t snap quickly and hurt the finish of the guitar or me. I don’t keep any of my used guitar strings. I used to determine the guitar if I was shipping one but now the thinking seems to have changed and then it’s better to leave it tuned. The last one that I sold the buyer was happy because when they got to guitar it was almost perfectly in tune.
![Twenty One Pilots - “The Line” (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/E2Rj2gQAyPA/mqdefault.jpg)
The most stressful part of anything string related is the "DEAR GOD IT MIGHT HIT ME IN THE EYE" feeling that I have, despite that literally never coming anywhere near happening to me. Still, the FEAR IS REAL
I was thinking the same thing
Absolutely. I have a floating tailpiece and I shit bricks when I set the string in the tail and then tighten everything up. I even tape the underside of the saddle in order to save my brain.
Hah, ditto. I enjoy the sound of cutting 'em off (almost like the loud THUNK when you toss something in a dumpster), it's somehow gratifying. But I wait for my eye (or possibly finger) to take a high-E at high speed. No bueno.
Same. I don't think I'll ever get over it.
I got close once while changing strings on my acoustic!
I do loosen the tension a bit on the tuners before I cut the strings. That has nothing to do with considerations about the neck, though. If there's not much tension on the strings, I have more control over what happens with the strings after I cut them. There is no strings potentially flopping around like they do in your intro. I don't like that and I don't want to pay attention to it, so I avoid it in the first place by just loosening the strings a bit before I cut them.
This ^^
Same
Yep, logic
Yeah I don’t like the idea of a string flying anywhere near my face
That has the added benefit of allowing you to pinch the loosened strings together and cut them all with one squeeze of the cutter. It also reduces the risk of scratching the guitar paint with the cutter as you can pull the strings away from the body
My only fear would be the string scratching the finish when it flies off. Otherwise nah, no problem. I take the slack off my strings and then snip them at the twelfth fret so that both sides of the cut string are as big as possible and hard to lose track of if I drop one.
i agree. i think it happens alot and people dont even realize. "where did this scratch come from?" never connecting it to having just changed their strings...
This. I'm not worried about the neck, or about getting hit- but I'm all for minimizing visible marks on the finish as much as possible.
That really SCARES you? Life must be a tough event for you.
@@dan_kay Being a sarcastic bitch online. Life must be boring for you.
@@dan_kay cool guy alert
I don’t think cutting strings is dangerous to the neck at all, the Floyd rose dive bomb example you used is a really solid point too that should help people realize that guitar necks are built like tanks to be honest. The only thing I do different is detune my strings until they are flop before cutting to prevent them from flinging arround violently and risking the finish on my guitar from getting scratched up.
(Ask me how I know about that).
Great video!
So ... how do you know about that?
I work in a guitar shop and I'm telling this to people all the time. "Take all your strings off when restringing" It won't hurt the neck, it's easier to clean and you won't accidentally cut the wrong string off when restringing. I do it to all my guitars and the ones in the shop, even guitars with Floyd Roses and Bigsbys. Never had any issues.
With an FR I’d rather keep tension, I have two heavy duty springs with oversized strings for my tuning and I honestly would just rather keep tension
@@Roodski Even after the explanation that KDH gave?
@@thewickedwizard I should be using 5 springs but with the heavy duty springs I can get away with two for easier trem use. Getting those things back up tension is a chore
@@Roodski you should block both sides of the tremelos when setting up a Floyd Rose anyway much easier
@@chaosclg I just put a wax cap from my weed under the trem. That or a rag. It holds in neutral, slap new strings on and the tension is identical to before. Just gotta stretch the top 3 strings and tune up. I’ve even left my jem jr for 3 days with no strings and a rag holding it in place. Took me 20 minutes to restring and tune. Idk why people find Floyd so hard to do, I find hard tails harder to restring, I put the ball end at the tuner and you can’t do that on most hard tails. Doing this makes it insanely easy to cut and pop into place. I only get 1 wind at most per tuner peg.
For the love of God, DO NOT DO THIS! I've been a luthier for 20 years, and it's not a myth, I've had them come in with torqued and twisted necks. The problem comes when you do it on a cold guitar, if it's in your home or at a neutral temperature it's probably fine, but why take a chance? Just because you've always done something and it's never had an effect DOESN'T mean it doesn't happen. I still wouldn't recommend doing this without at least loosening the tension first.
And YES, loosen the tension on planes. It won't snap the neck but it can cause twists, and a twisted neck is a ruined neck, they can't really be repaired. It's NOT the pressure, it's the radical change in temperatures that happen in the cargo hold (this is what also kills pets stored in the hold from time to time). Yes, you can carry them on, but you can't carry 3 guitars with you, you'll have to put some in the cargo hold. I had a Les Paul Jr come in with a neck broken in 3 places because it was in a cold car in a gig bag, and he dropped it taking it out of the car. It was maybe 2-2½' off t ground, but that was enough.
Again: just because it hasn't happened to someone, doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Is the few seconds it takes to loosen the tuners a bit before cutting them really that much effort? I cut them too, but only after I've loosened them enough that I can easily lift the string from the nut slot.
I've watched this channel for years and this is the first really bad take, but it's a really bad take. It's not good form to tell people "oh don't worry, just do 'whatever' because it hasn't been an issue for you. This is an irresponsible video, unless you're willing to pay for your viewers repairs that take your advice and have a different result.
People can own acoustic guitars for years and never do more than restring then and they'll be fine, but we'd get scores of acoustics come in with cracked and split tops or binding separation because they weren't humidified enough. Again, just because it hasn't happened to you doesn't mean it won't happen to others.
Oh, and if that happens to you: it's damaged because you didn't humidify it properly, the factory can consider that that it wasn't properly maintained and they may not cover it with their warranty so you'd have to be paying for it out of pocket.
I think for a lot of people the precaution for loosening the strings a bit before cutting is out of fear of the string snapping back and hitting them in the eye.
I think we all been through this at least once to know to avoid this.
more so the paint for me.. floyd rose makes it easy tho i leave the ball end on the tuning peg side and then cut to fit the floyd and poke the end in
"There's a lot like it, but this one is mine"
Nice reference lol
I am a bass player, and I have two main basses, one 35 inch scale 5 string and a passive 4 string sting ray. My 5 string gets new strings every month, and the aged strings get saved and handed down to the stingray (the b string is discarded) I like the more dead thump on my passive ray, and If I break a d or g string (I play pretty aggressive slap) I always have several perfectly aged sets on deck. It's a weird system, but it works for me.
I am sort of embarrassed to admit it, but I was one of those people who thought it was no good to relieve all the tension at once before watching this video. The Floyd Rose example was the lightbulb moment for me and I honestly feel silly now.
I mean he's doing it on an Ormsby, if you did this on a lower end guitar you can definitely cause damage, I know this because I have seen it whether this video says otherwise or not
@@chaosclg I think that what you saw was caused by other factors and you perceived it as an issue caused by releiving the string tension. That's more than likely what happened.
@@DustinDollinsShinBone I simply don't agree hahaha
@@chaosclg Science doesn't care if you agree.
I'm surprised you never mentioned boiling strings. Back in the day, I used to take strings off, boil them in hot water and then re-use them over and over.
Never done this with guitar strings but I have done this with bass strings and they really do sound new! I was skeptical but now I’m a believer 😅
Tried this with guitar strings and it wasn't worth the effort. Bass strings, however, are a different story.
this is why I dont cut mine, I keep them in case I run out of strings, and break one and quickly need to re string, just seems wasteful of a good back up resource to me
"cutting the strings without releasing the tension before will cause the neck to snap!". Well, that myth might have had its roots in the very "authentic" world :-)
I do now loosen the strings a little bit before cutting on my newest or most cherished guitars. I always agreed with your thinking that the temperature/pressure argument didn't make sense. I got an Epiphone Slash guitar a year or so ago that came all the way from China perfectly in tune and with an incredible set up. I only loosen the strings now so I don't whipped in the eye or put a scratch on the guitar finish. I put a super annoying scratch on the most expensive new guitar I ever purchased one time cutting the strings under tension and was depressed for months every time I looked down at it. Now after years of playing that guitar, it is pretty much naturally relic'd so I don't really care now. But it's kind of like when you get a band-spanking-new car and you're paranoid trying everything to avoid getting your 1st ding on it, but after your 12th parking lot dent, you're way over it.... 😄
For an even quicker job I often saw the neck off and glue a new one on to save cleaning the fretboard too.
In all seriousness I've done it both ways over the years, but always use the trem/whammy bar argument like you mentioned here.
I unwind my strings because I find it pleasurable, not because I think it's the best method. Whenever I have to change strings, I'm not counting my minutes or need to be the most efficient at it, I just take it as part of the hobby and enjoy it. Having fun is quite good, you know? A lot of people forget this.
I wasn't aware cutting them was frowned upon. I've never not cut my strings, it saves time
I'm only 40 seconds in and REALLY looking forward to the rest of this video.
I'm a guitar player of 30+ years (although I have maybe the skills of a 3 year player, lol) and changing strings has ALWAYS stressed me out!
You have good taste in avatars 😎
@@xtort1220 you too! \m/
Whilst I agree with everything you have said, the only reason I don't cut my strings, is, they do occasionally scratch the finish, which I do admit is a odd thought when you consider most of my guitars are between 37 and 25 years old and therefore are road worn.
Changing strings on my guitars with floating trems always stresses me.
I typically loosen string before cutting strictly as a SAFETY measure, just so the string isn't whipping back and plucking your eye out. As far as floating terms, I STRONGLY recommend trying to shim the term at somewhere near the resting position you want it to be, because you may find that returning your tremolo to the 'zero' position you want could be very challenging, keeping some tension on the trem springs seems to help this. I could go into a scientific discussion of springs at rest storing potential energy and the time that it takes to expend that, but I won't.
What's funny, is now everyone in the comments is agreeing with you, and now the problem is worrying about scratching the finish lol. You can't win KDH!❤️🎸🤟😝🤟
I just unwind them enough to be able to pinch them all together and cut them all at once. I’ve just always done it that way. I’ve also watched my guitar fall headstock first into multiple objects and it’s still going strong.
It's not a Gibson, is it? Haha!
@@aprilkurtz1589 exactly ;)
@@withinthrall1445 My SG was thrown out of a second floor window by an angry teen(original owner) when the kid's dad told him to turn it down, lol 😆. The headstock got broken on the diagonal. The second owner duct taped the headstock back together, which didn't work well. He had it for almost thirty years, and gave it to me. I got it about 25 years ago, and had it properly repaired. I've been playing it ever since. It's a road dog, but that's ok. Those old P-90s sound sweet.
@@aprilkurtz1589 what a brilliant use of logic on that kids part lol. But hey you definitely won at the end there. I recently repaired an old aria pro ii I found at a pawnshop for $40. Had a fracture on the neck but nothing glue and clamps wouldn’t fix. Had a real Floyd in it instead of a licensed for a special and I wasn’t passing that up for $40 lmao
@@withinthrall1445 LOL! I think the kid was 16 or 17. That was a nice buy for $40! It's amazing that when done right, the glue joint is stronger than the wood around it. I accidentally parked my car on the SG and nothing broke!
A friend of mine had the best quote ever regarding guitar setup:
No matter how much you want it to be just a guitar, it wants to be pieces of wood and metal that are subject to the elements.
I unwind them a bit before cutting them. I don't want a string flying into my eye! Also, a trick I learnt on Thomann, to restring a Floyd Rose you should put the back plate underneath the trem between the body and the fine tuners. So when you string, the trem is stopped by the back plate blocking it off and keeping tension in the back strings. It make restring and cleaning those things so much easier!
Only reason I detune the strings before cutting them is that I don’t like the sharp ends flying around, out of fear that they might poke me or scratch the instrument. I’m a bass player however, so cutting bass strings is a tad more violent. The reason for detuning a guitar before transporting it is mostly down to the risk of the case getting dropped, and the impact getting transferred into the head stock, thus breaking it off if the impact puts pressure on it in the same direction as the tension from the strings. Les Pauls are particularly prone to this due to how the headstock is set up on LPs.
My favourite guitar myth to restring is that Strats are "recording instruments" (yes, Glen, I remember you said it in the last video and you'll never be forgiven 🤣). They can be heavy as hell at gigs in the right hands 🤘
What's wrong with recording with Strats?
@@JeanMarceaux Absolutely nothing. It's the implied "only" that I was joking about. Watch the last video and you'll get it.
What's that got to do with restringing?
@@thewickedwizard It's obviously a play on words! Did I really have to just say that?! 😬
@@JamesWilson01 Yeah, you did.
That DID stress me out, but not because of the neck. I was like, "If that's under tension it's gonna whip around and scratch the body." Also there was a moment where it looked like your cutters might not quite be sharp enough or have enough leverage. That was also stressful.
I have a scar from when I cut all the strings at once while it was tuned higher than e standard so now with all of my guitars with trem bars I just pull the bar down like a quarter to half a way down
KDH, u just hit me right in the face.ive been watching your vids for a while now. I especially enjoyed the restring Sunday vids. But every time u cut a string under tension I kringe inside 😬. Todays vid was a treat 👍I get it bro, no difference in tension when using a Floyd. 👀 I totally see that. Cutting under tension is fine..😬..although it's killing me to write that. Just know that this video was a fantastic experience. Just what I needed u to show. U must have gotten a few responses about Cutting strings.
So glad you did this. Keep 'em coming.
Go KDH & Sixstringtv
I have an engineering background and have been building cabinets for many years, and have built quite a few guitars. I work with all sorts of materials from all metals (main job) to wood and polymers.
You are absolutely bang on on everything.
Guitar necks are effectively braced with the truss rod counteracting string tension. No air pressure change in cargo compartments will do anything. Humidity is very much mitigated because guitar cases are relatively sealed. Not air tight, but more than enough to slow the ingress of ambient moisture.
Anyone who thinks guitar necks are so fragile can just go to their local hardware store and pick up a 1" x 3" board of hardwood and try to bend it over their knee and see how it responds. Trees figured it out a long time ago 🤙
Cutting strings under tension may not be dangerous to the neck, but it can be very dangerous to your eyes.
So much logic and reason in this video. I appreciate that.
I think the cutting off string myth stems from older archtop guitars, i've experienced one where i needed to adjust the neck more than it needed to begin with, due to the humidity it's been in. Cutting the strings off it self doesn't really do much as you stated correctly. The owner asked me to do it quickly while he was waiting in the shop, i did not have the time to have the archtop to aclimatise to our workshop. End result, a little crack near the body joint from what i assume is the rapid release of the tension since the archtop had been in a very humid environment.
Violins also get messed up if you cut all of the strings.
Excellent points! I stopped taking all the strings off at once because of Floyd Rose issues. Took quite a bit of work to get that thing set up again. My guitar teacher told me to change the strings one at a time to prevent issues with the tremolo getting all out of whack.
Hi KDH...!!!
I HAVE a thought for you when trying to show how straight or bowed a guitar neck is, an old luthier trick I learned. Take ANY 36" ( 91cm. ) up to a 48" ( 121cm. ) perfect straight edge... A steel or wooden level, A metal T-square, anything that is perfectly straight and resistant to bending. Place it on the neck edge, or on the frets, although on the frets can cause variations due to some frets being more or less worn out. That method will show you the "hills & valleys" of the neck, or in other words if it is bent or not. This of course is great for seeing status quo of ones neck, especially if the "old eagle eyes" that allow us to see such things have gotten a little askew from age, AND in illustration purposes for your viewing audience. I believe you when you state that the neck is "perfectly straight," others may not... the straight edge just "hamer"s it home. 🤔😉😁
ANYWAY, KEEP ON KEEPING ON BROTHER ROCKER!!!!!!!!!!
PEACE !!!!!!!!!!🤘🏼
Ben Crowe of Crimson Custom Guitars argues that cutting strings while they're under tension might
(1) damage the tuners, or
(2) cause the suddenly loose strings to fly in random directions, which could lead to them striking and damaging the finish on the body.
I detune a whole step for acoustic transport and long term storage.
I loosen slightly before cutting the strings off. I also remove all strings every time and clean the fretboard, nooks, crannies, and neck joint/pickup rings.
The part with the tremolo is a very good argument!!
3:35 did you just.....
Yes you did I respect that
Ex Tour Manager with mid-sized rock band back in the 00s here. When we were flying, all our guitars were travelling in the cargo hold (when you're checking in 25 flight cases, carry on not an option lol) so in that case the techs always loosened the strings on the guitars as a precaution. I'm not 100% sure it was necessary but with the temperature drop at altitude in the hold, it was just a precaution. As to the shows where we did carry on with gig bags only, it was never an issue we ever thought about as they'd be with us in a pressurised cabin. Like a lot of people have mentioned, I do slack off the strings slightly before cutting them off as it's just a habit more than anything. Never thought about damaging the neck though - more a case of avoiding a pinging string flying into my face lol 😎
I think you have something there about temperature change. Particularly if it goes below freezing. I had an Ibanez in a storage unit all winter once, and the neck had broken at the scarf joint. I'm still not 100% sure how it happened, but I've always suspected it was caused by below freezing temp.
@@user-ellievator Good point, because temperatures can drop to subzero at the altitudes airliners fly at, and the cargo hold is unpressurized. Although this is not too big a problem as some airliners actually do control the hold temperature, there are controls for it in the cockpit in the same spot as the cabin temperature control. I believe actually most common airliners do this but I doubt they heat it up to a comfortable temperature, more or less just to keep cargo from freezing because you can't just freeze people's cargo.
@@JohnDoeWasntTaken the cargo compartment is always part of the same pressure vessel as the cabin. It’s all one large cylinder. So the pressure differential is pretty minimal. The real difference is just that there generally aren’t many or any vents down there so it’s just whatever comes through the floor. All the bleed air that pressurizes the cabin usually comes out from the ceiling.
I usually wind down the strings a few turns, then clip the strings. I have a healthy fear of metal strings popping into my eyes.
Once I cut the strings and one entered my nose 💀
@@seabass3373 yea, one hit my cheek, then I got paranoid about my eyes.
I once had a piece of wire from a fence I was fixing shoot up my nose and caused a bad nosebleed. Could’ve been so much worse. Wire under tension is dangerous. Wear eye protection.
I agree that it doesn't hurt to cut them, but I unwound them due it being easier to dispose of them after. I coil them up after use when I throw them away.
tune your guitar to drop C when flying. make sure the pitches are exactly in tune
if it is any lower or higher your guitar will explode
Love this video! It came just in time too, someone talked me into unstringing my guitar because I am not planning to use it in a while, and he told me that the floyed's tension is going to warp my neck if it will stay stringed.
When checking your guitar on a flight... Have an extremely rigid case & expect that case to have major damage (if not destroyed) when you pick it up at baggage claim.
Most importantly, insure your instrument (and case it possible).
Sure, they won't pay you what it's worth, but it's better than nothing.
I re-use my strings on my home-made cigar box projects. I have also made jewelery out of em.
I've flown many times with my Fender Strat in the hold and recently sent my Gibson Firebird by sea freight where it was 'in transit' for around 8 weeks. I've never detuned my guitars and they've always turned up just fine.
Great video dispelling a few myths....and Fender should know better than spreading fear although maybe it's more of a 'covering their arses' sorta statement as opposed to a factual one.
It's six of one half dozen of the other. If you replace them one at a time there seems the guitar seems to settle down quicker after the string change. But if you take them off all at once then you can give a instrument a decent clean! I'll go one way or the other way depending on how much time I have.
However, I like to keep my old strings as they are kind of getting a bit pricey now. One advantage of this is that if you break a sting on a guitar where the set is getting on a bit then that re-used string matches the tone of the other strings better and since it is already broken in it's tuning becomes more stable much faster. They still require a little stretching, but not nearly as much. This is typically putting it back on the instrument it came from so string length is never an issue.
That is not always the case though. If I break a string on one of my fixed bridge axes then what is left can be fitted to a Floyd Rose equipped instrument when it breaks a string! I should say this is mainly with the wound strings. I am not so keen on reusing the unwound ones. The wound strings are usually the ones that get beaten up playing metal style rhythms. I hardly ever break the high strings, though it does happen.
I don't change my strings very often. That's mainly because these days I do mostly recording projects and seldom play live. The main motivation for me in string changing was always to avoid one breaking while on stage. I dislike changing them for recording. I much prefer having the stable pitch of a well played in string over the fresh tone of a new set.
I agree it wont damage the neck, but truss rods exist for a reason and tension is a thing.
I also agree regarding recording, new strings for recording is one of the most overrated notions in the Guitar world IMO, i'd rather have a settled instrument than a bright one, plus amps/sims have treble and presence controls
I think the whole cutting your strings myth, along with quite a few other guitar myths originated from luthiers wanting to scare people away from fixing their own guitars back in the 60's and 70's. So that way they (the luthiers) could get the work for themselves lol
Because only luthiers can loosen strings?
@@joesharpe7685 🤦🏼♂️
I have similarly acidic sweat, and recently tried Elixir strings. Gosh, it’s great not seeing strings start to erode within the first hour of playing and them actually sounding and feeling fresh for quite a while!
Cutting them off is just faster and better when using an Evertune or Floyd. Also stops you from having to drag bent string ends over the saddles on the bridge.
Before cutting the strings, I block the trem in neutral position (a piece of wood or a stack of play cards), then polish the frets, cleanup the fretboard, then put new strings one.
If you want to talk myths, acidic sweat is very much one of them. I asked an bilogist about this and he said there's no reason anyone's sweat would be more or less acidic than anyone else's. And yet guitar players constantly attribute corroded strings, tarnished tailpieces and rusty pickup screws to the xenomorph-level acidic sweat only they have. It's complete bs, just wear and tear. Gonna need to do an audioaudit on yourself/acidic sweat next!
Cut them, don't keep them, don't detune for air travel. Your point about the Floyd is spot on.
Necks are only fragile things that need babied if it's a cheap guitar. Or a Gibson lol
@@CharlieMoney777 when your guitars are such shit you’ve got to defend yourself.
@@CharlieMoney777 its hilarious how every single time someone says anything negative about Gibson, there's always one of you losers spewing "CAN'T AFFORD! YOU'RE JEALOUS/POOR!" without fail.
@@CharlieMoney777 well, at least I don't cover up my inability to play and write, with expensive gear. 🤣🤣🤣🤣 funny how you think I can't afford one. I had one. It was a massive piece of fucking shit. At least I'm not some gullible idiot who believes everything the marketing team tells me lololol
@@CharlieMoney777 and fund your retirement? I have a 401k like an adult lol
@@CharlieMoney777 I'm not offended in the slightest because I don't need neither overpriced garbage, nor to insult someone's income level to feel good about myself lol. I feel good about myself because I'm smart enough to value a guitar with my own judgment and not on whether people will think I'm cool or not lol
It’s only been recently that I saw videos about how “fragile” guitar necks are. It’s nice to see this realistic video.
i release tension before cutting the strings. simply because ive had multiple incidents where the end of the string sprung back and stuck into my hand, doesnt feel that nice.
and always fresh strings for me.
Pretty much... If there's anything to query here, it's that not all guitar necks are constructed the same with the same materials... or new. Newer necks (esp. Multi-laminate, torrefied, carbon reinforced necks etc.) behave differently compared to an old vintage neck that's had may have had half it's lacquer worn off and may have had moisture damage. If the wood isn't as strong, then more of the string tension is taken up by the truss rod - such that without strings the rod is putting more stress on the wood. That's not to say that cutting strings is going to be a problem. I've not put a temperamental neck to the test (!) but I'd guess that most necks will come back to their previous shape just fine... with time proportional to how long the strings have been off. If there was reason to detune a solid body for travel I wouldn't do so without unloading the truss rod. I think that some of the advice out there might be confused with acoustic top cracking from humidity/temperature related expansion contraction events.
Your channel is the best I've seen all the others. More restring Sunday.
I've never worried about the tension on the neck, but I have been impaled by a few strings before.
As for my habits, I do loosen my strings, but then cut them down the center while I can get a hand around them to keep them from floppin' about. Basically for all the reasons you said.
I left my G&L Invader in the case for 10 years with no strings. Finally strung it up, simple truss rod adjustment, and it plays perfectly.
I usually loosen them up quite a bit before cutting them. I just always felt like it was the "right way". I also got to admit your sweat doing that to your strings, is pretty wild. I've never seen anything like that before.
It also happen to me after maybe 1 - 2 months of playing everyday on the same strings
I'm the same. Even when I'm wiping them several times per day, my elixir strings won't last more than 2 months, which is still twice or thrice the amount non-coated strings last for me
I can play the same strings for years. Literally. Yes, they loose some zing but they stay shiny. Whereas I know a guy who, if I let him play one of my guitars for an hour or two, will destroy them. I take it out of the case a week or two later and the strings are f&cked. All rusted.
Happens to me too, need to change strings every 4 weeks depending on how much I play and if I think about to wipe the strings after each session. Wiping them makes them last like: 2 weeks longer, but usually I forget and they look like this kind of shit after 4 weeks. Wiping them still blackens them but they keep their sound a bit longer and they don't crust up too much, but after 6 weeks they're definitely gone. I also live in a very humid sea climate (the Netherlands, roughly same climate as UK) so this doesn't help either. Especially in autumn they're gone so fast. Late spring / summer they seem to last a bit longer though.
Good video. Love a good myth dispelling.
My Strats have 'top-loading' machine heads (which I prefer). I loosen all the strings until I can pull the wrapped portion off the pegs, then cut so I can pull them through the vibrato block. It just makes sense.
I would think if the tension was affected that greatly by the pressure changes in air travel, the strings would break before the neck would.
I never even thought about cutting strings when restringing guitars...I simply unwind them and locking tuners have made it even faster
Have flown from the UK to Brazil and back multiple times, pretty drastic temp and humidity changes, all of the guitars that have done those trips are still fine
I don’t cut the strings at full tension, I loosen them a bit before I cut them, but that’s so the strings don’t snap and fly around, I have cut my hands from that and also had a snapped string fly close to my face- so my concern is my safety
I don’t reuse them as there is a reason I am changing them.
I'm a touring musician and guitar tech. I've flown guitars dozens, probably hundreds of times. Mostly there's no problem leaving a guitar in tune, however I have seen a couple of problems. One time an SG headstock came off mid flight, difficult to know if that was cabin pressure or baggage handlers. The other time, all four strings were snapped on a bass. That can't be baggage handlers, also that was on a Gatwick to Guernsey flight about 25mins. Maybe the quick up and down, caused it? But that is a real fear, doesn't happen often but can happen.
Regarding guitars on planes...
Temperatures might differ somewhat, but pressures are always the same in cargoholds as the passenger cabin.
The floors aren't made to maintain a pressure difference.
They also get the same dry air from the air conditioning packs, so there won't be much moisture there either.
I saw a video when Kiesel (still Carvin than), we’re fixing Jason Becker’s guitars, and the tech put pressure on the strings around the 12 fret (like a capo) and sliced all the strings, so that’s how I do everything really.
My only argument against cutting them in the middle like that, or cutting them at all, is having to deal with 2 pieces per string. I prefer just unlocking the tuners, slipping the strings off and then wrapping them all up into a circular shape like as if they were in a string pack and tossing them away. Makes the clean up process much neater.
I'm really just used to saving strings when I had no money and because I used to do some experiments (such as converting an acoustic guitar to a bass and an octave mandolin) so it would save me to have some strings I won't mind abusing rather than a trip to the store for fresh ones.
Loosen the strings not because of the neck but because of the tuners. This mostly worth mentioning in non locking tuners because it can cause undue wear over rime where you can start to develop small amounts of play in the tuners, giving wobble and tuning instability. That being said, it goes a while in most circumstances for this to happen but it certainly can. If you have older guitars you or someone else has played for years, you’ll likely notice play in the high string tuners because those are the strings that break the most while playing. The abrupt snapping from full tension to no tension will “shock” the tuners.
I’ve never noticed this on locking tuners, only on older standard tuners or, of course, very cheap tuners on cheap guitars.
You can also help combat this phenomenon by using string “locking” techniques on non locking tuners with multiple wraps of the string. This will resist shock to the tuners a lot more than stringing the guitar with regular techniques and few string wraps.
Strings are so cheap, I don’t reuse them. I keep lots of the same set to hand. Just incase there is a stringpocalypse. I also cut the strings off. Only thing I do when cutting is secure the tail piece as I don’t want to scratch the finish on my Gibson. (Btw I don’t baby my guitar) I just want it to age gracefully. On my others I don’t care too much.
I wonder what they think happens when a guitar is violently shaken by the whammy bar.
The most bizarre place I’ve seen this idea was a warning - can’t remember exactly what it said, but iirc something about not removing all the strings at once to avoid damaging the neck - in an Ibanez manual. Ibanez. The company that makes guitars for Steve Vai…….
You ended this debate with " what happens when you dive bomb a floyd " I had never thought of that and it releases all the tension in fraction of a second. Job done KDH.
Totally agree with everything you said. I have a vintage bass that needs a truss rod adjustment every few months (that neck moves enough that it deserves to have a sweatband on it). You wouldn't believe how strong the neck is. I don't baby it, it gets taken places, moved between extreme temperatures. And the neck is fine, every 3 months I look at it and turn the truss rod one way or the other and thats it. I don't believe a pressure change could cause a crack or anything even close to a warp.
When re-stringing my guitar (which happens once in a blue moon) I take the strange "pleasure" of changing each string one by one. I don't think my sweat is so acidic so I keep the old ones, even if they are close to useless.
Regardless I use fast-fret and similar string-cleaning products a lot. I don't know if you have covered this topic in one of your videos.
I cut the strings off unless the guitar has a wraparound bridge and even in that case a folded up polishing cloth can allow one to do so. I just got finished with upgrades on an epiphone sg special and I replaced the bridge with one that is intonatable, new nut, tuners,pickups and electronics and I learned that as i went
My hands/oils takes maybe 1 year to get crud on my strings but, I had a Buddy who was an amazing natural talent he had a feel as if a PRO, he would grab an axe during Jams and the next day the strings were gritty, dirty messes ughhhh. I wish the kid was still around, he was younger than me, his dad played for the NY Football Giants in the 80s. He had the most beautiful Simi-hollow Hammer. I recorded almost all our jams for maybe 3 to 4 years. He was murdered in a bad part of town and his parents and brothers were heartbroken, same as me. Last year, I mixed down all the tunes and some chatter between songs. I dropped a few copies into his Mom's mail box, I hope they get comfort from them, like I do. Miss you Mr Brandon Sherwin!
you're so right about every single point!
I personally prefer restringing one string at a time because I find it more conveniant for tuning (especially since I only have one guitar with a hardtail), but whenever I wanna clean the fretboard I take off all the strings.
I have the same experience when flying with guitars or shipping guitars online. Many guitars I have right now were ordered from Germany and Japan and they arrived set up perfectly and in tune, no issues at all
I think the pressure change argument is BS. But moisture does affect wood. That's well known. When wood gets wetter it's more prone to warp and it's good practice to not put too much stress on it. You might be able to compensate with the truss rod but sometimes it's not only going into more relief it backbow but in some rare cases it can twist. Not by much but it can affect playability. And classical guitars don't have truss rods mind you. So it's just good practice.
@@EbonyPope does putting silca gel in the case help or does it hurt it even further? Next time I fly (with a hardtail guitar) I'll try detuning and see if I get any difference
@@Mr.Goldbar Not to my knowledge. Silica Gel is there to bind excess moisture. It also depends on what kind of finish your guitar has. I guess guitars with Polyurethane finishes aren't all that sensitive because they are mostly sealed off except for the pickup cavities of course. There are many factors. On the contrary in very dry climates you should keep your guitar in a case to along with a humidifier. Do you know what fret sprout is? It's when the wood gets dry and the fret ends start poking your fingers because the wood got so dry that it contracted much more than the metal frets. Or it can lead to cracks in the soundboard but this is mostly an acoustic guitar problem too. I wouldn't obsess over it but it's good to keep an eye on your moisture levels. Especially if it's an instrument you want to keep for life. There are also many other tips. I got them from a luthier with an absolute excellent RUclips channel with a very soothing voice and entertaining humor. Take a look at the channel "twoodfrd". He makes excellent content and you'll even learn how to fix a thing or two on your guitar yourself.
i do loosen them slightly they tend to fly vast distances on hard tails such as tune o matic with stopbar, last time i cut them with tension i found the first and 6th string from narnia.
I would be more worried about one of those cut strings scratching the fretboard or finish when it snaps under tension. Also I use Floyd rose on my guitars, if I just cut the E string it's going to transfer all that tension to other strings, not that it matters but for those reasons I prefer to detune all the strings before cutting them
You monster!!! No, I 95% agree. My stress comes from a different place though; mine is my mothers voice saying "You'll take someone's eye out!!".
The first guitar book I had when I was starting was a folk guitar book from the 70s (near useless, but anyway). But I remember it saying "Be careful changing strings because they can be a bit 'whippy'".
And ever since then, I've always imagined getting caught in the eye by a high E - enough to stress me out slightly by watching the intro there. In 25 years, it's never happened, though... So I hazard to say you're safe enough snipping them off.
As far the strength of necks, ever since I watched that video of Jack White nailing a pickup to a plank of wood and stringing up to couple of nails hammered in..... yeah, guitars aren't precious babies. They're just a few bits of wood glued or bolted together. You have to put in more effort than a snip to fuck that up.
I had the wrong idea starting out because first you learn that there are some things to be careful about (like you don't want to over-tighten a truss rod, or if you mess with your action, your intonation may go out - so at first you think, it's a delicate, finely-calibrated machine!! Cause parts of it kind of are.... a little bit anyway. But really; that's a bad overall impression.
It's a few hunks of wood. You calibrate that as finely as you want, but that's essentially what it is.
Despite Fender not wanting to be liable for necks breaking on airplanes (I don't know why else they would say something like that...).
Sometimes common sense goes out the window a little bit with these things.
I once had a half inch bit of guitar string that when I clipped it off it went straight into the pink of my eye. I blinked twice and it felt like fire. So I held my eye open, grabbed the needle nose and made it to a mirror in time.
When I was young with one or two guitars I use to save and reuse strings, after a while I would end up with BAGS (12x12) zip lock bags of used strings with dangerous pointy bits all throughout with some stuffed in packages with sharp syringe like metal poking out, at some point, it was hard, but I just tossed them all out and never looked back, and I like my necks to feel like wood not goo.
Is it such a big hassle for you to loosen them a bit before cutting them? I restring around 100-120 guitars per year, and I'll highly advise against snapping them at full tension. Snapping full-tensioned strings will inevitably cause scratches in the lacquer. Not even saying it might hit you in the eye or the finger, but it's simply *careless*. You're saving mere seconds for a process that, best case, is repeated weekly. You'd save more time learning to lace your shoes quicker, or switching to velcro. Or getting up a minute earlier that day.
And about floating tremolos: Block the tremolo with a piece of wood, open the locking nuts, loosen the strings a bit, clip em behind the nut, dispose the "pigtails", remove the rest of the string in usual fashion. Don't cut them in the middle of the fretboard, don't cut them close to the trem, cut them behind the nut without too much tension in a controlled manner. It's not that complicated. And if the trem was blocked, getting it up to pitch is a lot easier too (see the Thomann vid with Steve Vai's guitar tech, he explains it well).
No excuses, not on an Epiphone, not on an Ormsby, not on the 35€ nylon guitar your kid owns... Yes, I can confirm that the neck does not really care, even if left without strings for a week, but I hope YOU care.
Been a subscriber since basically "day one" (you had 2500 subs back when I subbed, IIRC), really thought you liked your instruments, I see you in different light now. 😕
I have a floating floyd and I cut all my strings. A bunched up sock in the pull-back cavity keeps it nicely from falling back.
I unwind it from the locking tuners, cut them, then pull them through the body. I have an aversion to cutting things under tension. Not because of the neck but just to be safe as a habit.
The neck is a 3" diameter half cylinder of maple. You could bolt the thing to a floor joist and hang off it if you wanted! The reason they build it out of hardwood is because it is STRONG. Strings maybe add ~100lbs of tension on the neck. Really not enough to cause a dramatic flex. A piano by contrast has over 200 strings and tens of thousands of pounds of tension, which is why an iron frame is needed. If your guitar neck is badly warping by the sudden cutting of 6 strings you need a more structurally sound neck...
To add, the air pressure in an airplane is only slightly less that normal atmospheric conditions. The cargo hold might be a bit colder than the cabin, but if it's in a hard shell case it's going to make little difference. If you think you should detune your guitar before getting on a plane due to pressure changes, then don't ever consider playing in Denver, or worse, La Paz.
Love your channel. You should have much more followers.
I think a lot of advice on changing strings applies to classical guitar and some more fragile acoustics. People just assume it applies to electric too.
For sure, a truly pricey Spanish guitar is so light it barely exists. It's intentionally made that way to produce more sound. I'd be very worried to subject one to any quick change.
I hate to reveal this, but I am one of those people…
However, I don’t think cutting the strings off makes any sense. Because why make more work essentially pulling out two strings when you can loosen the same one string and pull the whole thing out at once…? What’s so hard about unscrewing the tuner knobs if you have to do them up again anyway? They have tools to eliminate turning your hand so much too, so I guess it’s just personal preference depending on how you restring your guitars, and there’s no right or wrong way to do it.
With a Floyd the easiest way I've found to change all the strings at once is to block it so it's level, don't make it tilt up at all. You can use all kinds of stuff, wood blocks, coins, guitar picks, whatever will hold it in place once you take all the strings off and relieve all the string tension.
Then you just do your cleaning and conditioning, put new strings on, then tune before you remove the block and you're good. I should note that only works if you're using the same gauge of strings and same tuning.
Also if you feed the strings through the tuner first on a Floyd you can use the ball end as kind of a locking tuner but not as good lol plus then when you change strings it's easier to remove
Some guitars do it some guitars don't I've had a Squier Strat and I live in New England and when the weather changes the neck does a little jig and I have to adjust for it it's just a little turn of the truss rod and it goes back to where it was I've mostly noticed it when the weather went from cold to hot
Hey KDH, ever looked into what the B-52s guitarist was doing in 1979? He stuck 2 Bass Strings, .105 and .085, on his 1966 Mosrite MK V (24.50" scale) and tuned those lower two to C and F (4 notes below standard tuning.) He then had two .018p strings in the B and E slots, tuned to F. The tension of the Bass Strings is a lot like taking the bottom two strings of a set of .13s, then tuning them up 7 notes to B standard.
And the 66 Mosrite has a thin neck! (1.560" width at the zero fret, and 0.860" thickness/depth from frets 2 - 12 or 13.) So no, I don't think that guitar necks are all "oh so fragile." Sure, you might want to de-tune it between each performance if you were playing like that so the wood can't warp over years, but yes, it does seem silly to me that a guitar neck can't take some "above average" stress. Just don't drop the guitar.
When I break a string on my floyd guitar near the bridge and don't have any extras, or want to save money or don't have time to go to town to get new ones, I cut the string where it snapped and put that into the bridge, I leave a bit of extra string after the tuners for that reason.
I haven’t just cut them off like you do, mostly for no real reason. I’m not scared of destroying the necks of my guitars. But, it does make sense that there won’t be any adverse affects to removing the strings as you do.
I loosen all of my guitar strings at once and cut them all off at once. I do that mainly so it doesn’t snap quickly and hurt the finish of the guitar or me. I don’t keep any of my used guitar strings. I used to determine the guitar if I was shipping one but now the thinking seems to have changed and then it’s better to leave it tuned. The last one that I sold the buyer was happy because when they got to guitar it was almost perfectly in tune.