Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tom T on January 31, 2016 at 1:38pm

Darryl,

I'll try to inspect the holes closely to see if I see anything suspicious.

Thanks

Tom t

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on January 31, 2016 at 2:20pm

They look ok in the pics Tom,but maybe roll up a bit of emery/sand paper and give them a light rub,good luck

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Permalink Reply by Kigar on January 31, 2016 at 2:25pm

Maybe as you said, it was a batch of tuners with holes at bit sharper than normal.  I would suggest lightly breaking the edge of the hole in the tuner, you would have nothing to loose and maybe the edge is sharper than it looks.

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on February 1, 2016 at 12:49am

Worth a try Kigar.

Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Nathan Binns on January 31, 2016 at 3:27pm

I'm not trying to sound facetious here, but how hard do you play? I had a band mate many moons ago when I played heavy music that would bust strings every jam session. The dude was very...passionate when he played and really tore into his guitar when the song got going. The solution here was twofold: first was a thinner pick; second was some self control. It was a blast jamming with him though.

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on February 1, 2016 at 12:48am

I won't show your posting to my wife (Slap! Bad Wayfinder).

I'll try smoothing the tuner, but I'm starting to lean toward the "bad string" idea. I bought a couple of packs of Ernie Ball "Earthwood" Phosphor bronze medium. I have never used these before, so maybe it's the strings.

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on February 1, 2016 at 12:42am

Well, Nathan. I only play at home, with the wife around. So that settles the picking too aggressively question. I do use a soft pick. And, I don't have a problem with any of the other four guitars I play regularly. Still, it was a good question.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on February 1, 2016 at 1:40am

Tom,

I see small notches in the front edge of the hole bevel on both pics. Some emery paper will take those out. One other thing to look for, is where, precisely, the strings broke. Another thing unmentioned is your scale length. You say your high E is 0.013" - that's a big string, man. Biggest I put on my Strat is a 0.012, and it's a beeyotch to bend...and that's with all five springs on the trem block to keep the thang tuned with the proper tension. Try using a high E at 0.010; you might have too high a string tension for such large diameter strings for your particular scale length.

That said, I once spent a coupla years playing different sets and makes of light and medium phosphor bronze strings, including silk and steel. For my money, the D'Addarios have never failed me - until I went to Elixirs. I now use Elixirs exclusively on all my commercial acoustic and electric gits, and on a couple of my CBGs. Yes, they are expensive. They also last five times as long as the D'Addarios. Bit steep to put on a CBG, but hey...

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on February 1, 2016 at 1:56am

Thanks, Ron.

The guitar in question is an acoustic resonator. Normally the strings on resos are a bit heavy to drive the cone. Most resonator sets I've seen use a 0.016 or larger for the high E. That's a bit much even for me. An you are right, there is not a lot of bending.

Scale is 25", which is common for a resonator.

Once I get this sorted out, I'll try a set of Elixirs.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on February 1, 2016 at 3:08am

One trick you can try is to take the smallest heat shrink tubing you can find, slide a piece onto the string, and make sure it fits right between the string and the string hole on the front edge. Way cheaper than a set of Elixirs, but essentially the same idea.

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on February 1, 2016 at 5:47am

Oily, great minds thing alike (or similarly).

I pulled the tuners off and decided to go just shy of the "nuclear" solution.

I used a tapered diamond bur to shape the holes with a good champfer,  then hit them with some wet/dry #400 sandpaper. Then I took some black oil based model's paint and repainted the posts making sure to get a good coat in the hole. While that was drying, I had a flash: Why not drop a piece of shrink tubing over the post, shrink it tight, then punch a hole through?

I had about 2" of the correct tubing in my electrical drawer, so I cut it very carefully into six pieces, shrunk it onto the post then used a scribe to punch a hole.

The strings are back on and tuned to standard tuning. It will be a while before I know if my countermeasure worked. If it does, I will know that it was the tuner holes, but unfortunately, will not be able to tell you which procedure was the key to success. I don't like working that way, but I dislike throwing away almost new strings even more.

I'll update this post when and if I pop a string right at the post.

Thanks to all for the input. This forum is definitely the best source for builder information.

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Permalink Reply by Sean on February 2, 2016 at 4:14pm

Dremel "cloth pointy buffer" head works well for tuners too. Diamond grit is near nuclear with black finish... LOL

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