Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mike Bingham on August 20, 2010 at 10:55am

Hey J-Hob I've had good luck drilling a hole in the center of a coin, screwing it to the headstock before the nut and passing the strings under it. You might also be able to glue a thin piece of wood to the back of the headstock to use up some of the excess shaft length.

Permalink Reply by Shawn on August 20, 2010 at 10:57am

Build up the back side of the headstock with wood would be one opt. Or put a string retainer bar on the front of the headstock could fix it as well.

Permalink Reply by J-Hob on August 20, 2010 at 10:57am

Cheers Mike, I like the coin idea!

I also realised another option is for me to get longer strings (something I need to do anyway) and put more turns around the posts. Will probably try that first and then go for the coin idea if that fails.

Permalink Reply by J-Hob on August 20, 2010 at 11:01am

string retainer bar, that's what I was trying to describe! Trying to think of what materials I could use for that, Like Mike's coin idea.

Building up the back of the headstock is out for me as the guitar is finished, save for these teething problems - wood is oiled and corners rounded - I think it would look odd if I stuck another bit of wood on there now. Will definitely think about doing that in future builds though.

Permalink Reply by Naz Nomad on August 20, 2010 at 11:30am

Steel bar ... nice smooth surface for the strings to rub against, works perfectly.

Brass plate ... sharper edges, so a small piece of wire-insulation was slid over the 2 thinner strings as a precaution against snapping.

Permalink Reply by MadGomer on August 20, 2010 at 1:45pm

I used a scarf joint but still was concerned about the break angle too because of the length of my tuner pegs. I put a bunch of turns around the post, as you're saying, and it worked out just fine. Need to plan ahead just a little bit so you don't end up with too many turns before you get the right tension in the wire (or you have to unwind it all & start again, as I did). For every turn of the peg you'll use about 3.2X the peg diameter in string length, so that should give you a rough idea how much slack to start with.

J-Hob said:

Cheers Mike, I like the coin idea!

I also realised another option is for me to get longer strings (something I need to do anyway) and put more turns around the posts. Will probably try that first and then go for the coin idea if that fails.

Permalink Reply by Wichita Sam on August 20, 2010 at 2:19pm

I see another choice..... FREE.... from the pics, it looks like you probably have enough drop between the headstock and the nut, so.... just wind enough string from the top of the tuner post DOWN until you are tensioning the string closer to the headstock (below the nut) level.....

hope this helps,

Wichita Sam

Permalink Reply by Mike Ptolomey on August 21, 2010 at 11:55pm

Just a suggestion, how about a metal plate the size of the headstock fitted to the rear of it, acting as a spacer? You could use stainless and do some decorative engraving on it to dress it up.

Permalink Reply by J-Hob on August 22, 2010 at 12:09am

Getting some longer strings and putting more winds on the tuners work, thanks everyone for the advice!

Permalink Reply by GI Junker on August 23, 2010 at 9:11pm

great job