STRETCHING NEW STRINGS (or not)

[paul_c2]

[quote name='TrevorR' timestamp='1480419038' post='3184172']
Me too. Once at pitch just give them a few little pulls up. If I'm in a cheeky mood I might let them "splang" back down onto the fretboard. It seems to seat them in nicely and help them settle down quicker.

Surely the "detaching the windings from the core and killing the strings thing must be pure bunkum, otherwise every slapper and plucker would have to change their strings after every... well, every song, let alone after every gig. Any set of Mark King's strings get a darned sight more abuse through a single rendition of Lessons in Love than I give my strings during a string change and tuning up session. How does he ever manage to get to the end of a whole gig with strings that have completely died by the end of the intro of the first song?
[/quote]

Indeed. I think some people don't have a sense of the strength of strings, or are being overly cautious about their fragility. Yes, its possible to have a "dud" string and it break internally very early on in its life, also the older the strings get the more likely they are to break, either internally or if its the external winding, clearly visibly!

But bass strings, due to the pitches produced, simply don't come close to being vulnerable in normal day-to-day use and can be abused - severely abused - without snapping, if you so wished. Also it means they can go on and on for 10+ years if you really didn't care about the sound too much.

Its possible to pick up and carry a bass by a string, if you wanted to demonstrate its strength, in fact the bridge screws or nut may fail before the string does.

[bazzbass]

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' timestamp='1480420659' post='3184188']

I don't strech the strings, i just give them a small pull just to make sure they sit in the nut and bridge and play a little and throw in some slaps and pops, retune and is good to go.
[/quote]

Umm yes, you ARE stretching your strings, very gently

[Ghost_Bass]

[quote name='bazztard' timestamp='1480421306' post='3184192']
Umm yes, you ARE stretching your strings, very gently
[/quote]

I'm streching them from the moment they are strung the first time in that case. Everybody playing the first notes also strech the strings as they vibrate and bend to create sound
I believe that the OP is about streching them to remove all the give they might have in the very first moments of aplying them.

[Wayne Firefly]

Fit with around 2 winds around the capstan, quick tug around the 12th fret, drops to slack again, back to pitch, another tug drops it to around a semi tone-ish down, back to pitch, another tug, SHOULD stay reasonably stable. Just something I found that works on tour with no time to waste. They are not on long enough to worry about long term effects anyway !!! I kind of do it to tighten them up on the capstans like tying / tightening a shoelace tight, metaphorically speaking.

[HowieBass]

[quote name='Funky Dunky' timestamp='1480162048' post='3182098']
Yeah, what is meant by 'witness points', and what purpose do they serve? I've never heard that expression before either but if they provide any advantage, I want to start using them.
[/quote]

A witness point in a string is a slight kink where it passes over the saddle or nut, this is supposed to help define the speaking length of the string. I only do it where the strings break over the saddle and it's usually necessary with the thicker strings (the low B on my Curbow 5 really needs it). I believe there's an argument against creating a witness point at the nut because if you down tune then the witness point can create intonation problems.

Edited November 30, 2016 by HowieBass

[blisters on my fingers]

Never got the logic in tuning new strings up in pitch by a tone the night before and then dropping it back down on the afternoon of the gig. Guitarist I played with for years always did this and then had to retune between every song, sometimes stopped playing to retune in mid song. Such fun for the rest of us
Surely if you tune up a tone and leave it there overnight the neck will move, and when you drop back to concert pitch the neck will be moving again, during the whole bleeding gig. Grrrrrrr !!

[GreeneKing]

I, like many, lift my strings an inch or so at the 12th fret after an initial tune up. I can feel the string settle and the tug detunes them significantly. I do this twice and the 2nd time the movement and detune is a lot less.

It's important not to overdo it. I press the strings over the saddles and at the nut too. Never had any issues with breakage, tone or string life.

[pete.young]

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' timestamp='1480420659' post='3184188']
After seeing a few seconds of this video i encounter two problems (IMO).

He's stringing from G to E wich will make it harder to wrap the strings around the post of D A and E because there's a string very close to it - more noticeable in other types of headstock, 3+2, et
[/quote]

In practice this is not an issue. I always usually change mine one at a time and have no problems winding round the post.