[CharlieBoy]

So I'm just through the beginning phases of learning to play a guitar. Got the main open chords down and what-not, got callouses that could grind down steel... and now, now I have a huge headache that is kicking my rear end.

I tried moving up to some better steel strings (Elixers) for my acoustic guitar (an Aria). Two times in a row now during the stringing/tuning process my G chord has broken, snapped, and made that god-awful pop that I'm beginning to have bad dreams about. I have a tuner that is telling me to go just...a...bit...more....then.. POP/SNAP/SNARL.. followed quickly by a choice bit of profanity on my behalf.

Is there something that I'm not doing here? Is there a process for the strings that I don't know about? Is there anything more than take them out of the package, slip them on the right spot and tune them in? Do I need to give them a little massage and whisper sweet nothings into their little ball ends or what?

Somebody, anybody, please help, offer suggestions...or at least somewhere I can go for a support group, because I don't think my wife can take another sudden out-cry of a random four letter word that sends my dogs hiding under the dining room table.

Thank you,
Charlie

[allthumbs]

Take your guitar into a shop to be checked. It could be a problem with the nut or bridge. Use the online tuner here to check the accuracy of your electronic tuner too. Good luck.

[John Burr]

I would bet that the slot at the nut is binding the string. You could and should take it to a real luthier and get them to check it out, BUT, I would try this first. Get a pencil and loosen the G String enough to slip it out of the slot, open your pocket knife and scrape a bit of graphite into the slot, slip the string back in and tune it up. If it works great, otherwise it's probably a matter of the Elixers being just tiny bit bigger than the old strings and the nut was cut with one gauge smaller than that in mind. 3 or 4 strokes of the right sized nut file would probably fix it. The graphite might actually work though, i use a bit on all my slots each time I change strings and haven't broken a string since I started doing this.

If the string binds in the slot it tends to move a bunch all at once and you get a broken string. Sliding a tiny bit at a time will work way better.

BTW, it sound really horrible to a non guitar player to hear me talking about breaking my G string. Just really creeps folks out for some reason...

BSR

[D-Dawn]

Originally Posted by John Burr

BTW, it sound really horrible to a non guitar player to hear me talking about breaking my G string. Just really creeps folks out for some reason...

BSR

[CharlieBoy]

Well I'll have to wait unti the store opens up tomorrow, and after that pesky thing called "work," but I'll give it a shot tomorrow and see. Thank you for the advice John, and uh.. thanks for sharing about your G-String as well... though, I think you may be looking for www.strippingforbeginners.com not quite guitarforbeginners.

[scotty_b]

Well I'll have to wait unti the store opens up tomorrow, and after that pesky thing called "work," but I'll give it a shot tomorrow and see. Thank you for the advice John, and uh.. thanks for sharing about your G-String as well... though, I think you may be looking for www.strippingforbeginners.com not quite guitarforbeginners

Awww damn the link didn't work!

[John Burr]

Sorry about that guys, TMV, (too much visual), I guess. When I brought it up at breakfast a few months ago, "that I broke two G strings last night", my helper actually spit coffee out his nose. I was talking about the guitar string of course but the idea of it pretty much hit him as funny too.

The pencil graphite really does help though, give it a try as it's a cheap way to go. In a pinch a set of Welding Torch Tip Files can be just the ticket for widening the occasional nut slot. Be careful though as you DON'T want make it deeper, just a tiny bit wider. Might want to check out www.frets.com as I think Frank Ford has one of the very best diagnostic discussionas on the ineternet. The picturesw are really great and he writes clearly too.

BSR

[krissovo]

My Low E was doing the same until I realised that with my string winder I was doing it to tight to start with and trying to go up to the next one.....DOH!

[Andy S]

Originally Posted by krissovo

My Low E was doing the same until I realised that with my string winder I was doing it to tight to start with and trying to go up to the next one.....DOH!

Hey Charlieboy, As Krissovo pointed out, it may be that you are already past the setting you need to be on. I have seen a few folks where, as they were winding the strings, even manually, they slipped right past the fquency the tuner was looking for and then continued on until, SNAP! BOING!

You may want to start winding then check it against the next string you already tuned up. If you are going form 6th (heavy E) up to 1st (skinny E) then you could fret the D string at the 5th fret. That would give you your target tone. If it was already too high, then you know you went too far. (I hope I said that right!?)

Another thing that could help is where is it breaking? at the bridge? Or, at the nut? That could make a diff too.

because I don't think my wife can take another sudden out-cry of a random four letter word that sends my dogs hiding under the dining room table.

Yeh, and the cost of Elixers compared to the others, that can start putting a pinch on the purse strings, too!

My bet is on the issue of being past the tone you need to be.

Hope it helps!