Pulling Strings After Tuning Down

[rfrizz]

I'm pretty sure this video has been posted here before. (Like a bagillion times.)

My question is, why does Joe pull/stretch the strings after he tunes them down before tuning back up to pitch? Also, who thinks this is a good or bad practice?

My guess is that he does it to pull slack off of the portion of the string wrapped around the capstan. Before anyone says it, I know that strings should be tuned up to pitch, and not down to pitch.


Joe Walsh Pulling Strings

 

[ARandall]

The reason is that strings should be tuned up to pitch.
So when tuning down there is a chance you have a holdup in the nut/tuner length and that portion is at a different tension.

 

[rfrizz]

My guess is that he does it to pull slack off of the portion of the string wrapped around the capstan. Before anyone says it, I know that strings should be tuned up to pitch, and not down to pitch.


Joe Walsh Pulling Strings
View attachment 556951

The reason is that strings should be tuned up to pitch.
So when tuning down there is a chance you have a holdup in the nut/tuner length and that portion is at a different tension.

*sigh*

 

[ARandall]

Sigh yourself

Learn something for a change rather than trying to dismiss things

 

[rfrizz]

Sigh yourself

Learn something for a change rather than trying to dismiss things

My post said, "Before anyone says it, I know that strings should be tuned up to pitch" and your reply said, "strings should be tuned up to pitch" which is, word-for-word, what I said I already know.

Read the whole post before replying rather than saying what was already in the post.

 

[ARandall]

Try reading what I wrote in its entirety before trying to dismiss a post based on a sentence - which is in fact setting up the rest of the explanation. Its really frustrating that people continue to do this and don't apply the brainpower to the whole rather than the typical I-have-a-short-attention-span-I-can't-be-bothered-to-comprehend-more-than-1-sentence-at-a-time.

 

[LPMarshall Hack]

I love the internet

 

[Joe A]

Read the whole post before replying rather than saying what was already in the post.

He was trying to help you. The first part of the post was context for the answer. He took extra time to do that for you.

Snapping at people at like that on the internet or real life can get you in a position without help when you really need it one day.


*sigh*. j/k.

 

[rfrizz]

Try reading what I wrote in its entirety before trying to dismiss a post based on a sentence - which is in fact setting up the rest of the explanation. Its really frustrating that people continue to do this and don't apply the brainpower to the whole rather than the typical I-have-a-short-attention-span-I-can't-be-bothered-to-comprehend-more-than-1-sentence-at-a-time.

Hmm... If you'd read my post "in its entirety" then you would have seen that I understand the concept of imbalance between the segments of the string, and you also would not have said anything about needing to tune up to pitch.

You didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, and you didn't answer the question.

 

[rfrizz]

He was trying to help you. The first part of the post was context for the answer. He took extra time to do that for you.

Snapping at people at like that on the internet or real life can get you in a position without help when you really need it one day.


*sigh*. j/k.

Maybe he was trying to be helpful, but he didn't read -- or comprehend -- my whole post, particularly the last line. It was that or just trolling.

 

[strayedstrater]

When strings are sharp, I drop them down quite a bit, then tune them up to pitch, then pull on them. Sometimes they go a little flat and I tune them up again, sometimes they don't.

Joe's way might be a little more efficient and I'll give it a try.

But yes, when you drop a string down and then bring it up again, sometimes the wraps around the post get a little slack in them.

 

[rfrizz]

When strings are sharp, I drop them down quite a bit, then tune them up to pitch, then pull on them. Sometimes they go a little flat and I tune them up again, sometimes they don't.

Joe's way might be a little more efficient and I'll give it a try.

But yes, when you drop a string down and then bring it up again, sometimes the wraps around the post get a little slack in them.

Thanks. Have you seen other players do this, or did you come up with it on your own?

 

[strayedstrater]

Thanks. Have you seen other players do this, or did you come up with it on your own?

I've been doing it since the '70s.

Stretching new strings after installing them, stretching them after tuning, giving a Strat trem a quick yank up after dive-bombing -- back then we had to figure all that stuff out on our own.

 

[rfrizz]

I've been doing it since the '70s.

Stretching new strings after installing them, stretching them after tuning, giving a Strat trem a quick yank up after dive-bombing -- back then we had to figure all that stuff out on our own.

True! Even when I started playing in the mid-80s, we didn't have web sites like we do now. Figure it out or pick up tips from other players or teachers was it. I do remember back then there was a great rock/blues guitar teacher.

I was in classical guitar in high school, so I didn't have much time for electric, which was a Hondo II LP copy. And then a '69 Gibson Flying V w/case, which I bought for $350! It was central to getting my V-card puched, and after the breakup, I got rid of it.

 

[Six6String6]

I have to side with op’s frustration. Forums are great. So much helpful info, but….it is frustrating to read through a thread which can be a zillion pages long and find half of it is the same response over and over because people don’t read the first question properly.
Pay attention people.

 

[SackvilleDan]

I think I learned it from Dimebag Darrell is his column in GW in the 90s/00s... basically you're making sure that if the nut or the string on the tuner is binding at all, when you stretch the string you're pulling that back through the nut and then when you tune up, it works. If you tune down and then back up without stretching, when you tune up the tuner may pull on that excess between the nut and the tuner and the body of the string, and then if the string slips / releases while playing, it'll end up pulling sharp.

 

[amgomez]

When you tune down, there’s still a bit of binding at the nut or bridge, or both/slack. So, you stretch them so you don’t go flat when you start playing. I do the same thing. I tune down sometimes. I hate it when I tune down and o go flat. It creates slack. I sincerely believe it’s a good practice.

 

[jk60LPTH]

True! Even when I started playing in the mid-80s, we didn't have web sites like we do now. Figure it out or pick up tips from other players or teachers was it. I do remember back then there was a great rock/blues guitar teacher.

I was in classical guitar in high school, so I didn't have much time for electric, which was a Hondo II LP copy. And then a '69 Gibson Flying V w/case, which I bought for $350! It was central to getting my V-card puched, and after the breakup, I got rid of it.

I'm actually shocked that it's taken you 35 years since you first started playing before you asked this question, and honestly even more shocked that you are uncertain enough about your 'guessed' answer that you felt you needed to post here about it, or that you're watching Joe Walsh's youtube about how to tune your guitar properly.... and I'm not trying to be mean when I say that, it's just that after playing that long and asking that question now, just 'doesn't compute' for me. I knew it wasn't April 1, so it couldn't be that, but, after 35 years? It's like being married and after 2 kids, asking your wife where the babies are coming from!!! Just to put it in perspective, I think it's fair to say that most of the people here either figured this out or otherwise found this out within the first days to weeks of getting our first guitar... I know I did.

The only thing I could say that's stupid about your question is that you waited so long before you asked it, but then I don't know you, and there might have been extenuating circumstances... for all I know, might have been in a coma, or shipwrecked on an undiscovered island. The important thing is that you've found a good, friendly source of knowledge about everything Les Paul-related.

PS... I started as a classical guitar student in the late 70's, put myself through college playing rock, blues, motown in clubs at night and going to classes days.

 

[zdoggie]

I thought he was pre-stretching the string I've seen others do it .

zdog

 

[jk60LPTH]

Since I do that when I tune up a new set of strings, and every time I check the tuning before I play, I don't do that separately. YMMV. FYI, if you haven't already figured it out, the nut is a common place for strings to bind, partly because of the string break angle from the nut to the tuning machine. That's why you see pencil marks in the grooves of the nut, because graphite is a good lubricant and helps the strings slide a little more easily through the nut slots... you still need to pull the strings when tuning though, as best practice, and, the graphite or whatever lubricant you use (if you use lube) doesn't last forever.