Tightening coils on sloppy restringing

[Tom Cole]

Brian Trout wrote:
> 
...The thinking behind what I've
> been doing is to let the becket  (the end of the wire that is) stick out of
> the hole aprox. 1/2 the diameter of the wire, not to exceed the diameter of
> the wire.   What that leaves me with is a wire end that acts as a kind of
> stop for the coil and when it's lifted it keeps the coil from coming up too
> far.


Brian, I used to do the same thing. It made sense to me, not having been
formally trained, to leave the becket a little "proud" of the tuning pin
to use as a backstop for when I lifted the coils. However, I did notice
that most factory stringers didn't do this and it finally dawned on me
that my little time-saving piece of wire was disturbing the natural lay
of the helix.

If you look closely at a coil, the top turn normally covers half of the
hole, going around the back side, and if the becket protrudes, it causes
the coil to tilt. Not a problem for tuning or stability, probably, and
there _are_ instances where you _do_ want to tilt the coil (where the
string goes up sharply to the first bearing point) to ward off a
tendency to overwrap.

I eventually came to the conclusion that, ever striving to do "the best
job possible", the coil should be in a relaxed position. It appeals to
me aesthetically and I think that there is no question of tuning
stability with this kind of approach.


You also asked about a measuring guage. I'm sure Jon has a
well-thought-out solution but, FWIW, I take a couple of turns of one end
of a copper electrical wire around the handle of my wire cutters. I run
the other end up toward the cutting jaws, securing it with duct tape,
and bend it away at a 90-degree angle, ending 3" away from the jaws. The
results are very consistent, 3-turn coils.

Tom

-- 
Thomas A. Cole, RPT
Santa Cruz, CA
mailto:tcole@cruzio.com