Twisting new bass strings

[Terry Beckingham]

For John Woodrow:

John,

It had always been my understanding that bass strings should have one full
twist when installed. That is the way I re-installed the set on which I had
the problem. (They were not new strings) Unfortunately one full twist caused
a buzz in many of them. A colleague of mine suggested that bass strings do
not necessarily require a full twist. Perhaps only a half twist, or even no
twist was required. I decided to try no twist at all and it worked. If the
windings are tight to the core, there should be no buzzing even without a
twist. As a general rule, I put one full twist when installing bass strings.
I don't know why the twist caused a buzz in that particular set.

Regards

Terry Beckingham


At 12:31 PM 6/19/98 +1000, you wrote:
>List,
>Just finished reading Ray Hopland's and Terry Beckingham's articles on Bass
Strings on page 10 and 12 of the April Journal.  The thrust of both of these
articles is that there is no need to put any twist at the hitch pin when
installing new bass strings.  In fact twisting a new string proved
detrimental in the case of Terry's article.
>
>As the string maker that I get my bass strings from always includes a
little note indicating to give the strings a twist when installing, I am
interested in the list's opinion on this matter. 
>
>Regards,
>John Woodrow
>Sydney, Australia
>
>Email:	John.Woodrow@aus.dupont.com
>
>
>