G string dies quickly

andreas

I have recently bought my first gypsy guitar, which I am quite happy with. except for one thing. The "wounding/winding" of the G string (the thinnest of the wounded strings) quickly get damaged when I play. It just takes a few hours before the wounding is broken at one of the frets around the fifth fret. and after a little more time, the winding is broken at several frets.

I use the Argentines 11 strings and the guitar is short scale (640mm).

Is this normal (It does not happen with my old acoustic archtop)? Or am I doing something wrong? Do I play too hard? press to hard with my left hand? Or is this a problem with the frets? Are they too sharp? If so, can I fix this somehow?

/Andreas

crookedpinky

You're not doing anything wrong. This is relatively normal - welcome to the world of gypsy strings. For a number of reasons - materials used, style of playing - this happens more, much more, than with normal acoustic strings.

I would recommend buying a bunch of spare G strings otherwise - like me - you end up changing a whole set when only the G string really needs changing.

And, sometimes, you'll find that each batch of strings varies in quality and durability.

Cheers
Alan

Frank Wekenmann

Hi Andreas,

maybe you should check how hard you press on the strings with your left hand. I had a very telling experience when I handed my guitar with relatively old strings with no dents (I have a light touch) to a friend with a heavy touch and after five minutes the strings were toast...

Regards, Frank

djadam

Wouldn't it be wonderful if somebody offered a set of gypsy strings which included an extra G?

BluesBop Harry

djadam wrote:

Wouldn't it be wonderful if somebody offered a set of gypsy strings which included an extra G?

Dell arte John Jorgenson signature do

https://shoppingcart.djangobooks.com/it ... _jorg.html

Caravan GSE

I definitely have trouble with my G string as well.

In all seriousness the G strings on Argie 10s are the the same way. There are 10 packs of single strings here:

https://shoppingcart.djangobooks.com/ca ... ingle.html

Hope this helps

C

BluesBop Harry

One thing I've noticed is that it happens more on some guitars, not sure why.
I used to have that problem on a Gitane, 3rd strings would last only a few days, but when I finally upgraded to a Dupont it stopped happening, the high e and b go before the g which lasts for about 3-4 weeks.

asd123321

The G string with the Cigano was shot at the frets in 2 days so I got a Ernie Ball 20 on there which lasted 6 weeks. It is easier to play and doesn't have the bass thump of the original.

constantine

This is happening to me for the first time on my dell arte hommage. I wonder if it is a fret thing? Also I just started using loop end argies.

What else would it be?

andreas

Thanks for all replies! I now know this is fairly common. I did already order a 10-pack of G-strings and, in combination with trying to play with a slightly lighter touch, this will be my solution for now.

But, as was mentioned in an earlier post, I still suspect that it might be the frets that is part of the problem. They might be too rough on the surface, or the wrong shape, or too high perhaps? I wonder if a good luthier would be able to at least improve it.

/Andreas

pinkgary

I've had this problem a lot more with loop ends than ball ends.

I used to use ball ends & had no problems with the G string, then when i got my Dupont, i thought, yay. i can go for that old school look & get loop ends, which i did, & then this unravelling thing started to happen on the G-string. I went back to using ball ends after about 10-15 sets with the same problem, and they've been fine since.

So can't help solve it, but just buy ball-ends, & the problem goes away by itself!!!

(hopefully, it did for me)