devellis
Member
Well, the time finally came for restringing the F-512. I decided to take off all the strings and do a bit of maintenance. For openers, I polished the bridge. I never liked the dull bridge, so I took it through the series of grades of Micro-Mesh pads from 3200 to 12000. It now has a soft sheen, which looks much nicer to my eye and it feels silky smooth. I also gave the fingerboard a light coat of lemon oil, mainly to clean it but also to moisturize it a bit. Surprisingly, a fair amount of "brown" came off on the cloth. the wood didn't fade or anything, but there was a noticeable reddish-brown hue on the cloth I put the oil on and cleaned the board with.
The string change was the adventure I expected. It'll be easier next time. First thing I noticed is that the bridge pins wanted to pop out. A little bend in the ball-end of the string fixed that but I've never seen a guitar with such a propensity to spit bridge pins unless the string was crimped down by the ball.
The notched tuning posts with the hole down the center are interesting. One nice thing about them is that unstringing is exceptionally fast. You don't have to unwind the string and pull the end out of the post. just loosen it a bit and pull all the windings straight up and they're off. Okay, got the old ones off in a flash. Shined up the bridge and oiled the fretboard. Now time to put the new strings on.
All went well, pre-cutting the strings and putting a right-angle bend in it about an inch from the tip for the part that goes down the hole. Cutting the string about half way between the next post and the one beyond it seemed about right. I went longer on the first string and have a bit too much excess on the post. Nothing outrageous but more winds (probably about 5) than I prefer (2 or 3).
Then I got to the high G-string. It's way too thin to simply bend and insert. It took me a while to find the best approach and it needed the use of a dental tool. Basically, I bent it as best i could (kind of like bending a hair), tucked the bent tip down the hole and held it there with the dental tool (after failing a few times trying to position and hold it with fingers). The slot was oriented horizontally (perpendicular to the strings). Holding the inserted part with the dental tool, I pulled the string to the right, exiting the outside edge of the slot in the post. I then wound it around the post clockwise, held it down again with the dental tool and ran it through the slot again (from right to left) so that it now was coming out the inside side. Still holding it down with the dental tool, I wound the post a bit. Then I could lose the dental tool and just crank. Whew, it worked.
I did the same on the remaining unwound strings. The dental tool was pretty much a necessity because there is no way to hold the string in place with your fingers without it unwinding, popping out of the hole, and otherwise working against you.
As I said, it'll be much easier next time knowing how to approach it. Sounds great with the fresh strings.
The string change was the adventure I expected. It'll be easier next time. First thing I noticed is that the bridge pins wanted to pop out. A little bend in the ball-end of the string fixed that but I've never seen a guitar with such a propensity to spit bridge pins unless the string was crimped down by the ball.
The notched tuning posts with the hole down the center are interesting. One nice thing about them is that unstringing is exceptionally fast. You don't have to unwind the string and pull the end out of the post. just loosen it a bit and pull all the windings straight up and they're off. Okay, got the old ones off in a flash. Shined up the bridge and oiled the fretboard. Now time to put the new strings on.
All went well, pre-cutting the strings and putting a right-angle bend in it about an inch from the tip for the part that goes down the hole. Cutting the string about half way between the next post and the one beyond it seemed about right. I went longer on the first string and have a bit too much excess on the post. Nothing outrageous but more winds (probably about 5) than I prefer (2 or 3).
Then I got to the high G-string. It's way too thin to simply bend and insert. It took me a while to find the best approach and it needed the use of a dental tool. Basically, I bent it as best i could (kind of like bending a hair), tucked the bent tip down the hole and held it there with the dental tool (after failing a few times trying to position and hold it with fingers). The slot was oriented horizontally (perpendicular to the strings). Holding the inserted part with the dental tool, I pulled the string to the right, exiting the outside edge of the slot in the post. I then wound it around the post clockwise, held it down again with the dental tool and ran it through the slot again (from right to left) so that it now was coming out the inside side. Still holding it down with the dental tool, I wound the post a bit. Then I could lose the dental tool and just crank. Whew, it worked.
I did the same on the remaining unwound strings. The dental tool was pretty much a necessity because there is no way to hold the string in place with your fingers without it unwinding, popping out of the hole, and otherwise working against you.
As I said, it'll be much easier next time knowing how to approach it. Sounds great with the fresh strings.