After much playing, my
Ibanez RGA121 gets a restring. The numbered items are:
- Beemis Wood Conditioner
- GHS strings, .009 set
- Vaseline
I insist on removing all strings each & every time I restring my instruments. The nut slots get lubricated first. As you can see, I snipped a little bit off the the fresh set of strings to use as vaseline applicator.
The advantage of string absence is of course, easy access to the fretboard. It's not dirty so no cleaning was done, however, some parts of the fretboard was reconditioned. How often do we re-moisturize/ re-condition our fretboards? We do this as & when we see dryness, regardless of how many times it should be done. In other parts of the world, because the climate there isn't as humid as it is here, people would caution you against doing this too often (twice a year is enough, they say...) as it might soften the fretboard wood & weaken your neck. Well, this isn't the case here, so now you know. Let the moisturizing fluid settle for some time (say 10min or so) & wipe off the excess.
The headstock also got a cleaning treatment, a little dusting off & subsequent wipe down with regular guitar polishing fluid.
Next, the strings come on & the guitar tuned. I make it a point to stretch my strings & re-tune them as many times as it takes. Once the strings do not go out of tune, that's when I stop. This is especially necessary for guitars with a dual-action whammy bridge, we always complain our guitars go out of tune after each whammy action but that's because no stretching was done when the strings are fresh- they aren't 'acclimatized' to their tensioned selves, so to speak.
Before this guitar gets played further/ kept, I give the strings a protective coating. In this case, it's DR's String Life, liquid polymer fluid.
What does it do? It's an overcoat which serves to prolong freshness. Do note it does
NOT prevent deterioration, it merely delays it.
I slip an unused string envelope between the strings & the fretboard so that the coating fluid do not come into contact with the fretboard & causes drying. Leave the finished process be for about 5min or so & the guitar is ready for play/ storage. This is the end of my re-stringing procedure, it's usually followed by a chocolate break.
5 comments:
wow. so much work. nice. but just a question, no offence, i've heard that its never good to remove all strings on a guitar tgt, but rather change the strings one by one to prevent the body to be suddenly released of the tension and stuff? Just curious.
another good article... except for the vaseline part which was new to me, points taken
vaseline- it's convenience (but suitable), you can use other equivalents such as graphite (from your pencil lead) & commercial nut lubricants sold in guitar stores, among others.
if your guitar employs standard tuning with the factory default string gauge (eg: Ibanez = .009 set), removing all strings simultaneously should not be a concern. it's when you use thicker string gauges, the increased tension (in standard tuning) would cause a drastic change upon the string's absence, that's when it's a no. in any case, the truss rod is there to address this but many of us is averse to what it's for.
it's the neck which is the issue, no the body :-)
the change in string tension isn't as marked with guitars necks, as opposed to bass necks due to its length & string tension.
I see. thanks =) i'm learning the classical guitar and was advised that way. thanks.
Will take time to read through your articles. loads of stuff to learn for a newbie into e-guitars
it's a different matter with acoustic/ hollow bodies as the bodies which anchor the strings, is a mere wood layer compared to the solid body's block of wood.
hope the stuff here would help :-)
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