Improve your "setup"
Quick Tricks
© Frank Ford, 1998; Photos by FF

Richard Hoover of Santa Cruz Guitar Company learned this little trick from an old piano technician.

To maintain brilliance on bass strings, he tightens the windings before tuning up.

When a string is tuned the core is stretched and the windings may loosen just a trifle. Here's how Richard avoids that problem:


He installs the string normally, locking it on the tuner post in the usual way, but he doesn't tune it all the way to pitch. Then he loosens the string just enough to release it at the bridge. With the string back out of the bridge, he simply twists it a couple of turns to tighten the windings:


Then, holding the string from untwisting, he slips it back into the bridge and tunes up. "This little trick takes a bit of practice but it's a quick and easy way to improve brilliance on the bass," says Richard.