I did something really stupid with my strings

[glauber]

I got a new mandolin (an used Ovation). It needed a good cleaning and had ugly strings in it, so i removed all strings, wiped and polished the finish, then installed new TI strings... backwards! Meaning, instead of winding in the inside, i wound the strings on the OUTSIDE of the pegs. DOH!!! I'm trying to decide if i undo them and redo the right way of if i leave them this way. I'll probably leave them, because if they break i don't have replacements. I have to be careful with the outermost G string when i tune it, or it pops off the nut, but the others are staying ok. I don't think i'm doing any damage, am i?

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[glauber]

The mandolin answered my question, as when i was trying to play, three strings (G, G and D) jumped the nut at the same time!

So it's restrung now, the right way. So far the TIs are holding. Good thing i had left more winding than i normally do...

Merry Christmas everyone!

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[mandroid]

Glad it sorted OK, the other backwards,a cheap mando passed thru my hands to a friend , guitar and bass guitar player promptly restrung it lefthanded, so 4th were as usual , even if they were going down pitch as they went across the fretboard instead of up.
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[futrconslr]

Good thing you restrung them. You can also strip the tuning machines out by doing that.

[Lee]

Y'know; I wouldn't have even admitted doing that.

[jim_n_virginia]

Hey I've been changing stings for 25 years and the other day I had just finished changing strings on my guitar and I noticed that I wound the G string the wrong way! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

I said ..."DOHHH!"

I unwound it and put it on right and it promptly broke!

Dang Stringwinders! LOL! In the old days before they had those things it took you 5 minutes to wind up a string and you probably wouldn't make a mistake like that!

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[glauber]

Yup, i blame the stringwinder... One of my TIs broke. Dang! I waited 2 days to trim the excess wire, knowing that i had already stressed them by doing the rewind. Everything seemed to be holding ok, but as soon as i trimmed the excess, one of my As gives up... and now i don't have enough string left to retie it.

Well, call it a $24 lesson on how not to be stupid when restringing a mandolin. Could have been much worse.

[Lee]

OK, so maybe it was a little too late on Friday to be re-stringing, but I was curious to put the bone nut back on. So I removed all the strings and bridge, polished up everything and used a little fingerboard oil. Then I installed the outside G and E strings; lefty style. Argh! Me bad

[Michael H Geimer]

I really dislike changing strings.

I have a guitar with a slotted headstock that I've restrung twice this weekend. The thing about the slotted variety is that there is an odd techique for looping and winding the strings around the post. Some people have no trouble at all stringing these up, but I always get 'dyslexic' about it and seem to always start the first string off in the wrong direction (not pitch-wise, but I get the left-to-right windings wrong).

So then ... I get these new strings on (Silk-n-Steel) and the tension is too low for my set-up and the whole box just buzzes everywhere. Useless.

So, last night - using an extra set to make up for the inevitable breakages - I moved the Silk-n-Steels onto my parlor guitar, and put DRs on the slotted headstock.

Three re-winds due to 'operator error'. Two pin-pricks. Two broken strings.

Did I mention I really dislike changing strings?