Slight frustration when changing mandolin strings
I like changing my mandolin strings, for the most part, but there's one irritation (other than the occasional finger poke with a sharp string end) that I need to figure out, and I suspect there's an easy answer.
As is commonly recommended, I change one course at a time, starting with the G course. The outer courses are easy, but when I'm changing the D or A course, I have trouble getting hold of the end of the new string when I push it through the hole in the cast tailpiece. The adjacent strings are too close together for me to poke my fingers down to grab the string. If I push the string outside the outer courses, then I still have to get the D or A string back under the other strings and over the bridge.
On rare occasions, the string just goes the right direction, between the other strings and over the bridge, but most of the time I end up using my wire cutters to gingerly fish the string up (and even that is a tight fit - I probably need to get some needle nose pliers, at least for the fishing part). I told my wife this week that I needed some wooden tweezers so that I wouldn't be as likely to ding my mandolin finish.
SO, what is the great, easy solution that I'm too dense to figure out! (Lol, I've even thought about springing for the $149 James tailpiece just because of this frustration. My searches for an upgrade mandolin score high points for any potential mandolin that has the James tailpiece.)
Doug Brock
2018 Kimble 2 point (#259), Eastman MD315, Eastman MDA315, some guitars, banjos, and fiddles
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