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This came up on another forum - how long does a typical restring take you, and fast can you do a restring if you sprint. I've never times myself before, as there are often many other things (polishing the frets, oil the board, clean and polish finish, check tuner bushings, etc) that come between taking old strings off and putting new ones on.

I thought "what the heck" though, and went in last night to give it a shot. This was one take, no rehearsal or editing, and a bit sloppy at points (those dang Godin acoustics always bury the pin heads beneath the bridge surface), but I came in around 3 minutes to new strings on and trimmed, with a bit under a minute more to stretch and tune (or tune close enough at least).



Here's the video that was cited as the one to beat, clocking in at 2:08.



Of course his strings were unpackaged, he didn't stretch and retune for actual playability, and he was obviously sprinting with a bit more determined speed than I was last night. I think though, if I had everything layed out ready, pushed a bit faster, and stopped at the first rough tuning pass, I might be able to at least match that goal.

Sounds like a restring challenge could be a fun event for a symposium one of these days, though I imagine it would likely be won by a road tech.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

That's pretty darn quick. I usually take about 15 minutes to change em, stretch em and tune em. I'd be afraid if I tried to do it really fast I might drop the drill on the top or something.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

We should get some shirts like that with our names on them.....

This is when you don't exactly appreciate Gotoh 21:1 tuners.......

That was fun to watch

Interesting seeing other repair people's restring methods. I'd be too concerned about scratching the headstock to remove old strings and tighten new ones as shown. I'm also fairly obsessive about keeping bridge pins in their proper order. On many of the instruments we work on, especially with unslotted pins, they have specific holes and strings they're fit to.


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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com

Agreed on several points, and I wouldn't want to portray this sprint challenge as reflective of normal standard procedures in our shop. For most factory guitars like this pin order is largely irrelevant, but like yourself I do keep them ordered when they are solid or custom turned pins.

As to the risk of scratching the headstock, there's actually a little slight of hand trick I employ to prevent that which you can't see (and honestly I didn't follow as carefully as usual) in this video. I keep meaning to do a series of restring videos where I can show these little details up close. Pretty much same methods as I used here, but with some careful little details of pressure, angle, and finger position, I can do this pretty much just as efficiently with zero risk of a string ever scratching a peghead (never made a single scratch in the tens of thousands of guitars I've restrung).

One of these days I'll get around to putting this in to a video.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

That was fun. I'd like to see a close up of your left hand. There's some technique going on there.

And what's the name of that diddy you played at the end. Mark Knoffler or Chet thingy I think. Got to learn me that one.

Thanks, David. I have no doubt your technique is supremely dialed-in. I tend to use the back of my index finger as a ramp for the loose ends as they swing around. That bends the string upward so it's not whipping around, but rather spinning around a tighter vertical axis.


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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com

Ken we do that too and there is often technique to feed the string trees or retainers, whatever is present. I always feel like a member of a pit crew busting strings off an ax with my trusty drill.

Dave tunes with his drill too.....

Here's a tip for folks as to how to get your repair person to hate your guts.... Leave about 1/4" or more of the string where we cut it off sticking straight up so that when anyone evaluating the instrument places the palm of their hand on the headstock they get stuck....

Do this a few times too many to the same Luthier and you may find a rather revolting smell coming from your sound hole when you pick up your instrument..... Who knew that those fancy rosettes make great targets....

Thanks Ken - that's about the same as I do (usually, though missed a few in the mad rush against the timer here). Just positioning my thumb by the post so that on the first turn it bends the string upward, and when I initially insert it I usually make sure I'm aiming from below the hole so it arcs upward and over the face of the headstock on the way out.

Danny - that's a bit from "I'll See You In My Dreams", an old standard by Isham Jones (a Michigan boy). Chet and Mark's version was the first one I remember hearing when I was younger, but my favorite by far was Joe Brown's performance in the Concert for George.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Of course here's another version I don't ever hope to be able to mimic.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Ah, I remember having to move that fast. I'm so glad I'm not in an environment like that anymore.

Never see that one and it darn near brought a tear to my eye. Thanks. I have my lazy Sunday cut out for me as soon as I find a dumbed down youtube version.

I use this method -- there are a few surprises, but it does work well.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

The fastest and easiest way for me to bring the guitar to final tune is to have a second guitar already tuned right next to the one being tuned. Then just go down the line of strings tuning each one to match the corresponding string on the reference guitar. I usually only have to pluck the reference string once to get close.
Dave