Source
r/Guitar•
lpcustom

String stretching a myth?

Most people will say that string stretching is important when restringing a guitar. I would agree when it comes to any guitar with an angled headstock, because I don't think that "stretching" is actually stretching the strings. Strings may stretch naturally when you add tension to them, but I don't think physically stretching the strings requires tugging on them quite a few times.

I've argued this before, but as someone who's owned a lot of guitars and changed strings thousands of times, I can say that when I've used a good locking nut/floyd rose system, I've never had to stretch the strings. If I'm restringing with the same gauge, and I'm changing one string at a time, I will be able to use the floyd rose directly after the string change and the guitar will stay in tune.

If I'm restringing a non-locking nut, I have to "stretch" the strings, but I think this is actually just equalizing the tension across the nut more than anything. It's essential to do this to keep this type of guitar in tune. I don't think it's actually stretching the string though, and that's the point I'd like to discuss.

What are your experiences with string stretching? Do you think that stretching is actually stretching the string? Do we have some experiments that show this is occurring?

Posted Jul 3, 2014, 2:19 PM UTC

316
Soul_RageIbanez/Tesla•

Physicist here! I'll try to clear up a few potential misunderstandings that seem to pop up every now and then in this sort of thread.

Yes, the strings do physically stretch. No, there is not some clever nuance or detail to that statement, they literally stretch out. It's actually a physical certainty; any string put under tension will stretch, at least a little bit. (See Hooke's Law, extension is proportional to the force applied) Now, how much do guitar strings stretch? Not that much, but, it's enough. The tension we put strings under is enough to come close to, if not exceed their elastic limit, which is the point at which the string will undergo permanent deformation, meaning it won't return to its original shape when the tension is removed. During play, the extra tension of the strings being pulled about will add to this.

As u/OldFrets has mentioned, there are also things like slack and slippage, where the string can take some time to find its optimum place to settle at every point in the system. This can account for quite a bit of the tension loss people tend to notice with new strings.

What does this mean, in practical terms? Well, it means that the string can take some time, or alternately, some persuading, before it will reach a stable state. A brand new string probably hasn't been put under any tension at all, so when you first put it on your guitar and add 50-100N or so, it's going to stretch a bit. After a bit of playing, it might stretch out just a bit more. After fitting new strings, it might take a day or two for them to settle in, and you will typically notice they will lose a bit of tension, thus requiring you to re-tune a little bit.

14
spewtoonstringed instruments•

a guitar playing physicist? crap, you just outcooled me big time...

3
powercorruptionFender Jaguar, Telecaster, Deluxe Reverb RI•

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_May

3
spewtoonstringed instruments•

well obviously Brian May is cooler than me

2
El_Q-Cumber•

I think he's getting at the fact that Brian May is an astrophysicist (PhD).

0
OldFretswww.OldFrets.com•

Two things happen when you stretch your strings. One, you take up any extra slack that results from friction between the string and the nut/bridge/tuner/tailpiece, making sure that slippage occurs now and not in the middle of a song. This is where most of the real benefit from stretching lies.

Two, you do actually stretch the strings. It's only by a fraction of a millimeter, but it does happen. You're actually work-hardening the strings by working out defects at the molecular level, and these defects are worked out by actually lengthening the wire. They also affect the tensile properties of the wire, which is one reason why strings often take a little while to achieve good tuning stability.

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lpcustomOP•

I agree with you on your first point, but do you have any source to back up your molecular level defects point? Because like I said in the original post, stringing a locking nut system plenty of times has led me to believe that this point is false.

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OldFretswww.OldFrets.com•

It's been so long since I studied this that I'm not too familiar with sources anymore. This is the textbook I'm familiar with, but it's covered in any intro mineralogy or metallurgy text.

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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Mark_McQ•

You stretch the strings to take up the mechanical slack around the tuning post. When you have windings around the post, you want them to be as tight as possible. It's has less to do with stretching the string along it's length.

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sidious911•

I always string up, tune each string a 1/2 step over standard, then I thoroughly stretch each string up and down, even with locking tuners. It will cause the strings to drop to standard if not slightly flat, so it clearly does make a difference.

I've found that if I do this, my guitar is pretty reliable in tuning from that point on. I have found that if I do not stretch strings, the first little bit of playing with tend to throw the guitar out of tune.

2
cyancynic•

I don’t know or care why it works.

It works.

Upon restringing a guitar I tune it up. Wail on it for a couple minutes - boom its out of tune.

Repeat the experiment. Restring the guitar, do a nice bit of string tugging as I tune it up. Wail on it - it stays in tune.

What more do you need to know?

It works.

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leftyguitarjoeCorrectHanded•

I yank on the strings when I change them. I think what it does is tighten up the wraps around the tuner.

1
THCInjection•

I have a tendency to yank too hard, I've broken a string or two in the past.

I usually bend all the strings up 1 1/2 steps then retune and do it over again. It's essentially the same as tugging, with less risk of breaking the string.

So I guess yeah it's been needed for every guitar I've ever owned.

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Franetic•

The reason you don't have to stretch the strings when using a Floyd the way you do when using other types of bridges is because the tension of the Floyd is stretching them for you as you tune up to pitch.

New strings definitely need to be stretched out a bit, the Floyd just does it for you.

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Soul_RageIbanez/Tesla•

The reason you don't have to stretch the strings when using a Floyd the way you do when using other types of bridges is because the tension of the Floyd is stretching them for you as you tune up to pitch.

New strings definitely need to be stretched out a bit, the Floyd just does it for you.

I hate to point this sort of thing out, but you're kinda wrong. A floating bridge does not apply any extra amount of pull to a string when you're tuning it up. In order for a string to reach the correct pitch, it must have a precise amount of tension, regardless of the type of bridge being used.

When you're tuning up with your floyd rose, does the pitch of any given string go above what you'd otherwise try to tune to? Probably not, unless you're deliberately tuning above the desired tuning in order to stretch out the string... in which case you could do the very same with a fixed bridge.

If the pitch of the string's vibration is not going above the typical, correctly-tuned pitch, then it absolutely does not have more tension than normal, and is therefore not providing any extra stretching.

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