A silly lil' string-changing question

When I change strings, I take off all the strings at once. My friend tells me that you're supposed to cut them, then take them off one at a time, replacing them as you go. This is supposedly so the neck doesn't warp.

Am I doing it wrong? Is my neck doomed if I keep doing it this way?

Originally Posted by: earthman buckWhen I change strings, I take off all the strings at once. My friend tells me that you're supposed to cut them, then take them off one at a time, replacing them as you go. This is supposedly so the neck doesn't warp.

Am I doing it wrong? Is my neck doomed if I keep doing it this way?

You don't have to cut them. But you should only take off one at a time. Neck tension, man, neck tension!

Not totally true. Iv had my Stratocaster since 1988 and have been replacing the strings just how you do (I take off all the strings at once). Maybe by theory your friend would be right, but it doubt it would make a difference. Espcially when it only takes seconds to take the strings off the guitar and put new ones on.

I have never heard of the neck warping because of such a reason. Actually the guitar neck is made in such a way that these kinds of small things wont affect it. But im not 100% positive about it... ;)

Originally Posted by: alucard0941Not totally true. Iv had my Stratocaster since 1988 and have been replacing the strings just how you do (I take off all the strings at once). Maybe by theory your friend would be right, but it doubt it would make a difference. Espcially when it only takes seconds to take the strings off the guitar and put new ones on.

I have never heard of the neck warping because of such a reason. Actually the guitar neck is made in such a way that these kinds of small things wont affect it. But im not 100% positive about it... ;)

See, that's what I thought too. And even if the neck did move, the truss rod could take care of that in like, 4 seconds, could it not?

I just take them off one at a time by habit. I don't cut them or anything, though. I never really thought about it. I have read about the neck tension, but I dunno. Like I said, never really thought about it.

I always take them all off so I can give the guitar a good cleaning before putting the new ones on.
What's the point of putting new strings over top of the old dust and risking contaminating the new strings by transfering the crap from the old ones.
Plus, I've been doing it for a coupla decades and never had a neck warp on me. Figure it this way... if it takes several days for a neck to straighten out when you've adjusted a truss rod, what makes ya think that taking the strings off for a few minutes is gonna do anything.

I just did a video series on changing strings if ya have High Bandwidth.

http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=9386&s_id=163

Originally Posted by: schmangeI always take them all off so I can give the guitar a good cleaning before putting the new ones on.
What's the point of putting new strings over top of the old dust and risking contaminating the new strings by transfering the crap from the old ones.
Plus, I've been doing it for a coupla decades and never had a neck warp on me. Figure it this way... if it takes several days for a neck to straighten out when you've adjusted a truss rod, what makes ya think that taking the strings off for a few minutes is gonna do anything.

I just did a video series on changing strings if ya have High Bandwidth.

http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=9386&s_id=163

I concur fully...

Originally Posted by: schmangeI always take them all off so I can give the guitar a good cleaning before putting the new ones on.
What's the point of putting new strings over top of the old dust and risking contaminating the new strings by transfering the crap from the old ones.
Plus, I've been doing it for a coupla decades and never had a neck warp on me. Figure it this way... if it takes several days for a neck to straighten out when you've adjusted a truss rod, what makes ya think that taking the strings off for a few minutes is gonna do anything.

I just did a video series on changing strings if ya have High Bandwidth.

http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=9386&s_id=163

Yeah, I like givin' my guitar a good cleaning too. Thanks for all the help, guys. I guess I'll just carry on as usual.

yep, I slacken them all and take em all off one at a time then clean with a little lemon oil !

lovely !

yeah really... like I said in the video... if you take em off one at a time, all you keep doing is transfering all the crap from the old strings to the new ones.

I've been reading for years about so-called experts who say you have to take the strings off one at a time or 'the neck will warp'.
Yet whenever you ask anybody if they've actually seen it happen or where they heard that rumour they don't have a clue.

It's one of those old wives tales like 'the correct way to wind your guitar cord'.
Whatever you do, don't wind it around your thumb and elbow or you'll break the wires inside.
Anybody who says that I can prove without a doubt that I can wind my guitar cords that way and it's safer than doing it with your fingers.

sorry... hard to explain without a video

Yep, I have been doing it the Schmange way for 20+ years and never broke anything yet.

I did hear (we could maybe send this to Mythbusters) that a famous guitarist once cut all the string on is LP whilst they were tuned to pitch and broke the truss rod.

Serves him right really !

Actually that's a pretty good idea. :)
I'd love to see a scientific experiment to see if the rumours are actually true.

I mean, I can see taking a pair of snippers and blatantly cutting the strings as having a negative effect... maybe... but just winding the strings down, taking em all off and changing em... no way.

yer man

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/talk/talk.html

yahoo !

think of the free advertising !

I did read in a magazine article one time about Slash. He cut all the strings off his Jackson at once and the neck warped from the sudden tension change. Said it never stayed in tune again. :(

that might have been the story I was referring to only when I heard it, it was an LP that got trashed !