[CAUT] Advice for achieving stability sooner?

[Ron Nossaman]

Jim Busby wrote:
> Gently "pushing" the wire as close to the string plane and
> about 1/2 inch from the bridge is still good isn't it??

The base premise is that strings somehow, against positive 
bearing, pin angle, side bearing, and all that tension, climb 
up bridge pins. They don't. The notch edge crushes with 
seasonal dimensional changes in the bridge cap (such as 
swelling up under that string and meeting clamping and bearing 
pressure resistance, as well as the 15lbs or so of friction of 
the string against the pin), and no longer touches the string 
at the pin during drier cycles. It's still on the bridge, but 
the edge is crushed below the plane. The same forces "bell" 
out the hole the pin is in, and it flagpoles with the string, 
making false beats and other generally fuzzy sounds. So 
"seating" the string or pin just temporarily forces the string 
below it's natural plane at the pin, and jams it into the 
notch edge enough to stop the flagpoling - sometimes. It 
doesn't fix anything because it doesn't address the real 
problem, which is the flagpoling pin. The pin is the 
termination, not the notch. If you must seat strings, I 
recommend your thumb nail. You can entertain the illusion that 
some good has been done, but you can't pound the string hard 
enough to do any damage to the bridge. No fair getting 
titanium fake nails.


> (Just to take the rounded nonsense out of the bend at the
> bridge pin.) Or are you saying that even this is
> unnecessary? 

I think this is still necessary as part of stringing. It 
shortens stabilization time, and cleans up tone some.


>My standard procedure for years has been to
> level coils, seat strings at the hitch, etc. then tune it
> 15 cents high, and then lift at the agraffe/vbar and make
> the slight push at (1/2 inch from and NOT down) the
> speaking bridge pin. At this point the pitch is nearly back
> to zero and fine tuning is stable, the bridge remains
> unhurt, but the bend is straighter rather than rounded. Que
> no?

Sounds reasonable to me. I typically use a string hook (or 
whatever of several prying contraptions I've made through the 
years) at the bridges, pulling more or less perpendicular to 
the pin.

  Ron N