Slotted Headstock Correctly Fitting Strings

[slidenpickit]

Hi Michael,

Can you tell me if there is a right way and a wrong way to string up the 1st and 6th string machine heads on a slotted headstock? National have the 1st and 6th string posts with the winds (bar one) on the left hand side of the hole on the 1st and on the right hand side of the hole on the 6th.



MM guitars appear to be strung differently on the 1st and the 6th.



Thanks

Chris

[Michael Messer]

Hi Chris,

This is how I have always done it and is the way I think they look and perform best.





I start on the low E string and work my way around clockwise to the high E string.

Shine On
Michael.

[Matt]

Michael, what performance difference do you notice between the two methods? I do it the way Chris has pictured simply because i read or saw on youtube or something ages ago someone claiming that's how to do slotted headstocks, and never really bothered to look into it.

[gaucho]

Here's a video on the Vintage Nationals site showing a way to do it so the 1st and 6th aren't cutting onto the wood over time:

[Matt]

I've got my MM strung like that and the strings still dig into he wood a bit, slots must be too far up for the strings to keep clear

[Michael Messer]

I have never seen a slotted headstock that has been damaged from string wear & tear. I have also never seen anyone use a piece of masking tape to hold the string in the tailpiece.

I have been stringing National and Dobro guitars for over 30 years and I don't agree with this method of winding the two E strings. It looks messy to me.

If you do this process and keep the tension on at all times, you don't need tape. I have never seen anyone use tape before, and if it was being done properly there is no chance of ball ends jumping out.

Lenny is cutting the strings before he winds them. This is ok for most brands, but not for Newtone strings. I always do one turn before I cut them. I also do not believe in the right angle bend with pliers, I think that should be done by the tuner post and once that angle is in place it should not lose its tension.

I learnt to change strings on the road in dressing rooms, hotel rooms, on trains, at airports, and on stage, as most musicians do. I have never had a ball end jump out and I have never used masking tape or put right angles into strings. I don't think I have seen any of the long-time National & Dobro players put strings on this way.

Matt, the reason I said it performs better is because with the string pulled across to the inside of the tuning post, when you change tuning it is at such an angle that it can catch itself and jump a turn. Also it can grind against the A string.

I know which one I think looks neater.

Shine On
Michael.

[Michael Messer]

In addition to my previous post > There are no rules.....just preferences and HABITS!

Shine On
Michael

[Matt]

I don't think the strings would cut into the headstock as the video suggests. I think my MM has a couple of very slight indentations where the 1st and 6th strings go over the wood at an angle, and I don't expect they'll ever be anything other than very slight marks, certainly not cutting the headstock in half!

[Stevie]

Masking tape? On my last restring (using nickel Newtons) I had to file out the low E string tail piece slot using a Swiss file because the windings next to the string nipple would not go into the slot. (Malcolm?)

As far as which way the windings should go on ref the first and sixth string, I would vote for winding the strings against the pull of the nut angle on all strings (if that makes sense?) When I re-strung just recently (after about 16 months!!!!) I wound the high E string the other way and try as I might, the string just seemed to perform a widening spiral on the capstan. This is not a recipe for tuning stability and also, as has been noted already, leads to the string passing over a fulcrum formed by the edge of the slot. Again, this has the potential for problems at least with the wound low E string in the same way that it would with a poorly cut nut.

I recall a thread ages ago at the time that I fitted the StewMac machine heads. I observed that the holes in the capstans were too close to the centre spine. I felt that they should be a little nearer to the middle of the capstan because there was next to no space for the take up windings. I can now see that I was wrong but only because bringing the hole nearer to the middle of the post would lead to the string folding over the edge of the headstock centre spine in the same way. It follows that all these things have been ironed out over the years. As Michael has quite rightly mentioned, there is no wrong way. Whatever floats your boat!

A second hole next to and at a right angle to the first hole would greatly simplify stringing and I feel would be an improvement. (acknowledgement to Trev Wilkinson) but perhaps would weaken the post too much.

I would say that stringing from the outside towards the middle strings (gently) makes it easier to deal with the top and bottom strings without the other four in the way. Perhaps that has already been mentioned in the videos?

[Michael Messer]

Hi Stevie,

I have occasionally had Newtone strings that are pretty tight in the tailpiece slot, but I have never had one that doesn't actually fit. You may have been unlucky with that string. Handmade things can vary slightly. I am sure if you didn't want to file the slot, that Malcolm would have replaced the strings for you.

There is no harm in having wider slots in the tailpiece. Last time I was with Mike Lewis (Fine Resophonic) he also commented on the tightness of some of Malc's strings and now files his tailpiece slots a little wider to compensate. If it was a problem that a few people commented on I would speak to Malc' about it, but in 20 years the subject has not really been a problem, and in the past couple of years of MM & Busker guitars we have fitted hundreds of sets of MM Newtones.

I get through a lot of strings every month on my own guitars. Sometimes I am changing strings on four or five guitars twice a week.

Shine On
Michael.

[slidenpickit]

Hi Michael and everyone,

This is a great thread!

Thanks for all of the common sense input. If I had a vintage National I would't take all of the strings off even if it does make it a lot simpler. Michael's Paris Fine Resophonic headstock doesn't look any worse for wear after over a decade? of numerous string changes. It does look neater and would be easier than the other method when changing one string at a time especially at a gig (although I 've never broken one at a gig yet). Also as Steverb suggests, it must be better to have a string pull over the nut as straight as possible.

[slidenpickit]

Sorry I mean't Stevie, not Steverb.

[Steverb]

I would've said it, but he beat me to it :-)

[gaucho]

Yeah, I wondered how Lenny's method would work with the 2nd and 5th string already in place. I don't like to take the tension off the cone(s) if at all possible.

[Michael Messer]

That method of crossing the strings cannot work if you just change one string at a time and never de-tune the others, which is how my guitar has been re-strung for the past 12 years.

Shine On
Michael.