Restrung the Fender

 The Fender Dread had Martin Monels on, good strings but they were a bit too heavy (13-56) and the action was a tad high (3.5 mm at the 12th fret)

A friend on the Acoustic Soundboard forum kindly sent me 2 sets of strings, Ernie Ball Earthwood and Newtones customs. I decided to try the Ernie Balls.

Restringing went...ok. Cleaned up the fingerboard with baby oil then went ahead with the re-stringing. But I discovered I'd put the 4th string in the 5th string's tuner, so had to redo that. Then I found that the 2nd string (B) wasn't holding its tuning. The wrapping around the post wasn't secure, so I took it off and re-did it. 

Finally I got it all done and it sounded much better. The strings are very resonant

Back from the Doctor's

 I put my Jose Ferrer in for a bridge repair and spruce up and Ron did a great job, as always!

If you're in the North East and needing a guitar repairing, Ron in Darlington is the man!

Link to his Facebook page:

Ron's Guitar Repairs

Baritone re-string

 I got some Living Water GCEA baritone strings, in low G, unwound, and strung her up today. Took some turns for that high A, its very tight. And there was a spare A string in the set.

Mandola tuning on my baritone uke

 Following information provided by members of the mandolin cafe forum, I took the 5th 4th 2nd and 1st strings off my classical and strung up the baritone uke to CGDA-mandola tuning!

Ideally it wants new strings, they've been on the classical since 2015 but not played much. The 2nd string (D) sounds a bit dead. But its still very playable!

Re-string x 2

 The strings on my Fender acoustic were too light, it was affecting tuning, so I decided to get some medium weight strings for it (Martin Monels, 13-56). My partner ordered them for me and as a surprise she got a second set, for my Tanglewood, which has had the same strings since it was bought, back in 2011!

So today I finished stringing them up. Unfortunately I lost one of the Tanglewood's original bridge pins, so I alternated with some black pins I got from Wish.

A little something

On my Fender DG5 after a re-string with D'addario Extra Lights

New strings for Tilly

I've had a pack of strings in my guitar bag for a while now, and today I decided it was time my Fender acoustic got a re-string.
They are D'addario Phosphor Bronze Extra Lights (.010 to .047) and what a difference they made!
Warmer sound and lighter on the fingers. Being a big, long scale Dreadnought the guitar has a high tension, so putting lights on seemed to be an ideal solution. Now it plays as easily as my Tanglewood!

Had a set up done on my ukulele

After 2 years of playing with a ukulele that's slightly out I took it in for a set up. Ron did a great job and it sounds much better now. I also got a strap button put on.

Tilly gets a clean-up!

I took the old strings off my Fender DG5 last night, cleaned up the fingerboard with wire wool and cooking oil, wiped the body with a damp cloth and re-strung her.

Ooh shiny!!

A guitar for David

My 12 year old step-son expressed an interest in learning guitar, so we found this full-size classical in a second hand shop, price £20 (about $40)

It seemed to have a decent tone and the sticker inside said Taygus - handmade. However it badly needed a restring, the bottom E was actually from a steel-string guitar and had a totally different tone to the other 5! Here it is before the restring: And here it is after a re-string, (something I've never done before!) with rather cool looking black and silver nylons