The Steel Guitar Forum

Maybe try not picking as hard, and using more of your amp's headroom.

Last week I went thru 5 11.5's in a row. Each one broke as soon as I hit the B pedal. They were D'Addarios. I've had pretty good luck with the D'Addarios 11's. Maybe their steel for this batch of 11.5's was different. I don't know, but I broke all 5 of them in a row before they were ever even played. This was on my push/pull. They all broke right as the string goes over the finger to where the twists/wraps are. I'm now trying Cobra Coil's. I keep hearing great things about the Jagwires.

Brad Sarno

Before installing an 11 or 11.5 run the string between your thumb nail and the pad of any other finger. You will be able to detect flaws in the string as a roughnes on the nail. If you inspect the string
you may find pits or rust on the wire. I usuall discard badly pittted or rusted strings. These are small inperfections and hard to locate but may cause the string to fail. The short twist is also a great way to add longevity. Just some other ideas


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Mullen S12 Almost Mooney
71 Tele, Regal 45
Sho Bud S10 NP
Line 6 Flextone 3 + JBL D130, Acoustic 100 W all tube, Nash 112
digitech 2101 FX

Over the past 30 years I've tried just about every brand and gauge available. For the E9 third string, I have never found one that is clearly superior to the others.

The brand that I've had the best luck with is SIT and the gauge is 011. I've seen little difference in breakage going to 0115 or 012 gauge or even a 010. The 012 sounds the best, the 010 sounds the worst, and all of them break at about the same rate and all brands and gauges have variable quality -- sometimes they'll just break before reaching G# or as soon as you hit the B pedal.

Now for the good news:
I haven't broken a 011 on the bandstand in several years IF I follow this advice:
1. Change after 10 playing hours or one month, whichever comes first
2. Wrap the string around the tuner post until it is past the hole -- 7 or 8 wraps usually works fine.
3. Wipe your strings off with a clean cloth afer playing
4. If you have a REALLY important gig, go ahead and change your 3rd and 5th (or else just change 'em all). If you raise the 1st to G# often you may want to change that one more often as well.

WORKS FOR ME.

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<small>Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps

I hear the Smiley Roberts Signature Series holds up well.

This string breakage thing is such a pain, and seems to go on forever. I gave up on the string brand solution, so I changed the design of the mechanism on the BEAST. Have not broken or changed a string yet. Still has the same ones that it was shipped with ... lets see how long they last.

I don't know who made them; ask Tom Baker at Sierra.

The pre BEAST unit that I modified for proofing has not broken any either. It has the strings Bill Stafford sells on it.

The key issue seems to be not to bend the G# at either end (bridge and nut shallow angles).

Check the BEAST photos posted by Per Berner for details.

One thing I would check is ro make sure you have a positive stop at A note.You may go a little above and drif back on your pedal down and not notice it,seeing how it goes back to A on the tuner.

I backed of on the finger so that the angle is not so steep going over the top of the finger. Sure it does not bottom out against the body but I do not hear a differenc in the tonality, the 6th string does however bottom out. Rarely break an .011 EB, I also buy reinforced .011's, between that and the finger adjustment I do pretty well.

Larry Behm

The Jagwire's work for me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've Been Useing Cobra Coils From When Ever They Come Out No Problum I Love Them I've Tryed others But Went Back To Cobra Coils Think I'll Stay with Them. SONNY.

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I've played steel nearly every day for the past thirty years and tried every make of string that I could find during that time. I can buy a number of makes just two miles from where I live, but,I would rather send my money to the Jagwire people because not only do their strings last forever but the brightness and tone quality are unbeatable.You do of course need nickel plated picks to do the strings justice, like the JF or Propicks this combination is the answer to your problem with tone and breakage.James.

Tuned to Eb9 and have NEVER broke a string!
Works for me.

Hey Richard,you've certainly saved yourself a few bucks using your Eb9th. Would we all get to save the same amount if we were to stay with the E9th and bought lower guage strings??James.

Nick, I was getting the pretty normal 3rd string break on my Zum about every 3-4 weeks. I tried the 11.5 Jagwires and took the unbroken 3rd off after 7-8 months. The only string that broke was the 2nd on the C neck.

Lots of great advice based on experiences. One thing that works for me...I always keep several brands of single .011's, like Ball, Jagwire,GHS, SIT, and others.I always know what brand is currently installed and how many hours I;ve played on it....then when I break one,(which is rare because I change them often)I change brands. My reason for this comes from my experiences with machine shop lots. If you get a weak one, you likely are going to have several weak ones.
Time to change brands. I like and use all the popular brands, and have had long use from time to time with them all. Also, keep the parts of your guitar that the strings touch real clean, smooth, blemish free. Don't place the strings on the changer fingers in ways that create grooves, or nicks. Keep the fingers and rollers really polished-clean. Sure reduces problems on stage.Good luck.

Hi Nick. Give Frenchy's strings a try. Yhey work great for me. Jody.

David L. Donald said something about tuning it SLOW!! THIS IS TRUE!!

Years ago,Shot Jackson told me to get the string just taut enough,to where it lays in the roller groove comfortably. Then,give the tuning key a twist,& hit the "B" pedal a couple o' times,etc,etc. Continue to do this,until it reaches pitch. Its a little time-consuming,but it DOES work! <u>NEVER</u> tune the string right up to pitch,& then hit the "B" pedal. It'll break 99 times out of 100. BTW,I've been using .012's now,for quite a while,& they work GREAT.

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Nick, following the advice of others who have posted on the SGF, I never try to tune a new 3rd string up to pitch right away. I tune to F# and work the B pedal a few times before tuning to pitch. Also, I make sure I have enough string to wrap several times around the tuning key shaft. This works for me and not only did I stop popping the 3rds, when they did break, they broke at the changer end instead of the other. By the way, I use SITs.

It would be very informative if everyone would state what instrument they play, what strings they are using, and where(bridge-nut-twist-ball)/when(putting on-playing) they break.

The results could be tabulated and further insight into the problem gained.