The Steel Guitar Forum

My mid-1980s Sierra is one of those steels that sometimes allows the changer to eat the ball end of a broken string. I'm trying a new method to alleviate this problem:

Using some thick thread, I tie it to the ball end of the string and let it dangle out the back side of the changer so if the string breaks at the ball end, I have a piece of thread still attached to the ball to help fish it out of the changer.

I broke one string while changing my string set, and the method worked good, so far.

Any other ideas for dealing with this lost ball end problem?

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The solution that seems to work for most people is a piece of foam rubber inserted below where the strings attach.

Yeah! Exactly right! "B.J."http://community.webtv.net/KeoniNui/doc