The Steel Guitar Forum

I went through a period a couple of months ago,, where i kept breaking third string, tried 11's and still persisted,, got good advice on winding it ,, alternating right to left on the post,, had success for a couple of months,, but now its happening again,, whats up,, i am getting scared to death to touch my B pedal , find myself sneaking up on my guitar, afraid ill touch it and break a string,, which by the way, hurts when it pops on your finger

Where's the string breaking? Roller nut? Bridge? Key?

Try a 12, it works for me.
Erv

After years of religiously winding twice as much extra string on the posts for the 3rd, I think I may have gotten carried away with the idea that more (and more and more) extra wraps is better.
I have found on my new Williams that the roller nut grooves are machined more square rather than the more U-shaped groove on my previous guitars. My most critical focus now is on winding as much or as little string on the post as is necessary to achieve a straight line over the roller and avoid angling over the sharp edge. And just recently I started walking the string toward the end of the post instead of toward the inside. For a couple of months now this has proven to be a solid solution to a string problem that I had originally attributed to a batch of bad strings......until a couple of new-batch strings broke on me.

I'm pretty convinced now that my problem was this alignment issue. (Sorry juststring.com bros!)

1- where is it breaking

2 -how long has it been on the guitar

3 - how often do you play the guitar

Otherwise we are just pecking along looking for seed in the dark !

11's are fine , don't change gauges until you know WHY they are breaking. Doesn't matter if someone else uses 12's or 13's. Find the cause.


The extra windings help with tuning issues ( slipping ) not breaking issues. 5 wraps is pretty common .

What brand is the guitar and is it keyless or with keys?

i play a mullen discovery , thanks for all the tips,, i have thought of playing a 12 at times, it always has broken at the winding post eyelet , got one on there now that is working,, played it several hours now, I usually keep fairly new strings on it,, i play a gig every other week, and play everyday at home . I change at least every three weeks . I had a friend whos a machinist, use a tiny sanding tool to clean the eyelet on the post,, that seemed to help also

From your last post the string is breaking at the tuner. A small rough place on the edge of the shaft hole is the problem.
Sanding or grinding on the bump should help, And cut the string till you have enough string wraps wound on the tuner shaft to get the last rap completely off hole area, And on complete smooth shaft 360 degrees around the shaft. Cutting the string back 2 keys is a good place to start on many guitars.
If it still keeps breaking, Look at the other tuners on that side of the key head. You may want to swap the 3rd key with another key 5th or 1st key which has smoother holes in it.

I went through a bunch of bad strings about 15 years ago. 3rd string broke on stage, I replaced it quick to get back "Together Again" was next song on the set. I only put 2 or 3 wraps on the tuner. The next day practicing the string broke at the tuner key, Wrapped perfect over the bar and my left hand, The end of the string actually penetrated the bone on my right ring finger. OUCH !!!! I had to pull the string out of my finger, I was also afraid of my steel and about gritted my teeth to shove the A&B pedal down for several days.
Good Luck with this problem and back Happy Steelin.

Does the string overlap itself at the tuner? If so thats the problem.

Drew,

I agree with all of the advice mentioned above.

One question that I didn't see asked: "What brand of strings are you using?"

Years ago (in the ancient days before the Internet), I bought some D'Addario third strings for spares since they were the the only brand of single strings available locally.
But as soon as I put one of the D'Addario third strings on the guitar and stepped on the B pedal, the string would break--every one of them.
I tried a different batch of D'Addario strings--same problem.

I finally found a music store that sold single Ernie Ball strings and GHS strings.
I bought some; no problem with either of those brands.

- Dave

I had the Same problem. There was a small burr on the hole of the tuning peg. Trying to smooth it out did not work. No problems after replacing the tuner, at least 10 years ago.