Strings the wrong way round

I have several guitars with Floyd Rose style tremolo systems, and one of the comments I get frequently is that I have put my strings on the wrong way round. I do not cut the ball ends of the strings and instead, feed the strings from the headstock to the bridge and cut them to length.

I am one of the few who do this and believe it is the best way to string any guitar for several reasons.

• It gets you out of trouble quickly if a string breaks - Anyone with a Floyd Rose style tremolo will know that it causes a lot of grief when a string snaps, especially if you are performing live. If you replace the string, your guitar constantly goes out of tune as the string stretches, and it would be better to finish the set with a different guitar. However, most of the time, the string snaps at the bridge. If you have an extra couple of string winds on the tuning pegs, you can unlock, unwind the string, fit it into place and tune. Now you are using a pre-stretched string, and once tuned, all the other strings are back in tune. The benefit of having the ball ends at the tuning pegs is the string will not slip when you unwind it. If you had cut them, the ball ends were not there.

• It is safer – no sharp ends are poking out at either end of the guitar

• It is easier to restring – Feed the string through, cut to length and clamp. You don’t have to bother cutting the ball ends off, clamping and then tuning the guitar before the 2nd cut to eliminate the excess string.

• It looks neater – No loose strings end floating around.

If you have doubts, it is worth trying your next string change.