Strings Slipping When Restringing

[Stickmangumby]

I've noticed that sometimes when I restring my guitar, the strings 'slip' when I'm tuning them up to pitch. After I've threaded the string through the body and into the tuning post (making sure there is as little slack as possible), when I'm tuning the string to the correct pitch it makes a snapping noise and a whole lot of slack appears in the string above the neck. What causes this, and how can I avoid it?

Thanks

[egdeltar]

(making sure there is as little slack as possible),

←

That is your problem right there. Pull your string through the peg, rest your palm on the fret board around the 3rd fret and then at the nut pull the string up and away from the nut about 2 inchs and begin to tighten the tuner. This will give you about 2 complete winds around the peg.

[Stickmangumby]

Sorry, I should have explained how I restring to clarify my question...

I thread the string through the body, along the neck, and through the slot in the nut. I align the hole in the tuning post with the neck, so that the string could go straight through the tuning post. Depending upon the which string I am stringing, I thread the string around the tuning post once, twice, or three times, from the bottom of the tuning post up. Then I run the string back through the tuning post towards the neck, above the winds already on the post. Finally, I tune the string to pitch, stretch it in, and clip the end of the string off.

The slipping occurs after I've wound the string around the tuning post, while I am tuning to pitch, and is not a result of the winds unwinding. A lot of slack just appears out of nowhere.

Hopefully that has made my question more clear

[GregP]

I suspect it's binding in the nut. Another possibility is that the 'coils' around the tuning peg are settling into place, which sometimes requires a lot of pressure and tension and doesn't immediately happen with your first tune to pitch.

Could be your saddles or other bridge-side related problem, too. You don't say what kind of guitar it is, but it's possible that the ball end isn't 'seated' properly at that end of the guitar until it's pulled at the right tension or in the right way.

Basically, there are literally only 3 areas where it could be happening:

1. Bridge area-- ball-end not 'seated', or string binding up in saddle

2. Nut-- string binding up/getting 'stuck'

3. Tuning pegs-- coils are settling into place or strings are not being 'gripped' tightly and are coming loose.

Greg

[egdeltar]

Ok...that was a better explanation. If you wind the string around the peg 2 times by hand then you are definately going to have some string slipping when you tighten the machine. Its just the strings slipping into their final resting posistion. After you are finished how many winds around the peg do you end up with? Probally more than the 2 you started out with. I would suggest not doing it this way, try the way I explained above and I doubt you will have string slipping issues.