The most stressful part of anything string related is the "DEAR GOD IT MIGHT HIT ME IN THE EYE" feeling that I have, despite that literally never coming anywhere near happening to me. Still, the FEAR IS REAL

I do loosen the tension a bit on the tuners before I cut the strings. That has nothing to do with considerations about the neck, though. If there's not much tension on the strings, I have more control over what happens with the strings after I cut them. There is no strings potentially flopping around like they do in your intro. I don't like that and I don't want to pay attention to it, so I avoid it in the first place by just loosening the strings a bit before I cut them.

My only fear would be the string scratching the finish when it flies off. Otherwise nah, no problem. I take the slack off my strings and then snip them at the twelfth fret so that both sides of the cut string are as big as possible and hard to lose track of if I drop one.

I work in a guitar shop and I'm telling this to people all the time. "Take all your strings off when restringing" It won't hurt the neck, it's easier to clean and you won't accidentally cut the wrong string off when restringing. I do it to all my guitars and the ones in the shop, even guitars with Floyd Roses and Bigsbys. Never had any issues.

I don’t think cutting strings is dangerous to the neck at all, the Floyd rose dive bomb example you used is a really solid point too that should help people realize that guitar necks are built like tanks to be honest. The only thing I do different is detune my strings until they are flop before cutting to prevent them from flinging arround violently and risking the finish on my guitar from getting scratched up. (Ask me how I know about that). Great video!

My method is detune to floppiness, then cut. Now to be clear, I'm not worried about my neck and no, that opening sequence only disturbed me slightly- because I've seen what the end of a whipping steel cable (of any size) can do anything it hits- like say, the nice finish on a guitar. I'm going to get the eventual playing marks and scratches anyway, I'd just prefer not to add a few premature string-end scratches to accelerate the effect. 😁

I have an engineering background and have been building cabinets for many years, and have built quite a few guitars. I work with all sorts of materials from all metals (main job) to wood and polymers. You are absolutely bang on on everything. Guitar necks are effectively braced with the truss rod counteracting string tension. No air pressure change in cargo compartments will do anything. Humidity is very much mitigated because guitar cases are relatively sealed. Not air tight, but more than enough to slow the ingress of ambient moisture. Anyone who thinks guitar necks are so fragile can just go to their local hardware store and pick up a 1" x 3" board of hardwood and try to bend it over their knee and see how it responds. Trees figured it out a long time ago 🤙

I think for a lot of people the precaution for loosening the strings a bit before cutting is out of fear of the string snapping back and hitting them in the eye.

"There's a lot like it, but this one is mine" Nice reference lol

I am a bass player, and I have two main basses, one 35 inch scale 5 string and a passive 4 string sting ray. My 5 string gets new strings every month, and the aged strings get saved and handed down to the stingray (the b string is discarded) I like the more dead thump on my passive ray, and If I break a d or g string (I play pretty aggressive slap) I always have several perfectly aged sets on deck. It's a weird system, but it works for me.

For an even quicker job I often saw the neck off and glue a new one on to save cleaning the fretboard too. In all seriousness I've done it both ways over the years, but always use the trem/whammy bar argument like you mentioned here.

I'm surprised you never mentioned boiling strings. Back in the day, I used to take strings off, boil them in hot water and then re-use them over and over.

Hi KDH...!!! I HAVE a thought for you when trying to show how straight or bowed a guitar neck is, an old luthier trick I learned. Take ANY 36" ( 91cm. ) up to a 48" ( 121cm. ) perfect straight edge... A steel or wooden level, A metal T-square, anything that is perfectly straight and resistant to bending. Place it on the neck edge, or on the frets, although on the frets can cause variations due to some frets being more or less worn out. That method will show you the "hills & valleys" of the neck, or in other words if it is bent or not. This of course is great for seeing status quo of ones neck, especially if the "old eagle eyes" that allow us to see such things have gotten a little askew from age, AND in illustration purposes for your viewing audience. I believe you when you state that the neck is "perfectly straight," others may not... the straight edge just "hamer"s it home. 🤔😉😁 ANYWAY, KEEP ON KEEPING ON BROTHER ROCKER!!!!!!!!!! PEACE !!!!!!!!!!🤘🏼

I'm only 40 seconds in and REALLY looking forward to the rest of this video. I'm a guitar player of 30+ years (although I have maybe the skills of a 3 year player, lol) and changing strings has ALWAYS stressed me out!

I unwind my strings because I find it pleasurable, not because I think it's the best method. Whenever I have to change strings, I'm not counting my minutes or need to be the most efficient at it, I just take it as part of the hobby and enjoy it. Having fun is quite good, you know? A lot of people forget this.

So much logic and reason in this video. I appreciate that.

I am sort of embarrassed to admit it, but I was one of those people who thought it was no good to relieve all the tension at once before watching this video. The Floyd Rose example was the lightbulb moment for me and I honestly feel silly now.

I do now loosen the strings a little bit before cutting on my newest or most cherished guitars. I always agreed with your thinking that the temperature/pressure argument didn't make sense. I got an Epiphone Slash guitar a year or so ago that came all the way from China perfectly in tune and with an incredible set up. I only loosen the strings now so I don't whipped in the eye or put a scratch on the guitar finish. I put a super annoying scratch on the most expensive new guitar I ever purchased one time cutting the strings under tension and was depressed for months every time I looked down at it. Now after years of playing that guitar, it is pretty much naturally relic'd so I don't really care now. But it's kind of like when you get a band-spanking-new car and you're paranoid trying everything to avoid getting your 1st ding on it, but after your 12th parking lot dent, you're way over it.... 😄

The part with the tremolo is a very good argument!!

Excellent points! I stopped taking all the strings off at once because of Floyd Rose issues. Took quite a bit of work to get that thing set up again. My guitar teacher told me to change the strings one at a time to prevent issues with the tremolo getting all out of whack.

I typically loosen string before cutting strictly as a SAFETY measure, just so the string isn't whipping back and plucking your eye out. As far as floating terms, I STRONGLY recommend trying to shim the term at somewhere near the resting position you want it to be, because you may find that returning your tremolo to the 'zero' position you want could be very challenging, keeping some tension on the trem springs seems to help this. I could go into a scientific discussion of springs at rest storing potential energy and the time that it takes to expend that, but I won't.

Only reason I detune the strings before cutting them is that I don’t like the sharp ends flying around, out of fear that they might poke me or scratch the instrument. I’m a bass player however, so cutting bass strings is a tad more violent. The reason for detuning a guitar before transporting it is mostly down to the risk of the case getting dropped, and the impact getting transferred into the head stock, thus breaking it off if the impact puts pressure on it in the same direction as the tension from the strings. Les Pauls are particularly prone to this due to how the headstock is set up on LPs.

I've flown many times with my Fender Strat in the hold and recently sent my Gibson Firebird by sea freight where it was 'in transit' for around 8 weeks. I've never detuned my guitars and they've always turned up just fine. Great video dispelling a few myths....and Fender should know better than spreading fear although maybe it's more of a 'covering their arses' sorta statement as opposed to a factual one.

"cutting the strings without releasing the tension before will cause the neck to snap!". Well, that myth might have had its roots in the very "authentic" world :-)

My favourite guitar myth to restring is that Strats are "recording instruments" (yes, Glen, I remember you said it in the last video and you'll never be forgiven 🤣). They can be heavy as hell at gigs in the right hands 🤘

I detune a whole step for acoustic transport and long term storage. I loosen slightly before cutting the strings off. I also remove all strings every time and clean the fretboard, nooks, crannies, and neck joint/pickup rings.

Ex Tour Manager with mid-sized rock band back in the 00s here. When we were flying, all our guitars were travelling in the cargo hold (when you're checking in 25 flight cases, carry on not an option lol) so in that case the techs always loosened the strings on the guitars as a precaution. I'm not 100% sure it was necessary but with the temperature drop at altitude in the hold, it was just a precaution. As to the shows where we did carry on with gig bags only, it was never an issue we ever thought about as they'd be with us in a pressurised cabin. Like a lot of people have mentioned, I do slack off the strings slightly before cutting them off as it's just a habit more than anything. Never thought about damaging the neck though - more a case of avoiding a pinging string flying into my face lol 😎

Whilst I agree with everything you have said, the only reason I don't cut my strings, is, they do occasionally scratch the finish, which I do admit is a odd thought when you consider most of my guitars are between 37 and 25 years old and therefore are road worn.

Cut them, don't keep them, don't detune for air travel. Your point about the Floyd is spot on.

I wasn't aware cutting them was frowned upon. I've never not cut my strings, it saves time

Loosen the strings not because of the neck but because of the tuners. This mostly worth mentioning in non locking tuners because it can cause undue wear over rime where you can start to develop small amounts of play in the tuners, giving wobble and tuning instability. That being said, it goes a while in most circumstances for this to happen but it certainly can. If you have older guitars you or someone else has played for years, you’ll likely notice play in the high string tuners because those are the strings that break the most while playing. The abrupt snapping from full tension to no tension will “shock” the tuners. I’ve never noticed this on locking tuners, only on older standard tuners or, of course, very cheap tuners on cheap guitars. You can also help combat this phenomenon by using string “locking” techniques on non locking tuners with multiple wraps of the string. This will resist shock to the tuners a lot more than stringing the guitar with regular techniques and few string wraps.

I unwind them a bit before cutting them. I don't want a string flying into my eye! Also, a trick I learnt on Thomann, to restring a Floyd Rose you should put the back plate underneath the trem between the body and the fine tuners. So when you string, the trem is stopped by the back plate blocking it off and keeping tension in the back strings. It make restring and cleaning those things so much easier!

Ben Crowe of Crimson Custom Guitars argues that cutting strings while they're under tension might (1) damage the tuners, or (2) cause the suddenly loose strings to fly in random directions, which could lead to them striking and damaging the finish on the body.

I've never worried about the tension on the neck, but I have been impaled by a few strings before.

I think the cutting off string myth stems from older archtop guitars, i've experienced one where i needed to adjust the neck more than it needed to begin with, due to the humidity it's been in. Cutting the strings off it self doesn't really do much as you stated correctly. The owner asked me to do it quickly while he was waiting in the shop, i did not have the time to have the archtop to aclimatise to our workshop. End result, a little crack near the body joint from what i assume is the rapid release of the tension since the archtop had been in a very humid environment.

Before cutting the strings, I block the trem in neutral position (a piece of wood or a stack of play cards), then polish the frets, cleanup the fretboard, then put new strings one.

Hey KDH, ever looked into what the B-52s guitarist was doing in 1979? He stuck 2 Bass Strings, .105 and .085, on his 1966 Mosrite MK V (24.50" scale) and tuned those lower two to C and F (4 notes below standard tuning.) He then had two .018p strings in the B and E slots, tuned to F. The tension of the Bass Strings is a lot like taking the bottom two strings of a set of .13s, then tuning them up 7 notes to B standard. And the 66 Mosrite has a thin neck! (1.560" width at the zero fret, and 0.860" thickness/depth from frets 2 - 12 or 13.) So no, I don't think that guitar necks are all "oh so fragile." Sure, you might want to de-tune it between each performance if you were playing like that so the wood can't warp over years, but yes, it does seem silly to me that a guitar neck can't take some "above average" stress. Just don't drop the guitar.

I just unwind them enough to be able to pinch them all together and cut them all at once. I’ve just always done it that way. I’ve also watched my guitar fall headstock first into multiple objects and it’s still going strong.

Your channel is the best I've seen all the others. More restring Sunday.

Good video. Love a good myth dispelling.

What's funny, is now everyone in the comments is agreeing with you, and now the problem is worrying about scratching the finish lol. You can't win KDH!❤️🎸🤟😝🤟

Regarding guitars on planes... Temperatures might differ somewhat, but pressures are always the same in cargoholds as the passenger cabin. The floors aren't made to maintain a pressure difference. They also get the same dry air from the air conditioning packs, so there won't be much moisture there either.

A friend of mine had the best quote ever regarding guitar setup: No matter how much you want it to be just a guitar, it wants to be pieces of wood and metal that are subject to the elements.

That DID stress me out, but not because of the neck. I was like, "If that's under tension it's gonna whip around and scratch the body." Also there was a moment where it looked like your cutters might not quite be sharp enough or have enough leverage. That was also stressful.

I'm a touring musician and guitar tech. I've flown guitars dozens, probably hundreds of times. Mostly there's no problem leaving a guitar in tune, however I have seen a couple of problems. One time an SG headstock came off mid flight, difficult to know if that was cabin pressure or baggage handlers. The other time, all four strings were snapped on a bass. That can't be baggage handlers, also that was on a Gatwick to Guernsey flight about 25mins. Maybe the quick up and down, caused it? But that is a real fear, doesn't happen often but can happen.

I usually wind down the strings a few turns, then clip the strings. I have a healthy fear of metal strings popping into my eyes.

I have similarly acidic sweat, and recently tried Elixir strings. Gosh, it’s great not seeing strings start to erode within the first hour of playing and them actually sounding and feeling fresh for quite a while!

It's six of one half dozen of the other. If you replace them one at a time there seems the guitar seems to settle down quicker after the string change. But if you take them off all at once then you can give a instrument a decent clean! I'll go one way or the other way depending on how much time I have. However, I like to keep my old strings as they are kind of getting a bit pricey now. One advantage of this is that if you break a sting on a guitar where the set is getting on a bit then that re-used string matches the tone of the other strings better and since it is already broken in it's tuning becomes more stable much faster. They still require a little stretching, but not nearly as much. This is typically putting it back on the instrument it came from so string length is never an issue. That is not always the case though. If I break a string on one of my fixed bridge axes then what is left can be fitted to a Floyd Rose equipped instrument when it breaks a string! I should say this is mainly with the wound strings. I am not so keen on reusing the unwound ones. The wound strings are usually the ones that get beaten up playing metal style rhythms. I hardly ever break the high strings, though it does happen. I don't change my strings very often. That's mainly because these days I do mostly recording projects and seldom play live. The main motivation for me in string changing was always to avoid one breaking while on stage. I dislike changing them for recording. I much prefer having the stable pitch of a well played in string over the fresh tone of a new set.

KDH, u just hit me right in the face.ive been watching your vids for a while now. I especially enjoyed the restring Sunday vids. But every time u cut a string under tension I kringe inside 😬. Todays vid was a treat 👍I get it bro, no difference in tension when using a Floyd. 👀 I totally see that. Cutting under tension is fine..😬..although it's killing me to write that. Just know that this video was a fantastic experience. Just what I needed u to show. U must have gotten a few responses about Cutting strings. So glad you did this. Keep 'em coming. Go KDH & Sixstringtv

The neck is a 3" diameter half cylinder of maple. You could bolt the thing to a floor joist and hang off it if you wanted! The reason they build it out of hardwood is because it is STRONG. Strings maybe add ~100lbs of tension on the neck. Really not enough to cause a dramatic flex. A piano by contrast has over 200 strings and tens of thousands of pounds of tension, which is why an iron frame is needed. If your guitar neck is badly warping by the sudden cutting of 6 strings you need a more structurally sound neck... To add, the air pressure in an airplane is only slightly less that normal atmospheric conditions. The cargo hold might be a bit colder than the cabin, but if it's in a hard shell case it's going to make little difference. If you think you should detune your guitar before getting on a plane due to pressure changes, then don't ever consider playing in Denver, or worse, La Paz.

You ended this debate with " what happens when you dive bomb a floyd " I had never thought of that and it releases all the tension in fraction of a second. Job done KDH.

My Strats have 'top-loading' machine heads (which I prefer). I loosen all the strings until I can pull the wrapped portion off the pegs, then cut so I can pull them through the vibrato block. It just makes sense.

As for my habits, I do loosen my strings, but then cut them down the center while I can get a hand around them to keep them from floppin' about. Basically for all the reasons you said.

My hands/oils takes maybe 1 year to get crud on my strings but, I had a Buddy who was an amazing natural talent he had a feel as if a PRO, he would grab an axe during Jams and the next day the strings were gritty, dirty messes ughhhh. I wish the kid was still around, he was younger than me, his dad played for the NY Football Giants in the 80s. He had the most beautiful Simi-hollow Hammer. I recorded almost all our jams for maybe 3 to 4 years. He was murdered in a bad part of town and his parents and brothers were heartbroken, same as me. Last year, I mixed down all the tunes and some chatter between songs. I dropped a few copies into his Mom's mail box, I hope they get comfort from them, like I do. Miss you Mr Brandon Sherwin!

Necks are only fragile things that need babied if it's a cheap guitar. Or a Gibson lol

I saw a video when Kiesel (still Carvin than), we’re fixing Jason Becker’s guitars, and the tech put pressure on the strings around the 12 fret (like a capo) and sliced all the strings, so that’s how I do everything really.

I think the whole cutting your strings myth, along with quite a few other guitar myths originated from luthiers wanting to scare people away from fixing their own guitars back in the 60's and 70's. So that way they (the luthiers) could get the work for themselves lol

Pretty much... If there's anything to query here, it's that not all guitar necks are constructed the same with the same materials... or new. Newer necks (esp. Multi-laminate, torrefied, carbon reinforced necks etc.) behave differently compared to an old vintage neck that's had may have had half it's lacquer worn off and may have had moisture damage. If the wood isn't as strong, then more of the string tension is taken up by the truss rod - such that without strings the rod is putting more stress on the wood. That's not to say that cutting strings is going to be a problem. I've not put a temperamental neck to the test (!) but I'd guess that most necks will come back to their previous shape just fine... with time proportional to how long the strings have been off. If there was reason to detune a solid body for travel I wouldn't do so without unloading the truss rod. I think that some of the advice out there might be confused with acoustic top cracking from humidity/temperature related expansion contraction events.

Have flown from the UK to Brazil and back multiple times, pretty drastic temp and humidity changes, all of the guitars that have done those trips are still fine

Cutting them off is just faster and better when using an Evertune or Floyd. Also stops you from having to drag bent string ends over the saddles on the bridge.

With a Floyd the easiest way I've found to change all the strings at once is to block it so it's level, don't make it tilt up at all. You can use all kinds of stuff, wood blocks, coins, guitar picks, whatever will hold it in place once you take all the strings off and relieve all the string tension. Then you just do your cleaning and conditioning, put new strings on, then tune before you remove the block and you're good. I should note that only works if you're using the same gauge of strings and same tuning. Also if you feed the strings through the tuner first on a Floyd you can use the ball end as kind of a locking tuner but not as good lol plus then when you change strings it's easier to remove

I left my G&L Invader in the case for 10 years with no strings. Finally strung it up, simple truss rod adjustment, and it plays perfectly.

I'm really just used to saving strings when I had no money and because I used to do some experiments (such as converting an acoustic guitar to a bass and an octave mandolin) so it would save me to have some strings I won't mind abusing rather than a trip to the store for fresh ones.

I agree that it doesn't hurt to cut them, but I unwound them due it being easier to dispose of them after. I coil them up after use when I throw them away.

I would think if the tension was affected that greatly by the pressure changes in air travel, the strings would break before the neck would.

When re-stringing my guitar (which happens once in a blue moon) I take the strange "pleasure" of changing each string one by one. I don't think my sweat is so acidic so I keep the old ones, even if they are close to useless. Regardless I use fast-fret and similar string-cleaning products a lot. I don't know if you have covered this topic in one of your videos.

Changing strings on my guitars with floating trems always stresses me.

I hate it when players leave the excess strings dangly off the headstock. It’s rare to see though. I always think they should have on safety glasses. Wrapping them in loops is cool, like Blackmore used to do.

You monster!!! No, I 95% agree. My stress comes from a different place though; mine is my mothers voice saying "You'll take someone's eye out!!". The first guitar book I had when I was starting was a folk guitar book from the 70s (near useless, but anyway). But I remember it saying "Be careful changing strings because they can be a bit 'whippy'". And ever since then, I've always imagined getting caught in the eye by a high E - enough to stress me out slightly by watching the intro there. In 25 years, it's never happened, though... So I hazard to say you're safe enough snipping them off. As far the strength of necks, ever since I watched that video of Jack White nailing a pickup to a plank of wood and stringing up to couple of nails hammered in..... yeah, guitars aren't precious babies. They're just a few bits of wood glued or bolted together. You have to put in more effort than a snip to fuck that up. I had the wrong idea starting out because first you learn that there are some things to be careful about (like you don't want to over-tighten a truss rod, or if you mess with your action, your intonation may go out - so at first you think, it's a delicate, finely-calibrated machine!! Cause parts of it kind of are.... a little bit anyway. But really; that's a bad overall impression. It's a few hunks of wood. You calibrate that as finely as you want, but that's essentially what it is. Despite Fender not wanting to be liable for necks breaking on airplanes (I don't know why else they would say something like that...). Sometimes common sense goes out the window a little bit with these things.

Love your channel. You should have much more followers.

An interesting topic. I enjoyed it. Thanks!

I haven’t just cut them off like you do, mostly for no real reason. I’m not scared of destroying the necks of my guitars. But, it does make sense that there won’t be any adverse affects to removing the strings as you do.

I didn't even know people obsess over this, but I'm also not surprised. After decades of guitar voodoo, players have become a curious breed indeed.

I unwind the strings and cut off the parts in the ends that was on the pegs to be able to wrap them most efficiently together without having to worry about too many sharp ends… I remove all at once to clean the fretboard because… well, it doesn’t matter for the neck. It’s was layouts around in the factory/workshop for some time without strings because necks are made without strings. That tension argument doesn’t make any sense at all… Secondly, you should also challenge the ridiculous “luthiers knot”… the best way of making changing strings a more hassle than necessary and get nothing back for it…

I feel like this video has pretty passive aggressive undertones and I love it!

I don't really kill strings quickly, I will usually eventually pop an e or B just from bending and then I change the whole set. Temperature certainly does effect guitars/string tension, I have guitars with locking tuners and if left unplayed I find they are almost always in tune until the season changes. I also have a kids scale fender and it is literally never in tune ever (because the tuners are trash). I will cut my strings but I won't leave them off for any extended period and won't turn the truss rod more than a couple of 1/4 cranks without giving it some time to settle. When I ship guitars I just tune them to Eb standard, this way there is nice even tension while they make their trip but it is reduced to account for any gain of tension in shipping.

Love this video! It came just in time too, someone talked me into unstringing my guitar because I am not planning to use it in a while, and he told me that the floyed's tension is going to warp my neck if it will stay stringed.

Is it such a big hassle for you to loosen them a bit before cutting them? I restring around 100-120 guitars per year, and I'll highly advise against snapping them at full tension. Snapping full-tensioned strings will inevitably cause scratches in the lacquer. Not even saying it might hit you in the eye or the finger, but it's simply *careless*. You're saving mere seconds for a process that, best case, is repeated weekly. You'd save more time learning to lace your shoes quicker, or switching to velcro. Or getting up a minute earlier that day. And about floating tremolos: Block the tremolo with a piece of wood, open the locking nuts, loosen the strings a bit, clip em behind the nut, dispose the "pigtails", remove the rest of the string in usual fashion. Don't cut them in the middle of the fretboard, don't cut them close to the trem, cut them behind the nut without too much tension in a controlled manner. It's not that complicated. And if the trem was blocked, getting it up to pitch is a lot easier too (see the Thomann vid with Steve Vai's guitar tech, he explains it well). No excuses, not on an Epiphone, not on an Ormsby, not on the 35€ nylon guitar your kid owns... Yes, I can confirm that the neck does not really care, even if left without strings for a week, but I hope YOU care. Been a subscriber since basically "day one" (you had 2500 subs back when I subbed, IIRC), really thought you liked your instruments, I see you in different light now. 😕

Physics usually dictates that a gradual increase/release of tension is better than a sudden one, athough it probably doesn't make that much of a difference in this case. Also, accelerating metal ends can obviously lead to dings in the guitar's finish, if probably not an eyeball.

My only argument against cutting them in the middle like that, or cutting them at all, is having to deal with 2 pieces per string. I prefer just unlocking the tuners, slipping the strings off and then wrapping them all up into a circular shape like as if they were in a string pack and tossing them away. Makes the clean up process much neater.

It’s only been recently that I saw videos about how “fragile” guitar necks are. It’s nice to see this realistic video.

I cut all six at the same time. String through tele, locking tuners. I don't use polish or cleaning stuff. Every once in a while I'll do a deeper clean and get rid of all the sweat and dead skin. I also change out rusted screws on occasion because of my crazy acidity. BTW, I bought a cheap Ibanez and the strings went black.

I have a floating floyd and I cut all my strings. A bunched up sock in the pull-back cavity keeps it nicely from falling back.

I once had a half inch bit of guitar string that when I clipped it off it went straight into the pink of my eye. I blinked twice and it felt like fire. So I held my eye open, grabbed the needle nose and made it to a mirror in time.

The only reason i detune tune guitar before i cut a string is to stop it from taking my eye out. Also guitars are really hard to break, idk what people mean when string tension can break the neck.

I hate to reveal this, but I am one of those people… However, I don’t think cutting the strings off makes any sense. Because why make more work essentially pulling out two strings when you can loosen the same one string and pull the whole thing out at once…? What’s so hard about unscrewing the tuner knobs if you have to do them up again anyway? They have tools to eliminate turning your hand so much too, so I guess it’s just personal preference depending on how you restring your guitars, and there’s no right or wrong way to do it.

My thing is I like to save the old strings especially the high E and b which break more often and they’re great for other projects back in the day “70’s” we would boil the strings to bring them back and save money on new ones so take the small amount of time undo the strings and coil them back up

Nice guitar, thanks for demystify it

I like to detune the guitar before cutting the strings off, but only to avoid finish damage from high tension strings smacking the guitar.

I cut the strings off unless the guitar has a wraparound bridge and even in that case a folded up polishing cloth can allow one to do so. I just got finished with upgrades on an epiphone sg special and I replaced the bridge with one that is intonatable, new nut, tuners,pickups and electronics and I learned that as i went

When I was young with one or two guitars I use to save and reuse strings, after a while I would end up with BAGS (12x12) zip lock bags of used strings with dangerous pointy bits all throughout with some stuffed in packages with sharp syringe like metal poking out, at some point, it was hard, but I just tossed them all out and never looked back, and I like my necks to feel like wood not goo.

I never even thought about cutting strings when restringing guitars...I simply unwind them and locking tuners have made it even faster

3:35 did you just..... Yes you did I respect that

I usually loosen them up quite a bit before cutting them. I just always felt like it was the "right way". I also got to admit your sweat doing that to your strings, is pretty wild. I've never seen anything like that before.

Good video Irish Slenderman, Cutting a string at full tension is no different than when a string breaks. However, I prefer to always detune the string and then cut it as it doesn't allow the string end to fly and potentially scratch the finish. Tremolo bridges are also prone to bridge bite when strings are cut unless a cloth or something is placed between the bridge and the guitar top. This is just me though, I am a full-time self employed guitar tech and people pay me to take as good of care of their instruments as possible, I always lookout for the guitar's and owner's best interest.

When checking your guitar on a flight... Have an extremely rigid case & expect that case to have major damage (if not destroyed) when you pick it up at baggage claim. Most importantly, insure your instrument (and case it possible). Sure, they won't pay you what it's worth, but it's better than nothing.

I been playing for 40 years and have always cut my strings off . I do unwind them a bit since I had some stick into my hands several times !! Other then that once restrung the 100's of Guitars I have owned played fine and had new strings which is always nice .

I cut them all with pliers. I'm usually in a big rush to restring. My acquired wisdom is always wipe the strings after playing guitar. Strings last soooo much longer this way for me. Also if you break a string just change them all, it's not worth the stress of wondering when the rest will go. If that sounds expensive you're not buying very good strings.

3:33: Points for the "Full Metal Jacket" reference.

I re-use my strings on my home-made cigar box projects. I have also made jewelery out of em.