I’ll include here a few tips for guitar players. Let me know if you want me to cover anything.

Behind-the-nut string ties.

This is for those of us who use real silk in the core of their bass strings, not modern nylon imitation silk. I get these strings from Aquila-Corde.

Problem: These strings often break behind the nut. A lot depends on the break angle over the nut, and the width of the shaft or dowel of the tuner. If the tuner is too thin, the wrap on the string breaks up more easily. Plus, real silk does not stretch (unlike nylon silk) and so is more likely to snap.

Solution: Cut the bass string short by an inch or so, so it doesn’t reach the tuner shaft. Then wrap around it an old gut string – though it is cheaper to use a nylon twine equivalent.

How? Pujol shows us how in Volume 1 of his Guitar School. I use the wonderful English translation from Editions Orphee. Here is the pertinent page (but I recommend buying all three books).

And here’s a video with the first attempt: