New Strings

Well, Samurai Fretless is complete ...
for the most part. The Austrian flatwound classical
guitar strings could only be found online and if you have
a stringed instrument, I strongly encourage you to check out
String by Mail ( www.stringsbymail.com ). Their customer
service it is top notch. Prices? Way cheaper than local and
s/h is really cheap. They have strings for just about any
stringed instrument! I will definitely be buying from them again!

 

Being that it's a fretless and rosewood fingerboard,
my resto-mod project required a flatwound string.
After much research and talking to professional
musicians and luthiers, I concluded that the CF128N's
(with a wound 4th string) by Thomastik were
the right choice for me.

I still need to lower the height of the string nut, but
needed for the strings to adjust to the humidity/temp
level of the room for a day or so before I start
stretching, de~/re-stretching them multiple times as
they were cold from the Christmas weather of riding in
delivery trucks. I might work on that tomorrow.



I found that lacing wrapped strings around
the bridge/tie-block is a more tedious than I thought and
thus you can see that the bass E string only has one lace wrap,
but it's not a problem, because it's tight and I don't think
it will need to be adjusted.

 

I opted to not cut off the string slack at the headstock yet,
as I still need to make some additional adjustments. Also,
for the final roll of the strings, I may roll them again
to make them look a bit cleaner.

I would really like to purchase a hand-drill attachment
to wind the strings with just to speed things up.

Well, the guitar is playable even though the action is still
too high. It plays so different from a fretted guitar. I will
be able to adapt, but it will time some time to gain proficiency.
It's a nearly a different instrument altogether.

I'm glad I ventured into this project.
It was a lot of fun.