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Cheap Strings on New Chinese Celebrity's?

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   Forums Archive -> The Vault: 2007Message format
 
Old Man Arthur
Posted 2007-04-09 11:32 PM (#106188)
Subject: Cheap Strings on New Chinese Celebrity's?



Joined:
September 2006
Posts: 10777

Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR
Quick (dumb) Question--

What kind of strings do any y'all think they put on new Celebrity's?

The reason I ask is I have bought a new CC44, and a sorta new GC057 (factory USED).
Both of these guitars have left black crud on my fingers...
I haven't changed the strings on the CC44 yet.
But this one is (supposedly) really new, and I still got the same black crud.
I'm sitting here playing, and glance at my fingers, and I'm going "Yuck!"
But being the cheap sort that I am, I figured that I would play these until they crash, cuz they sound good. But...
Once again, Educate Me, Pleeze... :p
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Yak
Posted 2007-04-09 11:52 PM (#106189 - in reply to #106188)
Subject: Re: Cheap Strings on New Chinese Celebrity's?


Joined:
September 2006
Posts: 347

Location: Reno, NV
Might actually be the frets. When I got my applause AA13, I put D'addario EJ16's on it and it still turned the tips of my fingers black for a while. EJ16's don't do that on my 1771LX. So it must have been the tarnish on the frets. Its seems to have gotten much better now.
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Old Man Arthur
Posted 2007-04-10 12:11 AM (#106190 - in reply to #106188)
Subject: Re: Cheap Strings on New Chinese Celebrity's?



Joined:
September 2006
Posts: 10777

Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR
Yeah, Okay... Might be the varnish/oil/whatever from the wood too. I'll give it time. Even though it is new, when I change the strings (which shouldn't be too long) I will still clean and oil the fretboard with lemon oil. We'll see...

Keep those cards and letters and opinions coming.
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Elliot Meldoy
Posted 2007-04-10 3:48 AM (#106191 - in reply to #106188)
Subject: Re: Cheap Strings on New Chinese Celebrity's?
Joined:
April 2007
Posts: 225

Location: Stow, Ohio
The next time you restring the guitar, clean the fret board with fretboard cleaner (any music store)
and using masking tape, tape up each side of the fret, using cloth cymbal cleaner polish the frets and buff with a soft cloth. (any music store for the Cymbal cleaner)
In the past I have used my Dremel tool with a buffing wheel on it and some bufing compound and polished my frets. talk about sweet frets! unfortunately the effect doesn't last a long time.
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Jason_S
Posted 2007-04-10 4:02 AM (#106192 - in reply to #106188)
Subject: Re: Cheap Strings on New Chinese Celebrity's?


Joined:
August 2006
Posts: 2804

Location: ranson,wva
every time i change strings,wich is once a month i scrub the board down with naptha(lighter fluid) and 0000 steel wool then oil it..works for me....jason
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Elliot Meldoy
Posted 2007-04-10 4:43 AM (#106193 - in reply to #106188)
Subject: Re: Cheap Strings on New Chinese Celebrity's?
Joined:
April 2007
Posts: 225

Location: Stow, Ohio
Originally posted by Jason_S:
every time i change strings,wich is once a month i scrub the board down with naptha(lighter fluid) and 0000 steel wool then oil it..works for me....jason
The naptha doesn't dry out your fretboard!
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Jason_S
Posted 2007-04-10 4:45 AM (#106194 - in reply to #106188)
Subject: Re: Cheap Strings on New Chinese Celebrity's?


Joined:
August 2006
Posts: 2804

Location: ranson,wva
then oil it and its fine. i do all 7 of my ovations and my 2 teles that way every month. no ill effects here. i do repair work as well. do it to every guitar i work on....works for me...jason
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Elliot Meldoy
Posted 2007-04-10 4:54 AM (#106195 - in reply to #106188)
Subject: Re: Cheap Strings on New Chinese Celebrity's?
Joined:
April 2007
Posts: 225

Location: Stow, Ohio
Ok cool,
ya had me scared there for a second.
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Jason_S
Posted 2007-04-10 5:11 AM (#106196 - in reply to #106188)
Subject: Re: Cheap Strings on New Chinese Celebrity's?


Joined:
August 2006
Posts: 2804

Location: ranson,wva
it was recomended by several members here as well...jason
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Trader Jim
Posted 2007-04-10 5:35 AM (#106197 - in reply to #106188)
Subject: Re: Cheap Strings on New Chinese Celebrity's?


Joined:
June 2006
Posts: 7307

Location: South of most, North of few
Originally posted by Elliot Meldoy:
Ok cool,
ya had me scared there for a second.
Jason scares quite a few people around here.... ;)
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Jason_S
Posted 2007-04-10 5:37 AM (#106198 - in reply to #106188)
Subject: Re: Cheap Strings on New Chinese Celebrity's?


Joined:
August 2006
Posts: 2804

Location: ranson,wva
jim,but have i given any il fated advice in tha past year?? not that i can rember..lol jason
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Yak
Posted 2007-04-10 8:23 AM (#106199 - in reply to #106188)
Subject: Re: Cheap Strings on New Chinese Celebrity's?


Joined:
September 2006
Posts: 347

Location: Reno, NV
Dunlop 01 Fretboard Prep/Cleaner smells just like some sort of alcohol/solvent. Im not a solvent expert so I dont know exactly what it is, but it smells awfully familiar, Im betting that its just re-packaged bulk stuff you get from the hardware store, maybe Naptha, like said earlier.
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Old Man Arthur
Posted 2007-04-10 8:53 AM (#106200 - in reply to #106188)
Subject: Re: Cheap Strings on New Chinese Celebrity's?



Joined:
September 2006
Posts: 10777

Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR
Some crap that costs $60/Barrel...
The rest of the price is packaging/marketing.
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bauerhillboy
Posted 2007-04-10 9:14 AM (#106201 - in reply to #106188)
Subject: Re: Cheap Strings on New Chinese Celebrity's?


Joined:
February 2004
Posts: 1634

Location: Warren,Pa.
I'm the unofficial guitar tech at our church (aprox 700). A big part of what I do is take cheap guitars and clean them and set them up so they're easier to play than they were out of the box.

It's been my experience that Chinese-made guitars (among others) seem like they were built in the dirt. I throw the factory strings away. Then I apply a generous amount of Dunlop 65 fretboard lemon oil. I let it soak in for 2-3 minutes. If it soaks in almost completly I add another coat. Then I lightly rub (against the grain) with 0000 steel wool. I get the frets by sort of using my fingernail behind the steel wool to rub where the wood and frets meet.
I wipe everything down with a tissue, again digging in with my nail at the fret. the dirt is AWFUL!
Then I do all that again. Sometimes 3 times...'till I get no more dirt on the tissue.

I realize some of what I get off might not be dirt, but rather a light stain of some sort that they might use to give a more uniform look to the crappy wood (remember...these are not high-end guitars).

I do the same thing to the bridge. Then I put on a set of decent strings and adjust the action so it's as low as it can go w/o buzzing.

It doesn't look or feel like the same guitar after you do all this, and elbow grease was the biggest part of it all.

John <>{
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