Restring 5th Avenue?

jscjr64 · #1 01-21-2011, 08:24 PM

Tonight I tried to restring my new 5th Avenue for the first time -- have restrung my own flat-top many times, but never an archtop. Read the instructions here and all seemed straightforward. But when I got to work, I noticed that my tailpiece has some sort of black tape/plastic/rubber piece running along the bottom which covers the grooves for the strings and keeps them from coming out of their slots. Is this just something stuck on for shipping purposes and which can be peeled off, or is there a way to get the strings out while leaving this in place? Thanks.

brad4d8 · #2 01-21-2011, 08:43 PM

My guess is to hold the strings when being shipped with little or no string tension. I have three archtops and have owned several others over the last 40 years and never saw anything like that.
Brad

clem_gael · #3 01-21-2011, 08:45 PM

the first time I restrung my 5th avenue, I took it off.
Don't know exactly what it is...
I have the guitar for almost 2 years...restrung it about 20 times....nothing to worry about.

mr. beaumont · #4 01-21-2011, 09:24 PM

Pretty sure brad has that right. Peeled it off the first time I changed strings on mine.

Norman931 · #5 01-21-2011, 09:29 PM

You can change strings with it on. I haven't taken mine off, though I thought about it. I've only changed my strings twice since I bought the guitar.

Eddie Lang · #6 01-21-2011, 11:59 PM

That's good to know. I bought a used 5th Avenue a few month ago to use as a travel guitar and I had been wondering the same thing as the original poster. I did cause the little strip to start to peel from under the low E and I thought I had screwed up.

Not to hijack this thread, but what strings do you guys use on the 5th Avenue?

Norman931 · #7 01-22-2011, 04:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eddie Lang

Not to hijack this thread, but what strings do you guys use on the 5th Avenue?

I like the Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Swing flatwound mediums. I tried LaBella tapewounds first, but didn't care for the tone.

GodinFan · #8 01-22-2011, 06:47 AM

On the acoustic - D'addario medium phosphor bronze; the electric gets D'addario Chromes with a .012" E string.

jscjr64 · #9 01-25-2011, 07:02 PM

The official Godin response to my question is that the strings can be removed from the bottom of the tailpiece (i.e., toward the lower bout) without removing the black strip. (This had never occurred to me.) I accomplished this by cutting the loosened string in two around the bridge and sliding the small piece out, ball-end first.