Dear A.G.

February 1996

I recently bought a new Gibson Montana J-200 and had the dealer install a pickup and a hole for the strap. He put the pickup in the bottom left side of the guitar instead of the bottom center, where the existing peg hole was located. Furthermore, he placed the hole for the strap on the top side of the guitar body near the neck. What are the proper locations for the pickup and the hole for the strap?
Raissa Kirk
Columbia, Maryland

I hate to say this, but I don't agree with your dealer's placement of either the jack hole for the pickup or the screw hole for your strap button. Neither is in what is considered the standard spot. With the availability of strap-button jacks, there is no need to put jacks in the sides of guitars, unless you use some very specialized functions that can't work with regular mono or stereo jacks. The strap jacks (available from Martin and other lutherie suppliers) bolt or screw into the endblock of the guitar, a very strong location, and replace the traditional endpin. If you do install a jack in the side of a guitar, you must reinforce the side or it will be very vulnerable to cracking and splitting. When I absolutely must put a jack in the side, I glue in a cross-grain veneer patch, approximately 2 inches by 2 inches, to strengthen the area.
I put the other strap button either into the heel cap (where it looks best) or into the treble side of the heel, about halfway between the heel cap and the fingerboard. If you choose to put the button on the side of the heel, however, be very careful to drill a pilot hole for the screw, and beware of bolt- on necks; you might be drilling into a hanger bolt or other hardware hidden in the heel.
--Rick Turner

My strings last only a short time because my hands sweat a lot. How can I minimize this problem and prolong the life of my strings?
J. Patrick Chambers
Avignon, France

There are several things you can do to keep perspiration from causing the premature death of your guitar's strings. First, try washing and drying your hands before you play whenever possible; then follow up with a brief string cleaning when your practice or performance is over. One of the cheapest and easiest ways to clean strings is to rub them down with a cotton cloth dampened with denatured alcohol. You don't need to soak the cloth, and you must be careful not to get the alcohol on the guitar's finish, as it may have an adverse effect on some lacquers and varnishes. Try hooking a corner of the cloth around each string and sliding the cloth up and down to get the underside (next to the fingerboard) clean as well. Do not keep the alcohol container in your guitar case, as it might leak. You can easily clean the fingerboard itself by gently scrubbing it with 0000 steel wool when the strings are removed, but you shouldn't have to do this every time you change strings. Cleaning the fingerboard once or twice a year should be adequate.
Anything you can do to keep your hands and strings dry will prolong the life of the strings. Some players keep a small towel in their back pocket and habitually reach back to dry their hands, even between songs. Others use talcum powder on their hands before playing. If sweat is running down your right arm, try wearing a terry cloth wrist band, the kind tennis players use.
No matter what precautions you take, your strings will still go dead eventually. If you're not blessed with string-safe body chemistry, however, you can make a little extra effort and get longer life and better tone from your strings.
--Richard Johnston

Recently I purchased a handmade sitar from an importer specializing in instruments from India. Since that time I have found it impossible to locate strings for it (the importer has since returned to India). Could you provide me with the address of anyone carrying sitar strings?
Joseph Epperson
Fulton, Missouri

The best source for strings for Indian instruments is the Ali Akbar College Store, located at 215 West End Ave., San Rafael, CA 94901; (415) 454-0581.
--Rick Turner