Wanna hear about a frustrating day?

[DHW]

So I wanted to try out the Curt Mangan strings and there are 4 dealers in the extended area... You know what this idiot did? I didn't call first... Drove an hour to the first one and he was fresh out... Drove to the second one and didn't have them either... Drove to #3 and all they has were acoustic strings... #4 wasn't opening for a couple hours so I gave up... Ran back to GC on the way home and picked up 6 sets of DR titefit 10-46 and went to get some ernie ball wonder wipe fretboard conditioner(that stuff rocks by the way if you haven't tried it)... They were out! Said screw it and headed home... On a whim I ran into the local small shop. They have a jar of a mix of the 3 wonder wipe flavors... I pull every single one out and find only 2 fretboard... Bought them and went home...

Cleaned, gun stock oiled, and gun stock waxed the music man neck since it hadn't been done in a while and then stripped the strings off 5 electrics and an acoustic, polished every single fret, and then did all the fretboards quick while there was moisture in the wipes... Dusted/polished every nook and cranny on all the instruments... Ready to restring...

First up, my core custom 24... Get it strung up, adjusted the bridge a smidge, checked relief, got it tuned... Started checking intonation on string 1... a little tweak here and there as I moved up the strings, no big deal... I get to the low E string and it's FLAT... I have NEVER had a low E string flat, like really flat... I start moving the saddle and it's not changing much... I get to the point of there being like 1 thread of the adjustment screw still holding on and it's still flat.... Has to be the string right?

Rip open the next pack of new strings and pull the low E string out and string it up... Same thing.... Rip open a pack of titefits I have had in my drawer for over a year... same thing... We aren't talking a little flat here... With the saddle all the way forward it was off 25-30 cents!

Grab the kid and the remaining unopened strings and drive a half hour back to GC and return those and just bought a 12 pack of d'addario xl's... Came home, completely restrung it... Tweaked the bridge, checked the neck, started intonating... Perfect... BUT... At this point it is 8pm and my daughter has band rehearsal the next day(today) and there isn't a guitar in the house with strings on it... 12:30am by the time I got everything done... I started this journey at 10am!

Maybe I will think ahead next time and order the strings I want to try before I actually want to try them...

 

[László]

Man, that's gotta be a "tear your hair out" kinda day!

I've had similar days with studio re-wiring, where I get everything apart, and can't find the right length cables or snakes.

 

[alantig]

Reminds me of installing my first MIDI card in a PC. Couldn't have been simpler - set a couple jumpers to an unused IRQ, and good to go, right?

Nope. Despite the IRQ being clear, it wouldn't work. I ended up trying every possible IRQ on the card, no luck. I eventually had to change an existing IRQ, then set the new one to the one that had been in use to get it to work. Should have been a 15-minute job, turned into over three hours.

And yet we call this stuff 'fun'!

 

[gush]

I used to use DR strings but I had some issues like what you talked about so I don't use them any more.

 

[DHW]

Don't even get me started on computer stuff! 20 years in IT and I've had more than my fair share of "5 minute jobs"!

 

[Alan Manning]

Oh man I thought it was just me. bought a Bernie from a shop in west London yesterday (I live on the coast) logged the address in the sat nav & off I went. Sat nav fell off the dash & broke half way there, did 2 u turns on kew bridge over the thames finally found the shop after driving round bloody Hampton Court for an hour. The guys broke into maybe it's because I'm a Londoner last night but all's well that ends well I suppose. I can laugh at it now ha ha !!!.

 

[alantig]

GPS - yoi! One of the best things ever - and sometimes one of the most frustrating. When I was in Annapolis in October, I wanted to hit the Harley Davidson shop to get a shirt for my buddy. I searched for the shop by name, found it, good to go. Followed the directions and heard the dulcet tones of Billy Connolly telling me "You have reached your destination" - as it sailed by because I was on the highway. I eventually had to stop and put in the actual address - that got me to the place.

 

[Blues Trucker]

Oh man I thought it was just me. bought a Bernie from a shop in west London yesterday (I live on the coast) logged the address in the sat nav & off I went. Sat nav fell off the dash & broke half way there, did 2 u turns on kew bridge over the thames finally found the shop after driving round bloody Hampton Court for an hour. The guys broke into maybe it's because I'm a Londoner last night but all's well that ends well I suppose. I can laugh at it now ha ha !!!.

Youve got a Bernie now. Doesnt seem like anything short of Nuclear Holocaust could make that a bad day.

 

[vchizzle]

Well that sucks! I've run into a string that wouldn't intonate properly, but never more than one.

 

[DHW]

It sure didn't make any sense to me...