A very simple and fast way to make your own wire-wound strings.

In my musical experimentation, I often have need for wound strings.
Commercial strings for a full sized 4-string upright bass (my current 
project) are insanely expensive. This method makes a very nice 
sounding A and E string.

This is just a general how-to article - the basics here can be applied
to any wound string, be it metal core, synthetic core etc. This
morning I made a bass A string from .033 music wire (core) with #24
wire as the winding - whole process took about 15 minutes.

For the winding, I have used both copper and brass wire - on the order 
of 24 gauge - quite successfully. Brass is preferable. I have not 
tried other wires.

Once string is wound, I run sandpaper carefully up and down the 
rotating string to flatten off/smooth the top of the winding wire, 
thus creating a more or less "flat-wound" string. Finish off with fine
sandpaper. Steel wool tends to grab.

Click here for an illustration of this method

Dennis Havlena - W8MI

Click here to access my webpage