A really long time ago I wrote about my son drawing on one of my guitars (my classical guitar to be precise) and, as a result, busting some of the strings on the instrument. This wasn’t a problem. I wasn’t angry. The strings were getting old and needed to be replaced anyway. I just hadn’t gotten around to it yet. This would, I thought, force my hand. Alas, time and situation and circumstances out of my control left that job undone until this past week. We’ve changed states, homes, jobs, seasons, etc… and now the new strings are finally on the guitar. It took some doing on our part, but finally having the time was worthwhile.
Part of the reason that this didn’t take a priority is that I have two other guitars (I know, I know…), an electric and an acoustic. My guitar playing was not halted during this period. At any rate, my son and I sat down to restring the guitar and had a lot of fun. I wasn’t sure how helpful he could be in the restringing of an instrument, but he proved to be very interested and helpful. He could help me unwind the strings to lessen the tension enough for them to be removed. He could pull the strings out of the bottom end of the guitar and collect them for their eventual trip to the bin. He was surprisingly helpful and we had a really good time. He opened the packages, removed the individual strings, and tried to help me thread them through the bottom of the guitar. The part he didn’t like was tuning the strings. That takes a while (as they go out of tune while adjusting to the new tension placed upon them). He was so excited: he just wanted to play the guitar! I couldn’t blame him. I was excited too.