Folks, it has been over 1 month since I have started playing (holding ) the guitar (steel string). At first I felt I should be careful with the strings. Now I get the feeling they are pretty strong. With this feeling I wonder what makes the strings break? Are there any weak spots from where a string breaks more frequently? Also how long can you be playing before expecting a string to break ANYTIME?
strings generally have a lifetime. you tune them, they gradually stretch and you tune them again, so virtually you keep stretching them. also, regular use means wear and tear as it encounters friction and the oil secreted by skin. the uncovered strings, strings 1 and 2 (and sometimes 3) are the ones that tend to break the most. one thing that has to be kept in mind is the force with which the pick hits the string. i've seen people being really brutish to their guitar.
your question is of partucalr interst to metallurgical engineer and mechanical engineer ... andto some extent the cvil engineer too that happens coz the wirereaches its platic limit ... as u elongate the wire ... it remain elastic (that is it retains its shape once realesed) ... then it strats going to palstic region ... then necking starts (the point known as yield strenght) ... and the wire snaps ... this happens due to realigment of the crystalline structure of the metal ...
ohn yeah! thats my language .. and OTHER reason being .. the hole in the tuning posts kinks the wire .. thus it becomes bent ...stretches and breaks ... OR rust ... or plain brutal strumming
Excellent explainations everyone. I believe that the tuning thingy ... stretch stretch strech ... snap, as you explained, takes the toll. Good to be enlightened. I love to know the mechanics of all this.
To exemplify the "realignment of the crystalline structure" , lemme tell ya something :beer: . Edge dislocations tend to form when you pass the elastic limit of a sample. These edge dislocations can overlap, clash at the grain boundries and can create a volume defect in the crystalline structure. For the steel string, it has a FCC structure with Ni (about 8-10 %) as intersticial sites. These collectively create an irreversible mutation in the FCC structure and make the steel string plastic. This behaviour can toughen the steel, but simultaniously make it less strong. This might lead to a permanent dislocative grain boundries and can reach the fracture point (yield strength). And thats what causes the breakage... : Hehe.... this is how you envision an edge dislocation, where the burgers vector is perpendicular to the unit tangent vector. Screw dislocations might also occur, but we are just considering the shear stress in this case Click below https://img232.imageshack.us/img232/6291/vg403ng.gif Mathematical details are hard to express here :think:. But the yield stress (sigma ys) can be found by using the "Petch-Hall" equation. You can find it on the net. Google it. :rock: Hope this helps : PS - I have a test on this stuff next week :
