guitar stRing

whenever a single guitar string breaks, you're supposed to replace all of the strings at the same time. it keeps the sound consistent, rather than one new string sounding richer and brighter than the older ones. this has always felt a bit of a dismal waste since you end up throwing away 5 fully functional strings.

upcycling

in an effort to do something creative with the "refuse", i made myself this now-kinda-lame-in-retrospect ring. one of my friends somehow loved it and asked me to make one for her. the stakes skyrocketed. whether she faced mockery or adulation for this jewelry lay tragically in my hands.

a better ring

guitar strings have what's called an "anchor" at the end which, go figure, anchors them in place on the bridge of the guitar:

i decided this could provide an ugly, cheap, and easy authentically guitarish substitute for the inset typically found on women's rings.

process

see the little v-shaped gap below the anchor? i threaded the end of the string through that gap, which created a loop, and then used a mandrel to get said loop to the correct size. from there, it was a simple matter of wrapping/twisting the string around itself:

if you lack a mandrel, you could easily just put the loop around a finger and tighten it to fit.

finishing it up

on the third pass wrapping the string around itself, i threaded the end of the string through the anchor. i then used wire cutters to trim the excess poking out:

were i a more prudent man, i probably would've put some solder inside the anchor to help hold it in place, but it seemed fairly stable on its own. i manually wiggled the anchor to adjust it to the angle i wanted, and voila! it was finished.

other rings

i ended up making 3 more rings until i finally made one for myself that i really liked. the first used a plain steel b-string wrapped around itself some ridiculous number of times, and the second was a g-string *ha* with 2 wraps.

ultimately, an a-string with 3 wraps won out. unfortunately, if you don't thread the end of the string into the anchor (not really a good look for a masculine ring), you end up with 2 pokey ends of the guitar string just stabbing you. i found a good youtube video describing how you can use thin wire (i went with 23 gauge kanthal used for vape coils) to wrap the ends, but i'm probably (not because i'm lazy) going to keep trying to find some more aesthetically pleasing solution for the pokey bits. still, the unsightly kanthal stays tucked under my finger, and i'm super pleased with the result thus far :)