what do you guys do with old strings?

  • Thread starter Thread starter FALKEN
  • Start date Start date
A lot of these guys make their own guitars out of kerosene cans and other stuff we throw away, so any "real" guitar strings are greatly appreciated.

"The ramkie is the famous "blik kitaar" from Southern Africa; a home made guitar, using an empty oilcan for the body. The wooden neck is sometimes stuck all the way through the can; sometimes it is fixed to a wooden "lid" on the top. The 4 to 6 strings (if not of nylon) are made of unraveled bicycle brake wire. The frets are made from U-shaped pieces of wire stuck in the front of the neck. The kind of capodastre construction is usually just an upside-down bridge and can not be moved. The ramkie is mainly found in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia."
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http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/06/homemade_oil_can_guitar.html

Here's a kid playing his own version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUrehDU6vBA


And here's Norest Mukonomuwi playing his:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff9i9Knlsns

Talk about gear lust: a set of used guitar strings. Humbling stuff.

This is an address posted on Talkbass, but is old (2004) and apparently no one answers the email:

Alliance Française
To : M. Jacques Bounin
BP 916 Andavamamba
101 Antananarivo
MADAGASCAR
email : dgac@iris.mg

When I lived in Africa in the mid-sixties, I was able to have an acoustic guitar sent to my village, into which I installed a pickup and routed it through the preamp of a portable phonograph. They loved it.
 
I throw mine in the trash. They're trash. That's where they go.
 
Sirnothingness said:
I donate mine to retards, then they throw them in cases in case they break a string and dont have a new one at the moment.
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Thanks for the string donations but I don't know how to put them on when the ends are really "twisty", and they smell like fish.
 
i just gather them all together, roll em back up and put em back in the box/sleeve/package that the new ones came in, and then pitch that. if you do it right, there's nothing that'll poke anyone.

i like the strings for africa thing, though. if someone can find some viable information on it, i'll have to start "helping".


cheers,
wade
 
strings for africa ??

cool.... i could donate lots of lightly worn strings ...... how do i get into that ??
 
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