Is the g-string the most susceptible to breaking on an acoustic six string steel guitar

Welcome to DDO, young Padawan! Many exciting adventures will you find here; many exciting people will you speak kind here; many exciting debates will you mastermind here. Okay, that’s enough rhyming. Admonition: beware the lurking trolls who attempt to pollute the pristine waters of DDO; come on often for thrilling raconteurism and witty rhetoric. Cheers and beers!Signposting:I DefinitionsII Main ArgumentIII Counter ArgumentsI DefinitionsG-string - fourth largest string on a guitar, more commonly “plain,” but also sold in “wound”susceptible - yielding readily to or capable ofbreaking - the act of coming apartthinness - how thin (not wide) something isII Main ArgumentsC1: The high e-string is the most susceptible to breaking.The high-e string on an acoustic guitar is the thinnest string on that instrument. As a result, the high-e string is the most likely to be broken while playing, tuning, and stringing. Due to its thinness and susceptibility to breaking, guitar string manufacturers routinely sell sets of guitar strings with extra high-e strings and packs of high-e strings alone. Also, music stores buy their strings in bulk (usually 100 same-strings per box), and usually purchase more boxes of high e-strings because of the great demand for single high e-strings. With the lowest minimum, mean, and maximum tensile breaking strengths of 46.46, 53.09, and 59.73, respectively, the high e-string is statistically and scientifically the most susceptible to breaking.“The high-E strings on violins and guitars are the thinnest strings used on those instruments. Consequently, they are the most likely to break and need replacement.” -Charles Perry [1]C2: The G-string is more durable than the e and b strings.Plain G-string is more common than the wound G-string; however, both are larger, thicker strings that require more exerted force to bend or stress them to the breaking point than do the e and b strings. The wound G-string doesn’t have a lower tensile strength than the plain, because of the way the metal is wound, bound, and adhered to the core in a cohesive mass than in some instances improves string flexibility and stress resistance. Although the G-string has an more initial tension on the guitar, its tensile strength is much greater than the e or b strings. Using the equation S = UTS * π * (D / 2)2 the mean breaking strength of a medium set of acoustic strings is as follows: high e-string of .013 inches is 53.09 pounds, for the B-string of .017 is 90.79 pounds, and for the G-string of .026 inches in diameter is 212.37 pounds. Therefore, the G-string has triple the tensile strength of the B-string and more than quadruple the tensile strength of the e-string. Furthermore, the initial tensions of the e, B, and G strings are 27.4, 26.3, and 35.3 pounds, respectively, making the percentage of of initial tension to breaking tension the lowest for the g-String. This means less likeliness to break due to picking, bending, strumming, tuning, and stringing than the e and B strings. Please try the formula out for yourself at source [2]. [3]C3: The most common string broken is the high e-string.“The last string is also an e – only a couple octaves higher. That string is the thinnest string and is most prone to snap.” -Nic BordeauxSweat, finger acids, and atmospheric conditions further exacerbate the thin e-string’s propensity to break under stress more than any other string. This lends credence to the argument’s assertion. [4]According to the Ultimate Guitar discussion forums, the preponderant broken string by acoustic players was the high e-string. [5] According to another online guitar community, Music Banter, the preponderant broken string by acoustic players was the high e-string .[6]III Counter Arguments“I have snapped the g-string more than any other string.”There is most likely a sharp spot (burr) or defect on the nut or saddle that causes that specific string to break. Furthermore, this is anecdotal evidence based on a single claim from a single claimant. To truly understand which string is the most commonly broken, we need to increase the sample size to generate a reliable average. “I snapped the g-string from loosening and even a simple tuning adjustment.”This is most likely not a problem with the string, but rather the guitar. The burrs previously mentioned may be the source of this problem. Loosening the string would decrease its likeliness of breaking due to tension or stress; however, when a string is loosened it modulates longitudinally along both the nut and saddle, leading me to conclude that the g-string breakage is due exclusively to a burr or defect in your own guitar’s pieces.“The g-string is under the most tension.”However, it has more tensile strength relative to its initial tension than the e and B strings, rendering this argument moot. “In addition, more bends are done on the g-string.”In your personal idiosyncratic style of playing, this may be true; however, when looking at the situation objectively, the majority of acoustic players are “strummers” which means they pick back and forth with major contact points on the low-E and high-e strings with minimal bending or even soloing for that matter. When solos and single-note-runs are performed on an acoustic guitar, the musician infrequently employs a bending technique; a more frequently employed technique is vibrato which doesn’t affect the string enough to cause noticeable stress. So, on a whole and on average, the high e-string absorbs more stress; thus, increasing its susceptibility to breaking. It is for all of the previously stated reasons that the e-string is the most susceptible to breaking while the G-string is not.Thanks for reading and debating! :)[1] http://www.ehow.com...[2] http://liutaiomottola.com...[3] http://www.daddario.com... (click family tension chart)[4] http://reviews.ebay.com...[5] http://www.ultimate-guitar.com...[6] http://www.musicbanter.com...