It’s an age-old quandary for guitarists: what in God’s name to do with the tangle of old guitar strings you’re left with once you’ve restrung your favorite axe?
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They poke your fingertips, whish through the air alarmingly close to your eyeballs, and when all’s said and done, they refuse to stay in the bin. It’s almost as though they have a life of their own: try to ball them up, and they will find a way to jumpscare you when you least expect it.
Plus, once they finally do make it into the bin, and then to the landfill, what comes next? There’s no way those things are good for the environment. Won’t anyone think of the dolphins?
That’s where FRET12‘s String Thing comes in.
String thing, collage by viceMeet String Thing, the guitar string upcycling mummy figurine that’s guaranteed to be the best idea anyone has ever come up with concerning used guitar string disposal.
FRET12 founder Dan Tremonti came up with the idea for String Thing as a stroke of luck. The musician/entrepreneur told me in a video call, “I was sidestage at a show, and I was talking to a tech who was changing strings. When he opened up the drawer, he had a bunch of these coiled up strings with gaff tape on ’em. It was cool that he held on to em. If I could have those strings off of my favorite guitar player’s guitar, that’d be an amazing collectible.”
“He gave me some, and they ended up in my junk drawer at home. A while later, I was going through there and there was a 007 action figure wrapped in the strings. So I pulled it out, and I mummified it.”
That original guitar-string-mummified James Bond figure inspired him to design String Thing, a collectible DIY figurine that’s totally customizable and the perfect way to dispose of your guitar strings—while also adding an altogether-ooky vibe to your studio desktop or bookcase.
(opens in a new window) Fret 12String Thing (opens in a new window)
Available at Fret 12 Buy Now (opens in a new window)String thing: Let your strings live on forever
Before you begin mummifying your String Thing, it appears to be nothing more than a nondescript 8.75″ mannequin plugged with a grid of 139 tiny holes. But a couple string changes later, you’ll start to see your String Thing take on a life of its own.
“We approached it like a toy,” Tremonti said. “It’s meant to collect, and let your story and music live on, and sit between full recycling and putting them in the bin. A lot of people don’t think about their strings, but that’s kind of the soul of your playing—that’s your 10,000 hours.”
Watch my own personal String Thing evolve:
it’s a work in progress ¯_(ツ)_/¯Keep Your strings (And the Earth) From the tomb
Again, not only does a fully-wrapped String Thing look badass as hell on your desk, bookcase, or amp, but it helps you pitch in by keeping your old strings out of landfills. “we’re very big into upcycling,” said Tremonti. “In our shop, everything is repurposed.”
Tremonti asserted that FRET12 and String Thing, above all else, are about “adaptive reuse from an earth-conscious standpoint, but also a storytelling standpoint.”
“We’re aligned with our friends at D’Addario—the Playback program, recycling. We’re trying to sit in that gap between them—full recycling—and change the mindset on strings to thinking about them differently. Think about them as this memento, a testament to your hard work. And if you gotta pitch ’em, recycle ’em through Playback.”
I asked Dan about any plans for their own String Thing buyback program. “Realistically, yes, we’re talking about it now,” he told me. “One thing that’s funny, is that people ask all the time like, ‘can I buy it wrapped?’ It’s definitely part of what we’re working on. Our recycling bin is coming in the next few days.”
“But,” he reminded, “we want people to hold on to ’em forever!”
fret12’s Mission: “Totally Analog”
“A big part of how FRET12 started was, people only see a small fraction of music. They see live performances, they see interviews, and consume music—but there’s so much that happens behind the scenes,” Tremonti said.
“We’ve been described as a back alley into everything music. We provide insider access… our shop is literally in a music venue (Chicago’s Salt Shed), the artists are stopping in all the time. Growing up, we loved going to the record store, guitar shop, or the skateboard shop—even if you didn’t have a penny, you wanted to be around the culture.”
Fret12’s brick and mortar, located inside chicago venue the salt shed at 1357 N. Elston Ave.Tremonti emphasizes the brand’s place as, well, a place, in an increasingly digital world. “We’re totally analog. There’s a fork in the road right now, and we’re on the analog trail. We do a lot of stuff by hand. We make a lot of things, from art to collectibles, to handmade clothing that’s really inspired by road-worthiness.”
That said, they do have a website, and it looks really cool! Check out more of FRET12’s “totally analog” products below, and browse their site to see the full range of products, plus guitar lessons from artists, in-store sessions, and more.
More cool fret 12 products to check out
(opens in a new window) Fret 12FRET12 x Earthquaker Devices Hoof Fuzz Pedal (opens in a new window)
Available at FRET12 Buy Now (opens in a new window)This special edition Earthquaker Devices Hoof pedal features custom String Thing artwork. Wrap your guitar tone in gauzy layers of silicon and germanium fuzz. Spoooooky.
(opens in a new window) Fret 12F BOMB TEE (opens in a new window)
Available at FRET12 Buy Now (opens in a new window)FRET12 actually cuts and sews their own clothing themselves. This graphic tee speaks for itself.
(opens in a new window) Fret 12Green Room Candle (opens in a new window)
Available at FRET12 Buy Now (opens in a new window)I’ve been in my fair share of green rooms and have yet to enter one that smells like birch bark, fig and bergamot. But this candle will lend the perfect vibe to your rock ‘n’ roll lair regardless. (We all know the real “green room candle” is a beer bottle full of cigarette butts. That doesn’t smell anywhere near as nice.)
Learn more at FRET12.com.
The post Haunted by Dead Guitar Strings? String Thing Lifts the Curse appeared first on VICE.