The repair techs do it.
The sales people do it.
Pretty much everybody does it.
But don’t you do it. Don’t cut your steel strings.
I know. I know! Uncut strings look sloppy. But it is better to leave them original length. Besides being safer, they are easier to remove when longer. You play a lot and change your strings every month, right?
Coil them into little coils. Like this:
When cut with a side cutter, steel guitar strings become just like hypodermic needles. They are capable of bad (bad!) puncture wounds.
Why are original length strings safer than cut strings? The manufactures grind the ends of the strings so they are rounded. You can easily feel the difference. I have seen this operation in action at a steel string manufacturing plant.
Be safe people.
©2018 D.R. Hanna