Help with outside leathers

[D3STRO]

Alright, so I started stringing my first custom pocket last night and after some adjustments and some head scratching ... I got the center channel done.

Now I am stuck ... I used the ball and knife trick for the center leathers but how do you know where to put the outside leathers when you are stringing ... i have eyeballed them to a spot I think will make the pocket nice and full but I haven't begun stringing the sides yet because I have no idea if that is correct. Can somebody help with 2 questions.

How do determine where the outside leathers are?

How tight do you string it?

If I am not asking the right questions, then please let me know and I will try to explain it better.

***I changed traditional to custom to make it more clear***

[Jugthug42]

Traditional you should have started with an outside leather and the sidewall.

Are you doing a pita or other variant?

[D3STRO]

yeah ... i should have been more specific. I am kind of "shooting from the hip" if you know what I mean ... it would be considered more of a variant, so I started with the center. sorry that wasn't clear

[Meade Lacrosse]

I'm not that good a stringer, so you might not even want my advice, but what do you mean as to why you started in teh center? Aren't trads uniform all over? unless your talking about a pita ,which creates a channell, and does the trad on the rest.

[MaKiMaKi13]

the outside leathers go in the outside holes at the bottom of the head? its just like stringing any other trad pocket look at kryptics pita tutorial and if you strung a center channel, then you should proceed to string the outers and then the inners, hope that helps

[D3STRO]

i know what holes to put the leathers through ... its how tight to tie them off which is confusing me ... but outside in helps ... thanks for that point

[DRobinson1692]

i hate saying this but guestimate

on an rp you would have them fairly tight but on a pita/trad you would have them a little more loose

and right now you'll want to string from the sidewall to the outside leathers first

[koobert]

i have a brine pocket screw (great investment if you dont have one) and what i do is on the outer edge of the bigger wood thingy (for lack of better term) i tape down the outer leathers. this usually leads to a good pocket shape. with a ball and a knife, try using just a thin piece of tape to attach the leathers to the side of the ball. then pull tight and string.

[D3STRO]

thx for the help guys ... all done ... pics tonight