What Is The Soonest You Change Strings?

I change strings probably every third month .. for me the eb slinky cobalt strings sounds great for a long time. Plus I never
touch a guitar without washing my hands first .. when I used ddario's I switched every other month or so .. and they were usually totally worn out ..
not the cobalt ones they are awesome imho

:)
 
I change strings before every gig on all the guitars I bring. At home, if I play alot I will change them around every 2 weeks. If I play less, whenever I need to.
 
Pro tip #1

A slip of heavy paper wrapped around your unwound strings and drawn across them from nut to saddle will remove a lot of gunk in a pinch. Do not use tissue or thin paper because the string can cut right through it if your forceful and guess what it cuts into next....so just go slow and firm. This won't give you that pristine new string sparkle, but it will significantly revive the high's and increase sustain. You'd be amazed how much gunk can build up on a string after just one set.

Don't do this on wound strings as the paper will gunk up the coils, which is why strings die....the more sweat, gunk and dirt is trapped in the coils, the more flat they sound.

Pro tip #2

Learn to tie what we call the savior knot. If a string breaks and you don't have any new ones, you can re-use the string (dependent on the type of breakage and floyd/nofloyd/saddle/nut locations + how much extra winding you have) by tying the two pieces together. In my experience so long as you cinch it down your string stability will be unaffected. If you do not, you can have sudden slippage.....so make sure you do. Really helps to have needle nose pliers for this and pre bend your horse shoe shapes (see figure D) with both strings, but it can be done in a pinch with just fingers.

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Lastly, Pro tip #3

For you all you misers, penny pinchers and techs having to throw up hail mary's for a last minute showcase you can boil dirty strings for a few minutes, this will remove the dirt and oil from the windings, this won't take'em back to new new, but you'll be pleasantly surprised with how good stone cold dead strings can sound after 10 solid minutes in a rolling boil.
 
I rarely break strings. I'm pretty heavy handed, and I use extra heavy picks too. I usually have to worry about rust long before I worry about breakage. But I also take a minimum of 6 to 12 packs of strings to gigs for emergencies.


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NeoSound said:
I really like the Fred pickup but it can be a little weird at times. The Mojoe is in the same ballpark but tamed down somewhat with slightly more gain. I love the tone of the BK Rebel yells but they seem a little less dynamic when using the volume knob compared to the Fred.
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Really appreciate all the feedback. And the reference to the Mojoe pickups, and the different strings. Also the tip to create presets when the strings are several hours old.

Soon I will have $ to buy more guitars, use a variety of pickups, try a variety of strings. Not sure about spreading Vaseline on; that's about like spreading a spoon of mayonnaise on the strings. I can see mineral oil maybe.. (which seem to me to be what fast fret is)
 
During periods when being hired for full time touring I used to change strings every fourth day, the only way to play safe from popping strings at show time. That was paid for by the event production company, privately I'd rather play a set until a string breaks to save my own money.
 
Mark's Tone said:
I run my finger under each string.

If I can feel indents from the frets in a string I change out the set.
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That's a new one for me!

Wouldn't indents (or lack of) depend on how hard the player frets? A light-touch player could have years-old dead strings with no indents?
 
Robboman said:
That's a new one for me!

Wouldn't indents (or lack of) depend on how hard the player frets? A light-touch player could have years-old dead strings with no indents?
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It's possible that what he's actually feeling is the dead spots where there's no gunk because of rubbing the frets. If you just rub your finger across the back of the string it could feel like there are indentations.....because just thinking out loud here but you'd have to fret the **** out of a string to actually kink it on a fret. Course he may just be one of those gorilla fisted sonufaguns or maybe the rest of us should take our purses off before we play.
 
To clarify, for me it is the D string I will feel small indents on the string.

Its what I've come to use after 37 years of playing.

I am a medium light finger fretter.:lol

I keep my strings squeaky clean at all times.
 
TexasChris said:
because just thinking out loud here but you'd have to fret the **** out of a string to actually kink it on a fret.
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Not really, I have seen small dents develop on my strings over my frets, and I use 11's. It usually only happens if I leave them on for a few months, though. I do bend a lot, and I can be heavy handed, but wear is wear.


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Soonest? 2 months. I keep a record. I write the dates in the strings packs and keep them in my cases. Normally it's 2-3 months. Even my main guitar. I play it 2-3 hours a day. Even when I'm recording with it. I like the sound of broken in strings, as well as the feel.
 
BrainalLeakage said:
Not really, I have seen small dents develop on my strings over my frets, and I use 11's. It usually only happens if I leave them on for a few months, though. I do bend a lot, and I can be heavy handed, but wear is wear.


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Come to think of it....I have seen that....but id describe them more like flattish spots....same thing though. The word indent just threw me (obviously made me think of "kink" ( surely y'all won't let me get away with that)) but yeah, I'm on the same page now.

Definitely a sign that some replacements are in order. Or if you're me.....that you only have 6 more months on that set. ;)
 
I use to try to change strings twice a year, but with 45 guitars that got to be too much, so I went to once a year. Then we sold our house, rented for a few years, bought a new house, gutted it, so it's been over three years. Haven't had any complaints as a result.
 
So "indents" was not effective communication skills.

I should have used "flattish spots" .:ambivalence:

Anyways, run your pointer or middle finger of your picking hand under your clean strings. Feel any "flattish spots" ?

That is the point at which I will change out my strings. Or wires. Or stretched out metal things. Whatever you prefer.:lol
 
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