Useful String Life?

[Roger...]

Hi All,

What is the general consensus on string life?

I play my guitar for about ½ hour, to an hour each day, and change my strings every 2 months or so. I suppose that equates to about 50-60 hours.

How often do the rest of you change your strings, and for what reason. Do you change them when they lose their brightness, or just as a matter of course?

Best regards
Roger

[Andy Cook]

Hi Roger

I do the same as yourself.

I Play about 1/2hr to an hour most days, and also change my strings about every 2 months, as a matter of course, and they sound a lot better and brighter once changed.

So about 6 times a year, I always use 11-48 Rottosound Reds.

I'm sure different makes have a longer or shorter life.

Best regards
Andy

[Roger...]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the reply. I tend to use different makes. 10 to 46's in D'Addario, Rotosound, Ernie Ball, etc.

Kind regards
Roger

[Charlie Hall]

I always clean my strings after each playing session with Fast Fret or Finger-Ease. Doing that increases the strings life dramatically.
Regards,
Charlie

[Roger...]

Hi Charlie,

I like the sound of that. can you obtain it from most High St music shops, or do you have to order it over the internet?

Kind regards
Roger

[Charlie Hall]

Hi Roger,
Fast Fret should be obtainable from most music shops. The last one I bought was £5.99, might be a bit more by now. The tub comes with a small cloth and a block that looks a bit like a shaving stick. You just rub the end of the stick over the length of the strings and then use the cloth to clean off the front and rear surface of each string. I use my fingernail behind the cloth to make it more effective when cleaning back surfaces.
As I don't perspire much I can make each set of strings last for months, but have also found that on some dead sounding guitars the strings seem to go dead more quickly.
Regards,
Charlie

[Roger...]

Hi Charlie,

My hands don't perspire much either, but I do like the idea of the string dressing. I'll pick some up from my local music shop and give it a go.

Kind regards
Roger

[rjdupe]

Hi Roger and all,
Interesting one. When I was buying a Strat certainly some of the guitars tried were rather dull on the bass strings but when I pointed this out in the shop they changed the strings on the spot and it made a huge difference. I think it is generally accepted if you play with 'dry' fingers then the strings are meant to last a lot longer. I do know some people change them every week or even twice a week! I generally change mine when they noticeably loose brightness, usually about every 3 months.(about half an hour per day on average) Because the string sound tends to change gradually most people don't notice it until the new bright tone is lost to a great extent.

Regards to all,

Robert

[TonyL]

Blimey do you have to change the strings , I thought they were only replaced when they broke . I've still got the original strings on my Squire Strat that I bought 8 years ago. I quite like the tone down on the bass strings for some of the older, mellow stuff like Peace Pipe and Blue Star.

Admittedly I only play at home for my own enjoyment and have only just over the last 2 or 3 months started 'playing' again after a break of around 40 years. When i bought the strat back at the end of 2001 I had intended to start playing again but after about 6 months I gave up again as work got in the way. Now I'm retired out here I've got a lot more time on my hands.

Before I left the UK I did buy a set of Golden Sixties nickel strings with the intention of changing them but haven't got round to it, also they are 11s and I presume the original strings on my strat are 9s so that would cause me a few problems if I change them, nut slots for one thing.

[peterbower]

Hi guys
Interesting subject, I guess it varies from one to another.
Bruce Welch told me once that he fitted new strings on Hank's guitar for him before going into the studio to record. So I guess many of those famous tunes we love were on fairly new strings.
Bruce did not tell me what make they were and I forgot to ask.

Peter

[spikestevens]

Interesting subject.

I have to change strings regularly because I'm gigging a lot and I constantly play at home when I'm not.

I'm a funny old sod at times because I don't like new strings: I like them well played-in. New strings are way too twangy for my liking: I prefer the warmer, more mellow sound you get when you've had the strings on for a while.

[martyn]

Jan 30, 2010 18:23:12 GMT spikestevens said:

Interesting subject.
I'm a funny old sod at times because I don't like new strings: I like them well played-in. New strings are way too twangy for my liking: I prefer the warmer, more mellow sound you get when you've had the strings on for a while.

New strings make a nice groinchy sound, albeit not always very Shads-like in tone and I find the tricky part is judging when they're sounding nicely played in before going really dull.
Elixir Nanowebs seem to keep their newness longer, dulling down quite slowly and equally over a period of time, whereas having just tried some D'Addario 10s, I was quite disappointed that they seemed to really dull off all of a sudden - but not all of them,which either left me debating whether to try buying individual replacements as each went off or just ditch the lot and go back to the Elixirs with their more uniform wear timings.

I tried a new US strat in my local shop recently that had new Fender 10 Bullets fitted as I watched and I thought they sounded most un-Fender like, if that makes sense. Had I not known what I was playing I would have been hard pressed to tell it was a strat from the sound alone. Can't put it into words but the guitar just sounded wrong - you'd have imagined Fender would want their strings to be the best sounding to match their guitars, but I don't know anyone in our shads club who uses their strings, which in itself may be significant

Back in the sixties I used Ernie Ball strings but they went dull in a matter of hours - don't know if that still apllies nowadays. Recently tried Newtone 11s and they sounded really sweet but the wound third was too quiet even with my staggered poles. Barry at Burns said he uses D'Addarios for gigging work but always changes to Newtones for recording and he's mightily impressed with these (I presumed 10s with plain third).

Some or none of this may be of help, of course . . .

Cheers,
Martyn