Finally Changed Strings

[crank]

18 on 2 guitars yesterday. Man they sound soo much better now.

 

[Guildedagain]

I love a good string change. I try to keep stocked on strings, some great deals out there on multi packs ;}}

I keep a log of string changes, usually by saving a sleeve for the high E string and writing the guitar and date on it, but these new all plastic packs/sleeves don't give much to save. I miss the paper sleeves and thick vinyl outer packs. Too much throwaway stuff. D'addario does it right, all six string in one package.

 

[walrus]

I change 'em every couple of months. Used to do it every month. Love new strings on a guitar...

walrus

 

[dreadnut]

I have a love/hate relationship with strings; I hate changing strings but I love the result.

There should be a magic string fairy that changes your strings while you're asleep at night..

 

[richardp69]

Being the cheap SOB that I am, I seldom if ever, change strings until one breaks. Makes for some really nice guitars that don't sound anywhere near as good as they could.

 

[Stuball48]

Being the cheap SOB that I am, I seldom if ever, change strings until one breaks. Makes for some really nice guitars that don't sound anywhere near as good as they could.

Have a good friend and he plays a 1967 Martin D28. Said it sounds best after 9 months of playing. He does not like new strings. Of course his voice is far from perfect pitch - he may just be waiting for a match.

 

[Nuuska]

There should be a magic string fairy that changes your strings while you're asleep at night..

In music business they are called guitar technicians.

 

[GAD]

I've never understood the aversion some people have to changing strings, but then It's not often I'm considered "normal" so I can't judge. I also have 70-something guitars so I probably have more experience than most. I tend to like bright sounding guitars and the dead feeling and sound of old strings is just awful to me. Plus rusty strings kill your frets. People think it's their monkey grip or whatever, but rusty strings are like sliding a rope saw across the frets when you play.

Also, these are rope saws. They're basically a chainsaw that you power with your muscles.

I can change strings on an acoustic in under five minutes, but every time the strings come off I wipe down the frets with Gorgomyte, wipe down the fretboard with bore oil, and generally look over the guitar for any issues.

I can change strings on an electric with a stop tail in about the same time.

Add 5-10 mins on a Floyd Rose just because of the constant retuning as the strings stretch during the process.

Add about 30 minutes on a Bigsby so I can look up new cuss words to employ. Actually I've gotten a Bigsby stringing down to a science, though it's significantly easier with locking tuners. The key is constant tension on the string during the process.

 

[davismanLV]

I have a love/hate relationship with strings; I hate changing strings but I love the result.

This is pretty much me, right here ^^^. I love the result and it's really not that hard, but I make it hard by being a pain about stuff like, cleaning, fretboard conditioning, and then right off every guitar goes into standard tuning. Some stay, and some don't. Adding all the cleaning chores onto the simple string change makes it into a bigger project than I like so I can only really do one per day (24 hours) and it's a two cocktail job. Midway when the bore oil is sitting on the fretboard and bridge, is make a new Jameson Lemonade and take a break time. When I'm done I'm happy about the whole thing, but sufficiently over being so busy that I won't tackle another one. You guys with so many guitars, I just don't know how I'd deal with that.

The other thing I like as Guildedagain said, is having a decent stock of strings. And I have my favorites to where there's about three different brands in certain gauges and types that I keep with an oddball pack thrown in every now and again. I wish I was organized enough to log these but I'm not. But that's why I enjoy getting my string adverts in email from Strings & Beyond. Mike and his team there do a good job and with string prices being what they are, I wait for deals on the ones that I stock. So when Elixir 3 for 2 or 5 for 4 come along, I just buy 'em. D'addario the same way. GHS strings don't usually go on sale but they're not that expensive so I'll just throw some in on a 20% off holiday sale or something. So there's always something fun in the string pile to slap on a guitar and see how they do.

I've got the DV-72 and the Breedlove left to go. Since hip surgery, sitting at the table in a wobbly chair isn't exactly in my plans right now so I'll just calm down. I also have a huge bag of old used strings to send to D'Addario to recycle. Throwing nice metal like that into a landfill just makes me a little crazy, so if they can use or resuse the metal, then good on them.

 

[Quantum Strummer]

I dislike new strings and so rarely change 'em unless a string either goes wonky intonation-wise or breaks. I'm lucky in that my sweat and finger oils don't kill strings, so they usually last a good long while. I also prefer strings that start off dark-ish sounding, and so they don't change that much tonally over time.

Re. throwing out (or not) old strings: today's landfill is tomorrow's resource mine.

-Dave-

 

[crank]

I was lulled into not changing by a set of coated Elixers on my dread. they sounded fairly decent for a really long time. Played the 412 about a week ago and had to put her down for she sounded nothing like she should.

back to my regular strings now. Guitars and me be happy.

 

[Guildedagain]

I could send somebody a lot of old strings ;}} I see CL'ers asking for them once in a while. obviously a guitar peddler who doesn't like to buy strings... I'm not one to mix and match brands unless I have to, but at one point this early spring while trying to come up with custom gauges for my harmonix only playing, I decided to break down many string packages into singles, then choose the gauges you want

.

I also have GHS and some D'addario, but these are all Ernie Ball strings, the bespoke electric trebles being just fine for acoustic, probably the same strings regardless of color of package. I've always had a lot of strings on hand... I need string security.