How often?

[john]

How often do you change your guitar strings, and what strings do you buy?

I try to change my strings every two months. On my acoustic I use D'Addario Phosphur Bronze light gauge, and I use Dean Markley light guage on my electric guitar.

Do you guys do any other regular maintenance of your guitar? Fret board oil etc?

Cheers

John

[Nightwolf]

When the G String breaks, usually ever 6 months or so

D'Addario for acoustic

DM Slinkys or hybrids for the electrics.

[Steve]

Since I've not been playing, I generaly change strings when it's absolutely desperate! I recently had cause to change my Acoustic strings. I had been having some fret buzz problems and I decided to lowere the fret height on the whole neck to make it more comfortable to play. So I stripped the guitar and stoned the whole neck! Plays like a dream now!

[FinnArild]

Not often enough, and D'Addario EXL140 (.010-.052)

[Rudi]

I only change strings when they 'dull-up'. This is about every 4 months on the Jackson.

I used to change strings on the accoustic every week in my early days. However, this was when I was into exotic tunings & used to alter tunings a couple of times a day. That will wear strings extreemly rapidly.

The Jackson has the locking nut at the headstock, so tuning (small adjustment within concert tuning) is rare. This goes a long way to explaining the longevity I think.

[Alistair]

D'Addario must be making loads of money. I use them too, lights 0.10.

I change them every couple of months so am due for another change soon.

Apparently you can buy strings now coated in gore-tex which stops them gettin dirty and they last ages. About 3 times the price though.

I kid you not.

[Songstuff]

D'Addario must be making loads of money. I use them too, lights 0.10.

I change them every couple of months so am due for another change soon.

Apparently you can buy strings now coated in gore-tex which stops them gettin dirty and they last ages. About 3 times the price though.

I kid you not.

I wonder how much it affects the tone. Or sustain.

[Alistair]

I wonder how much it affects the tone. Or sustain.

I've no idea but I expect they are great in the rain!

Where do you buy your strings? There are some really cheap internet sites apparently.

If you are too skint to buy new strings, you can just boil up the old ones like spaghetti and they sound new again.

But it's tricky to get them 'al dente'!

[Rudi]

Dont that make the neck warp?

[john]

Dont that make the neck warp?

[Steve]

I've no idea but I expect they are great in the rain!

Where do you buy your strings? There are some really cheap internet sites apparently.

If you are too skint to buy new strings, you can just boil up the old ones like spaghetti and they sound new again.

But it's tricky to get them 'al dente'!

I think this only works for wound strings. Boiling them gets all the dirt and skin out of the coils! We once convinced our Bass player to boil his strings in vinegar! It took days to get rid of the smell from the house!

[Rudi]

I think this only works for wound strings. Boiling them gets all the dirt and skin out of the coils! We once convinced our Bass player to boil his strings in vinegar! It took days to get rid of the smell from the house!

Ha! I'll try that on our bassist Stan!

[Jackrustedapple]

i change my stings every month. i clean my guitars every so often

[MattRoyPiano]

_{I bought my Martin guitar 4 years ago and it has gone through 3 years of guitar class, 2 Music therapy practicums, and extensive hours of playing.
the strange thing about it is I have never changed the strings. They all stay in tune (although they sound flat and dull at this point)}

[TapperMike]

I used to change all my guitar strings every two weeks.  And that was crazy because I had a lot of guitars.

 

If you are looking for cheap strings on the net (US) Then I'd suggest ...

http://juststrings.com

 

or

http://stringsandbeyond.com

 

I used to experiment with lots of different strings.  Then when I went to performing 5 nights a week I locked it down to D'addario XL's 09's

 

Some of my guitars haven't seen a string change in years. A little fastfret  does wonders for cleaning the sound, brightening the tone and reducing the squeak.  Not to mention your finges will glide / slide slippy.

 

I rarely change my strings these days.  Some have gone years.  Next month I'm going to restring all of them. I'm trying to build up my callouses. I just ordered a serious jazz box I'd love to put flatwound 13's on it but my fingers can't handle it right now.  When it arrives I'll play the heck out of it and then in a month I'll decide on the flatwound gauged I'll move up to.  It might be 12's

[quiqueguitar]

When one of them breaks or when I can't get the guitar in tune anymore.  D'Addario 0.10.