string care? wtf is that?

[Gobbo]

so i've never had anyone tell me to take care of my strings. i've had people talk about cleaning the body, oiling the neck, and all that other jazz, but my strings are being neglected, and i know it! i did a search here in the forum and there was nothing i could find, so i turned to the 2 guitar sites that might have that info, and theres no guitar care info. so here i am!

so heres what im gettin at, what do i have to do to make my strings last more than 2 months? i slapped on some nice new strings on my electified wood and already their starting to rust out and put all kinds of crap on my neck and frets. now i live about 120 metres from the atlantic, and the air is extreemly moist, but still.. 2 months!?

i'm looking into a dehumidifier because i also know dry air is better for guitars than wet air. thats going to take a while to pick up though.

so what should i do? slap on some break fluid? spray it with armour all? burn off the rust? carve the guitar gods name into my fret board in hopes that it will take care of the strings for me?

i know what your thinkin, "gah! how can he not know how to take care of his strings?!" well... i've only owned a guitar for about 10 months now. actually.. 10 months and 11 days.

oh, sorry for my lack of capatilization, its a terrible habbit that i can't get out of.

[truerussian558]

the easiest thing you can do (and is also effective) is to just wipe the strings down with a clean cloth after your done playing, and try to not play with sweaty palms

there are of course other more elaborate methods and special liquds and cloths that you can buy in guitar store, but its tedious to do it every day, but maybe once a month or so.

[darren wilson]

Yep. Wash your hands before playing, and wipe the strings down when you're done.

I was never big on wiping down the strings. Back in high school, i changed strings every month. I was playing 9-42 strings on Kahler- and Floyd Rose-equipped guitars, and they'd be dead and breaking in that amount of time.

Now i play 11s, and i wipe my strings down every time i play. My strings now last for months. In fact, i think the set i've got on my main guitar now have been on there for nearly a year.

No doubt your salt air environment is also a contributing factor. You may want to consider going to a coated string like Elixirs (though that won't help you with the unwound strings) or using a string lube like FingerEase. It also might not be a bad idea for you to keep the guitar in its case when you're not playing it, and maybe keep a proper guitar humidifier in there with it.

[bigdguitars]

This is a little crazy but....

I wash my hands with a non residue leaving soap like irish spring, something that dries your hands out. My wife calls it my special guitar soap.

Then I wipe down my strings with a paper towel everyonce in a while. I take each string and essentially clean it with the towel moving up and down.

Also, when you put on your new strings tune it up and let it sit for over 8 hours, the strings will get used to the tension, don't play it right away. I got this out of guitar world or something some famous tech does it for clapton...

[Gobbo]

nice, thanks. wash hands, wipe strings. more than i had before. i dont know if ill be as crazy as to get some oils, but i will do pretty much the rest of it. dont play it for 8 hours? oh god....

[Im not good at this]

Also, when you put on your new strings tune it up and let it sit for over 8 hours, the strings will get used to the tension, don't play it right away.  I got this out of guitar world or something some famous tech does it for clapton...

I dunno about guitar, but for bass usually a person should pull on the strings at about the 12th fret. Pull it about two inches away from the fret board, and kinda bob it around there for a few seconds, if you get what i mean. This will set the ball end of the strings into the bridge tighter, tighten the tuners, and stretch the string. After you do this for all strings, tune to standard, and play really hard for about 10 minutes, bend the strings alot, etc. All strings will stretch when you first put them on and play, which will make them go flat. After playing for awhile, tune up to standard again, and repeat. When you don't have to re-tune after playing, obviously you are set to play!

Voila,

Tim

[PaulNeeds]

I dunno about guitar, but for bass usually a person should pull on the strings at about the 12th fret. Pull it about two inches away from the fret board, and kinda bob it around there for a few seconds,

I do this on guitar too when fitting new strings - repeating it til it stays in tune after stretching it.

I also used to use fast fret, but don't seem to need it for guitar since I been using Elixir strings.

[darren wilson]

I have a pretty aggressive string stretching regimen when i change my strings, but that has little to do with how fast the strings corrode.

On one or two occasions, though, i've snapped a high E string from tugging on it a bit too hard in the stretching process. I play on 11s now, so it's not as much of an issue.

[ultraman]

i never do anything to maintain my strings.

why? i just dont believe it will change anything.

i heard of some people buying oils to spray on their strings to keep the elastic but... i dont think it changes a thing.

i go through a set every 2 weeks or so.

[Stalefish]

i go through a set every 2 weeks or so.

You must be a pretty rich man..

From someone who lives in a hot humid climate, something more to add to the suggestions above is to always keep the guitar in its case with some silica gel or something to that effect.. Should be able to get it from camera stores.. That usually keeps my strings oxidation free for quite a long time or until I can't stand the tone (or lack thereof) anymore.. I don't use coated strings so I use Fast Fret..

Here's some hearsay, I've heard that contact cleaner works wonders for the strings.. I know a guy here who swears by it.. I'm not sure how well that works (hell, I'm not even sure what it is) but if anyone here's ever tried it, please do tell..

[daveq]

I really can't stand playing on dead or dirty strings . I try to have them changed every two weeks at the most. When I was younger, this was not financially possible so I used to wrap a paper towel around each string and slide it up and down to remove the gunk. I found that most of the grime was actually on the bottom of the string so wiping from the face really didn't get them very clean.

Even if you extend the life of them by cleaning them they still lose their "energy" if you know what I mean. For the amount I play, two weeks seems to be the drop off point.

[darren wilson]

Two weeks? Geez... you must play a lot!

I've got pretty corrosive sweat, so i will turn new strings black in no time. I've found that GHS Boomers keep their tone the longest for me, and wiping them down does extend the life considerably in my case. Your mileage may vary.

I've never tried electrical contact cleaner... it might work, but it might also have adverse effects on your fingertips and/or the fretboard wood.

[Pex657]

I just wipe my strings down with a clean cloth, and try not to play if I didn't wash my hands. Right now I am just looking for the best strings that work for me. I play stuff like System of a down, Tool, Rammstein, if any one would reccomond any strings. But some times, old strings do give you an interesting sound. But I love the feel of new strings.

[wylde1919]

Two weeks? Geez... you must play a lot!

I've got pretty corrosive sweat, so i will turn new strings black in no time. I've found that GHS Boomers keep their tone the longest for me, and wiping them down does extend the life considerably in my case. Your mileage may vary.

I've never tried electrical contact cleaner... it might work, but it might also have adverse effects on your fingertips and/or the fretboard wood.

I have the same problem and boomers seem to be the most resistant to my toxic sweat! I used elixers last time on my acoustic and they seem to be a little more resistant but I still have major porbs with string breakage!

[Curtis P]

Boomers have been what i gone for with my electric, but i am tryin some Ernie Balls and they feel pretty comfy

Curtis

[Pex657]

I have heard Ernie Balls are not the nicest strings for your frets

[soapbarstrat]

I have one strat that I only play if my hands have been washed first. It's had the same strings on for about 8 years now. They still look almost new.

Another one I don't bother washing my hands. the strings are pretty dull sounding.

I don't play my only bass unless I washed my hands first, even tho it's a real crappy bass and I only paid $8.00 for the strings. That was about 10 years ago, and the bass still has all the punch I want when I use it for recording.

there's this one acoustic that I don't wash my hands for, but it seems I can quickly come up with song ideas on it, but I think if I went to wash my hands first, that wouldn't happen too often.

It's a problem when people come over and want to play your stuff. I have to hide the "wash hands first" ones.

I've noticed that I can wipe a brand new set of strings with a t-shirt rag and naptha, and it leaves black dirt on the t-shirt. So I try to clean the strings before I put them on the first time.

[ultraman]

8 years?

even if you wash your hands all the time...

didnt they break once yet??????

hey and guy who said hes looking for best strings for rammestein etc.,

theres no real best string you just gotta try em all out and find it for yourself

the strings you play wont change your <style> of music

[ultraman]

one more thing...

my bridge is starting to corrode and lose color and rust

ive had it for a little over a year.

anyone have this problem?

[soapbarstrat]

I don't think any of them have broke. I think they are DR strings, but it being so long ago, it's a little fuzzy lol.

I didn't even solder the ball-ends, like I used to do. in the 80's I would buy these bulk strings from musicians fiend, and to keep them from breaking at the ball-ends, I would heat them up and flow solder all over the ball end. That helped.

I don't use the wanker bar anymore either, so that helps keep 'em from breaking.

soon I will switch, the "clean guitar" will get played with dirty hands, and I'll put new strings on the dirty guitar, clean it up and it will become the clean hands guitar.

Forget Clapton being known as " slow hand". I'm gonna be known as " clean hand "

[Maiden69]

Did he said 8 yrs , I think his guitar is inside an hermeticaly sealed glass bubble , well seriously, I think that's a little too much time, even with the little playing that I do the strings go deaf in about 2 months... and I keep my gutiar clean and in the case if possible. On the string care issue, all has been said, clean your hands, if you sweat a lot while playing, wipe it down occasionaly, other wise at the end, I do once in a while rub some lemon oil over them but it's because I use it to clean the frets and fret board... I don't know how the weather on the part of Canada is, but I used to leave about 2 miles from the Atlantic Ocean (Puerto Rico) and it was hell on my strings, but they still lasted about 2 months if keept out of the case. If keept in the case and after wiping them they lasted about 4 months... hope this will help.

[rob]

I find that my strings sound really good for about 4 days, then they lose it all, but it dosen't sound bad so my strings don't get changed until they break

[soapbarstrat]

that's what I like about a 25.5 " scale . "dead" strings still have about as much punch as new strings on a shorter scale (as long as they are clean).

My one acoustic has had them on for about 10 years now, and before that, they were on another guitar for a few years. Guitar has a 24" scale. Man, do they sound dead. I should talk to that guy who wants to know how to get the "grunge sound".

[Dr. Jabsco]

Heres a little known bassist trick.

When you get a new set of strings, do all that you need to do and play them. Then when they start to wear out and get bad sounding (usually 2 months with me) then take the strings off, and BOIL them.

thats right, get a large enough pot and put some watter in and bring it to a boil. Then carefully put the strings in and let them boil for 10 miunets, then turn the stove off and let it sit over night. Do this with an old pot that you dont use anymore because it has some weird stuff that you cant wash out in it afterwards.

After you are done boiling you can see all the dead skin and gunk build up that was on your strings, now floating at the top of the water.

You can only do this once however, but i dont konw why.

Ive never done this with guitar strings, but I geuss it would do the exact same thing.

[soapbarstrat]

after you boil them you can throw them into the freezer over-night. it's supposed to put some temper back into them. I'm not joking. This boil/freeze idea was in the 'Wall Street Journal' many years ago. Kind of weird.

It will break the high E on guitar strings usually.