How clean are your strings?

S

steveaustin

New member
I've been practicing this technique for the past couple of years & swear by it. Every night or other night I take small cotton cloth, like a piece of t-shirt & give a couple of squirts of Gibson's Luthiers Choice String Cleaner, enough to saturate. Then pinching the string, run it up & down each string twice. The string will squeal & wake your wife! After doing all 6 strings, look at the cloth. It will be soiled like a skid-mark in your underwear! This will far prolong the tone of your strings, & save money. Any other techniques?
 
I used to do similar with alcohol.

However, that reminds me. I'll sometimes pick up one of my axes and think it sounds like crap. Then I'll try another and that doesn't sound great either. I'll begin thinking I need *another* new guitar.

Then I'll remember to change the strings. Ooooh. Better than a new guitar (if only because it sounds so much better and I didn't shell out the bucks for another guitar).


Matt
 
If you get desperate, you can actually boil your strings. This is really a bass player trick, but it works fairly well for guitar also. Expect to get an extra session or so out of them.

Brad
 
Strings stretch over time, whether they're actually played or not (they stretch even quicker with frequent playing!)... once they stretch they lose tone and no amount of boiling or cleaning will cause them to "unstretch" or recover the lost tone.... and nothing kills the sound of your axe more quickly than old, dead strings.

Strings are only $5.00 cdn a pack for D'Addarios for chris'sakes!!! Sheesh!!!!!! :rolleyes:

:D

Bruce
 
Uhhh, steve...can we leave my BVDs out of this?

And Bruce, I'll tell you just like I told c7: some of us are on a budget, O.K.?! I've got over 110,000 miles (roughly 5 years) on my Super Slinkys! And how do I do it? With regular steam cleanings with a water based solvent at 500psi followed by a thorough lubing. I perfer Castrol GTX 20/50.

Gotta go get my Remos from the dry cleaners.


ahhh, you're both right.
 
You can tell if strings are dead or just dirty by the pattern of the vibration side to side.If the wave is even (like a sine wave) on both sides of the center point,than the metal still has its memory and a simple cleaning should bring the "ring" back.Irregular vibrating shows the metal has lost its elasticity.Its dead and should be replaced,as opposed to just crudded up with finger iols.

Tom
 
Except the simple act of un-stringing and then restringing with the same strings can then introduce unwanted creases or kinks in the string as you rewind it onto the machine heads....

I know all about the budget argument, hell it's been a while since I've been a teen (too long!), but my allowance when I was fourteen was $20.00/month and I was able to buy strings regularly!!!

If you're on so much of a budget that you can't afford $5.00 a month (or even every 2 months!) then you probably should be selling your guitar in favour of a case of Kraft Dinner to get some meat on your bones!!!!!!!

:D :D

Bruce
 
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Blue Bear Sound said:
I know all about the budget argument, but hell it's been a while since I've been a teen (too long!), but my allowance when I was fourteen was $20.00/month and I was able to buy strings regularly!!!

If you're on so much of a budget that you can't afford $5.00 a month (or even every 2 months!) then you probably should be selling your guitar in favour of a case of Kraft Dinner to get some meat on your bones!!!!!!!
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I tell you, though, it's a rough feed bill on about fifteen or twenty guitars!

About once or twice a year GC or someone has some big loss-leader on strings sets for 12/$9.99 or something, so I hit those hard and get as much as I can. Fortunately, I'm no string snob.

Kills me how the strings on acoustics, particularly, go stone dead with no use, just sitting in the case. Doesn't seem fair somehow...
 
bongolation said:


I tell you, though, it's a rough feed bill on about fifteen or twenty guitars!
...
Fortunately, I'm no string snob.
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I'm no string snob at all... but strings are a fundamental part of a guitar's tone, so why would anyone want to skimp out on 'em???

I have a lot of guitars too... but they aren't always in use, so they don't need to be changed until I need to. Change strings as required, depending on time, usage, and condition!!

But hey... this is the way *I* handle string management... YMMV! Bottom line is - do whatever works for ya!!

Bruce
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
I have a lot of guitars too... but they aren't always in use, so they don't need to be changed until I need to. Change strings as required, depending on time, usage, and condition!!
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Yeah, but as I said, the suckers go away just sitting.

Acoustics seem to be worse about this and are more responsive to different strings, I think. Coming out of the penurious, hard-knocks school that says you're doing OK as long as you can count six strings that will tune up, I never really knew anything about the finer points.

I recently found a really nice little Guild D-40 I had forgot I had for a few years that had been put away with new strings that were naturally stone dead. Digging around through my junk I found a set of D'Addario strings that I had somehow acquired, God knows when, and didn't use because I felt they were a gauge too heavy for me then. I strung the D-40, tuned it up and...WOW! I couldn't believe how good that little thing sounded!

Since then, I've been less chintzy about changing strings. Those flat-tops just ROAR with new bronze. Yeah, I know, "Duh!"
 
Sell my '63 Sears Singertone w/rockomatic tremeolo? Never!!

Fine. I confess. I'm a closet string junkie myself. Wish I could become a more effective setter-upper, though. My strat needs some serious innotation help.
 
# My strat needs some serious innotation help.

One of the hard lessons I learned about Strats, at least the old ones, is that they will NEVER sound right or get proper intonation if the pickups are set wrong.

Sounds impossible, but it's true. The pull on the magnets is so strong that the low E and A strings will warp and make sci-fi noises and not intonate properly unless that side of the pickup is cranked down about even with the pickguard.

The guys on alt.guitar repeatedly told me this and I didn't believe them, as it didn't do any good until I got the pickup ridiculously low. Finally, after about thirty tries, I got mad and screwed it down as far as it would go...then it worked perfectly! Perfect intonation right where it should be, great sound and everything.

Funny thing - I saw a pricey new "Relic" Strat at GC a couple of weeks ago that is a modern copy of my L-Series, and sure enough! - the pickups are cranked down even with the pickguard on the low E side. Looks like the pickup is about ready to capsize!

Dunno if this will help on your Strat, but you might give it a try.
 
According to Dan Erlewine (major luthier-type guitar tech) - typical Strat setup for pickup distance from strings is around the 3/8" when fretting at the 12th fret....

My own Strat's pickups are around that distance and they work just fine.... and the intonation is immaculate....

Not saying you're wrong, but... I guess YMMV!!
:)

Bruce
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
According to Dan Erlewine (major luthier-type guitar tech) - typical Strat setup for pickup distance from strings is around the 3/8" when fretting at the 12th fret....

My own Strat's pickups are around that distance and they work just fine.... and the intonation is immaculate....

Not saying you're wrong, but... I guess YMMV!!
:)

Bruce
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I know, I looked at the MrGearhead Fender setup site and everything. What you say is true - for more modern Strats.

The difference is with the extreme pull of these L-Series pickups, I suppose. They are really powerful compared to the other pickups I have around here, plus there may be something else peculiar to this vintage of Strat. All I know is that this was common knowledge among the Strat mavens on alt.guitar and it _did_ work. Intonation could NOT be adjusted until this was fixed, nor could a crazy-sounding buzzing go away. As soon as the pickups got cranked down low enough, the ring-modulator sound vanished and the intonation was perfect with the bridges adjusted right where you'd expect them to.

The clincher for me was seeing the Custom Shop's identical setup of the Relic; they wouldn't have set it up so weird if they didn't have to, I'm sure.

Live and learn!
 
As you are adjusting the height screws,the magnetic pull of the pickup will begin to damp the vibrating string.This is clearly audible as a loss of sustain.Just pay attention to what you are hearing and when you note the damping,back off a turn or two.Note that the pickup will not be level due to the difference in diameter of the low and high Es.


Tom
 
Quality is Job One

There's no budget. If I can make the strings on all 6 guitars last 4 weeks & keep their brilliance as opposed to 2 weeks, that's $30.00 & more time playing than changing. You wipe down the the body & metal parts, why not do the strings? This method takes less than 2 minuetes.


And you want hard times & tight budget, when I was kid if the string broke at the bridge I'd stick the bearing in a vise & twist the string back w/ a pair of pliars! Then the Floyd Rose came out, just took some slack off the tuner & locked it again in the tremlo. HELL YA!! THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKN' ABOUT!!:D
 
Much of the crud and finger oil that inevitably sucks the life out of your strings can be kept to a minimum with one simple step. You may regard this as severe anal retentivity, but it only takes about 30 seconds to wash your hands and dry them before picking up the guitar. The strings stay very clean up to the point you next change them (which you must do because they eventually lose their elasticity.)

Now fess up. Who else is as anally retentive as I am when it comes to not smudging their sweat and potato chip grease all over the strings and neck when practicing?
 
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pchorman said:
...about 30 seconds to wash your hands and dry them before picking up the guitar. The strings stay very clean up to the point...

Now fess up. Who else is as anally retentive as I am when it comes to not smudging their sweat and potato chip grease all over the strings and neck when practicing?
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I hear ya. I always wash my hands before playing my ESP Custom or M-III. Part for the strings, mainly for the fretboard. On the other hand, I'll play my RG550 between sets when working out in the basement...
 
Here's what I can offer...

I have a dirty, shameful confession to make: I almost never change the strings on my electrics until one of them breaks, and then I'll put a whole new set on.
It's not a budget contstraint, or a newbie thing. I've been playing for 20 years, and I've done a decent amount of session work, and I consider myself a fairly experienced guitarist. I have just found that I prefer the sound of dead strings for recording.
It's funny, but like pchorman just said, I almost always wash my hands right before I begin playing. But then.... once I'm set up to start tracking, I rub my left fingertips on my forhead to pick up the oil, and it's just awesome the way my fingertips glide around! And then when I case up my guitar I wipe the strings down.
Now, steel string acoustic and bass are a completey different story. New strings are a must. (Although I must again confess that I've recorded a couple great steel string tracks with dead strings, and kept them even on the final mix because they sounded just fine. *gasp* )
And don't even get me started about nylon strings. Of all guitars, nylon stings are my favorite. I think they are the most expressive variation of the instrument, but I loathe the freakin' strings!! They sound best w/ new strings, so you stick a new set on, and then they stretch and stretch...and stretch........and stretch...........and stretch. And then, finally they settle in.....and they're dead. AAAaarrrgghh!!
Now that you know my secret, I hope you'll still respect me.

Aaron
http://www.aaroncheney.com
 
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