Boiling your strings

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EndangeredFeces

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I heard that boiling your strings in water makes them sound brand new. Is this true? Has anyone else heard about this? I would like to know before I take the time to do it. I'm a sucker for brand new bass strings, they go dull after a week, but I can't afford it anymore!
 
No, it's not.


It DOES make them sound brighter again; BUT, the strings will still have divots from the frets, making it impossible to get them to play in tune.

Additionally, it takes a fair bit of time to do it. If you figure a resonable wage for your own time, buying new strings is much cheaper.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Thanks for saving me the time. See, I used to live in San Luis Obispo, CA and that's where Ernie Ball manufactures strings. Well, sometimes they cut the strings a little too short for the market, but not too short to string up your bass. So, they would dump all these brand new bass strings in like ten different dumpsters, and we use to dumpster dive for them, I had hundreds. I would change strings every show we'd play. But then I joined the military and am in Germany and out of strings. ha ha. just thought i'd share. Thanks again.
 
EndangeredFeces said:
Thanks for saving me the time. See, I used to live in San Luis Obispo, CA and that's where Ernie Ball manufactures strings. Well, sometimes they cut the strings a little too short for the market, but not too short to string up your bass. So, they would dump all these brand new bass strings in like ten different dumpsters, and we use to dumpster dive for them, I had hundreds. I would change strings every show we'd play. But then I joined the military and am in Germany and out of strings. ha ha. just thought i'd share. Thanks again.

thats a good story, and if im ever in that town im gonna go dumpster diving
 
EndangeredFeces said:
Thanks for saving me the time. See, I used to live in San Luis Obispo, CA and that's where Ernie Ball manufactures strings. Well, sometimes they cut the strings a little too short for the market, but not too short to string up your bass. So, they would dump all these brand new bass strings in like ten different dumpsters, and we use to dumpster dive for them, I had hundreds. I would change strings every show we'd play. But then I joined the military and am in Germany and out of strings. ha ha. just thought i'd share. Thanks again.

Hmmm, they moved their string making operation out here to Coachella...maybe I should check out thier dumpsters.
 
Light said:
It DOES make them sound brighter again; BUT, the strings will still have divots from the frets, making it impossible to get them to play in tune.
And they don't stay bright for long after they're boiled, and go straight to crap again. It's OK for a last-ditch effort if you need to put some life in them, but as Light says, it's not worth the effort otherwise.
 
EndangeredFeces said:
I heard that boiling your strings in water makes them sound brand new. Is this true? Has anyone else heard about this? I would like to know before I take the time to do it. I'm a sucker for brand new bass strings, they go dull after a week, but I can't afford it anymore!


My bass player tried this years ago because he didn't want to pay $45 for new strings. Althouth he didn't have any problems with the strings staying in tune, the "crisp" new sound quickly went away.
 
If you're going to do this

you also have to scrub them with Castile (sp?) soap.

I thought it gave mine an interesting tone, but it wasn't worth the work. But then I'm lazy, too.

I only use rounds, though, and it might not work as well on flats. And it was too long ago for me to remember whether they lasted very long after that.
 
i'm learning bass right now,in the DVD i bought ,the guy says the strings need to be wiped all the time with alcohol to be clean :confused:

Well to the store i go :D
 
Due to the cost of bass strings when compared to guitar strings, I think that boiling bass strings may actually be worth the time. I'd never waste the time for guitar strings since I could go get 2 sets for 10 bucks, but when it comes to dropping $30-$50 bucks for a set of bass strings, boiling starts to look like a pretty good alternative in a pinch.

Personally, I don't care about how my bass strings sound...the deader the better! But guitar strings have to be bright to sound right.

Wow there's a song in there somewhere...spoken like a true "guitar player that plays bass" and not a bass player.

Oh, and be careful about using alcohol on your strings. It does a good job of eliminating gunk from the strings, but it'll also dry the hell out of your fretboard if any gets on there. I think that wiping the strings down with a cloth after each session will do a pretty good job of keeping the strings clean, or at least it'll extend their life a bit.
 
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I tried boiling strings a few times .... it isnt worth the effort. You would be better off wiping them down with a soft cloth lightly moistened with denatured alcohol every few hours of play. I don't care how clean you keep them, after 20 or 30 hours the intonation will suffer due to fret wear and to a lesser extent, tension changes from re-tunning and bending. We all like to make our strings last longer but in the end you gotta change those puppies frequently if you want them to sound good.
 
EndangeredFeces said:
I heard that boiling your strings in water makes them sound brand new. Is this true? Has anyone else heard about this? I would like to know before I take the time to do it. I'm a sucker for brand new bass strings, they go dull after a week, but I can't afford it anymore!

I agree with other posters who say that the brightness disapears pretty soon after replacing them. I remember doing this back in the sixties when times were hard and strings were expensive, it was nessesary then, but strings are much more affordable now, with the acception of bass strings.
Rob.
 
Doesn't have to be anything fancy for me to go dumpster diving...half chewed chicken wings, buttons, empty pizza boxes...I'm in head first up to my ankles
 
Egad, the memories...I used to boil strings, a ritual it became...Then I learned to wash my hands before I picked up the instrument and between sets...Added weeks to the "life" of those Ken Smiths and Rotosounds, I tell ya...Most of the junk that gets in the windings is a combination of skin cells and oils that make a "paste" that gets in the windings. What you wash off doesn't end up in the string.

The harder you fret those strings has a lot to do with the life of the strings as well as other components of the neck. I have a bad habit of making "positive contact" when fretting, always pushing a bit harder than I need to (I once had a pawnshop prize that required extra-firm fretting to eliminate buzz)...I try to stay conscious of it and use a lighter touch, but when I'm immersed in the groove I catch myself a LOT...

The trick I've learned lately is to have a close friend who runs a music store...I now have a couple year's supply of Swing Bass, Boomers, and "Knuckleheads" (WTF?) that I paid little to nothing for... :cool:

Eric
 
A better "trick" than boiling is to clean the strings with amonia. Just loosen the strings enough to be able to lift them away from the fingerboard, dab a clean soft cloth in the amonia and wipe the strings. Loosening the strings allows you to wipe the underside too. You may have to repeat the process a couple of times to get all the crud off and you may want to do this outside, amonia has a pretty strong odor. I got the idea from a jeweler friend who uses amonia to clean rings and things, tried it on an old set of bass strings and discovered it works fairly well, and it is a lot faster and easier than boiling them. Neither method will last very long (maybe 2-3 hours at best) but for a quick fix when you are in a bind, a quick cleaning with amonia will get you a little more playing time on an old set of strings.
 
It's the oils and crud that gets in the windings that you're trying to get rid of and yes, to some degree boiling works. I've done sometimes over the years but would rub them down with a cleanser like Comet before hand. 9 out of 10 wound strings would come out great, but that's the problem, that dead string against the others would sound awful and I'd have replace the set with new strings anyway. The whole process has a tendancy to loosen the winding against the core and thus shorten string life. Also, the larger the guage, the more likely it is to get a dead string after boiling, so for a bass I'd say it's not worth the time. Far better to keep your hands and the strings clean in the first place.

Eventually there wil be buildup in the windings no matter what you do and a good quick fix for that is to loosen the strings and pull them back and let them slam against the fretboad and release the gunk that way. Wipe eveything down and bring it back to pitch and you've accomplished the same objective in a lot less time.
 
I wonder if, instead of boiling, if you removed the strings and gave 'em a good shot of, say, automotive brake cleaner (alcohol + toluene, etc.) to remove all the gunk from the windings - maybe a little scrubbing with a brass brush at the same time?

Way too much trouble for six-strings, but for bass strings....maybe.
 
If you cant afford new strings, maybe you need to spend more time at your job or looking for a better job, and less time trying to fix your strings???

Have you tried washing your hands first every time you pick up your instrument?? This simple act alone can double the life of the strings....
 
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