Boiling your strings

  • Thread starter Thread starter philbagg
  • Start date Start date
Zaphod B said:
I do agree with you, Mutt - I'm referring more to a short term effect of picking up a chilly guitar, and how the strings would be affected within a few minutes by playing, ratrher than the longer-term effect of the wood's movement due to it coming to temp and humidity throughout after moving from one environment to another.
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The timber is going to do all the moving that is required to change the pitch by slightly altering the setup. That kind of explains why it varies from guitar to guitar. The most consistent and predictable material in the equation is the string far more so than the variable nature of timber. Its not hard to predict with some consistency how much a string will move and it's not a lot. It would be the same on any guitar with similar string length and the same string. Not true of the timber that it is fixed to.
 
philbagg said:
Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that guitars sound a bit thinner when
they're in a cold room?
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Sound waves or certain harmonic properties of a sound wave behave differently in materials depending on temperature. A cold piece of timber is less inclined to vibrate across the whole spectrum of the note. That effects both the audible attack and delay of the note as well as the amplitude of the higher partials of the note.
 
VP, I'm asking nicely. Please, please don't start all that powder on the strings talk again. It is seriously bad advice.

Thanks.
 
muttley600 said:
The timber is going to do all the moving that is required to change the pitch by slightly altering the setup. That kind of explains why it varies from guitar to guitar. The most consistent and predictable material in the equation is the string far more so than the variable nature of timber. Its not hard to predict with some consistency how much a string will move and it's not a lot. It would be the same on any guitar with similar string length and the same string. Not true of the timber that it is fixed to.
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Makes sense.

I picked up one of my LPs last night that I hadn't played in only a couple of weeks and it was sharp across the fretboard consistently (pretty much) by a quarter-tone. :eek:

I try to rotate through the lot regularly so that none of 'em get too far afield.

Do you keep all your instruments (including your personal use ones) in a climate-controlled shop environment?
 
muttley600 said:
VP, I'm asking nicely. Please, please don't start all that powder on the strings talk again. It is seriously bad advice.

Thanks.
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I believe my opinion was meant for the original poster, Philbagg, not you.
 
Victory Pete said:
Nope! The talc just falls out, blows away, dissapates, dematerializes, or just majically disappears! Nice try!
ViP:cool:
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I think we've had this conversation before. You were pwned then, you're pwned now, and you'll be pwned every time you assert the same thing.

You want to screw around with misinformation, please take it to The Cave.
 
Zaphod B said:
I think we've had this conversation before. You were pwned then, you're pwned now, and you'll be pwned every time you assert the same thing.

You want to screw around with misinformation, please take it to The Cave.
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When I mention Talcum powder, do some of you misinterpret it for battery acid?
 
Boiling strings is akin to wiping your ass with a washcloth and throwing it in the clothes hamper to be washed. Strings are relatively cheap and unless you gig 5 hours nightly you don't need to change strings every couple days. It's a myth IMO; brand new strings sound too bright and have tuning instability for awhile. Strings with a bit of use aren't bad until they start sounding dead...noticeably dead.

Bass strings are another story. I love old strings on a bass as they're more woolly and thuddy; seem to add to the bass sound I'm after. I have black nylon flatwounds on my bass and they're at least 10 years old. They sound great. Granted, regular roundwounds might need changing more often and if you slap or prefer a bright tone.
 
Victory Pete said:
When I mention Talcum powder, do some of you misinterpret it for battery acid?
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And you can neg rep me all you like, if being wrong rankles you so; the fact is that talc is not recommended for string cleaning, and better minds than yours have been ignoring it for that use for...forever.
 
philbagg said:
Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that guitars sound a bit thinner when
they're in a cold room?
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I haven't noticed a change in the sound of my guitars, per se, but I HAVE noticed that when my hands are quite cold, regardless of guitar temperature, the sound I get from them is a little brighter. I believe it's because when your hands are cold your calluses always seem to be a little harder, so you get a more efficient, crisper transfer of energy on hit-ons and pull-offs than you do when your calluses are a little softer when your hands are warmer. IT's subtle, but it's there - for comparison, play some legato lines trying to fret with just the very tips of your fingers, and then try again with the fleshier part.

Then again, I play mostly legato and use only a moderate amount of gain, so for me it probably makes a little more difference than most.


Victory Pete - past a point, when you intentionally provide bad advice over and over again after having your suggestion roundly refuted by the entire site, it's not "having an opinion," it's being antagonistic. Give it up.
 
I can't believe how gullible some people are. The "boil strings" myth was started when EVH stated in an interview back in the early 80's that he boils his strings before installing them on his guitars. He was obviously making a joke but some idiot actually believed him and the myth just keeps being perpetuated.

WATER + METAL = CORROSION
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
Victory Pete - past a point, when you intentionally provide bad advice over and over again after having your suggestion roundly refuted by the entire site, it's not "having an opinion," it's being antagonistic. Give it up.
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They is fightin words they is...




:D
 
ocnor said:
I can't believe how gullible some people are. The "boil strings" myth was started when EVH stated in an interview back in the early 80's that he boils his strings before installing them on his guitars. He was obviously making a joke but some idiot actually believed him and the myth just keeps being perpetuated.

WATER + METAL = CORROSION
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I'd hardly think I'm an idiot for trying it, and coming up with results.

My strings didn't corrode.

They didn't sound brand new, they just freshened up a bit. Read the OP
 
ocnor said:
The "boil strings" myth was started when EVH stated in an interview back in the early 80's that he boils his strings before installing them on his guitars.
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Nah, I'd heard about it before that, sometime in the mid- to late '70s.
 
Zaphod B said:
Nah, I'd heard about it before that, sometime in the mid- to late '70s.
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It's been going longer than that. I've spoken to guys who did it in the 40's and 50's when strings were heavy, hard to come buy and expensive.;)
 
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