How often do you change your Guitar strings?

[pabloe0168]

2 months!

my music profesor told me and i agree 2 month is way more then enough depends alot on wich strings ur using. umm i got a ep les paul brand wich would be the best strings i can find? tell 3 plox !

 

[antichef]

I find that if I wipe them off with a cloth each time I'm done playing (or most times), I don't have to change them nearly as often. But maybe this is because I always oranges and mangoes when I'm playing.

 

[dgatwood]

Change?

.....

 

[Light]

my music profesor told me and i agree 2 month is way more then enough depends alot on wich strings ur using. umm i got a ep les paul brand wich would be the best strings i can find? tell 3 plox !

Your professor is mistaken. Not that there aren't people for whom every 2 months is enough, but most people who actually play their guitars need to change their strings more often than that. If I'm playing a guitar on a regular basis, but not a lot, I need to change them every three weeks or so. If I'm playing a guitar a lot, once a week.

There are a lot of factors involved, including preference (there have been times when I was changing strings twice a week because I wanted that bright new string sound), body chemistry (I have friends who wear out strings in a matter of hours because their sweat is so acidic), and style (someone who bends a lot and plays really hard is going to need to change strings a lot more often than someone who plays lightly).


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[Farno]

I know I probably should change them more often but I haven't even changed 3 strings when I first bought my guitar which I think was about 8 months ago.

Now that I think about it, I should probably go change them.

 

[thebigcheese]

I'm really cheap about it, so not very often. Generally speaking, if they break or hurt my fingers, I will replace them. I like the sound of strings that have had a chance to break in anyway.

 

[qiktune]

I only change strings if they break.

Acoustic: I love my acoustic strings to be dead ( hate that bright sparkly new string sound ).

Electric: Same as above.

Bass: Same as above - I'm actually a bit bummed because my 4001V63 has been having some tuning issues recently and upon inspection we found that the strings had notches in them from the frets ( which is a "normal" issue for flatwounds, it's just that for the most part it sounded GREAT...the tuning issue was only noticable on 3-4 notes max. )
As we speak, she's in for a truss rod adjustment, h/stock repair, replacement of the plastic nut with tusq and new strings
:-(

 

[muttley600]

I only change strings if they break.

Acoustic: I love my acoustic strings to be dead ( hate that bright sparkly new string sound ).

Electric: Same as above.

Bass: Same as above - I'm actually a bit bummed because my 4001V63 has been having some tuning issues recently and upon inspection we found that the strings had notches in them from the frets ( which is a "normal" issue for flatwounds, it's just that for the most part it sounded GREAT...the tuning issue was only noticable on 3-4 notes max. )
As we speak, she's in for a truss rod adjustment, h/stock repair, replacement of the plastic nut with tusq and new strings
:-(

It's an issue for all strings. To play in "tune" the string has to have uniform properties along it's entire length. As soon as you introduce wear, dirt, even the fact that they are under constant tension those properties change.

I know what you mean though, I have one of my guitars that has flatwounds on for those swing gigs where I need that big bass end jazz sound. I hate it when they have to be changed. No matter what they take a good few hours of playing to loose that sparkle. Flatwounds do hold out longer than most but even they will have intonation issues after a while.