General Music Chat

First of all, the comments about the bridge,nicks or damage on any place a string touches is right on.

My view of wear, after you torture them with stretching, you still have about an hour of break in play to get them settled in. After retuning(barring any major temp changes) they are ready to go,and should stay extremely close to tuning.
Then I feel there are about 5 hours of golden playing playing when the strings give off their best tone and NO intonation changes from the wear under the string.
By 10 hours the tone starts get muddy and the strings start to feel "loose"
By 20 hours the strings develop that blues sound and feel many players love.At that point I would feel uncomfortable, because I know I'm in the string breaking zone,especially when I start pumping rhythms.

Every one has their own ideas but I haven't broken a string while playing in over 30 years. I have broken strings right after change both times because I did it so quick I nicked the string on the bridge.

I use a strange gauge because I like the balance. Being a Gibson kind of guy naturally I use Fender original 150s 10,13,15,26,32,38. Most stores don't carry them because most of you love that booming 48 and up E string. I would love to use an 11 on the top E (for tone)but it throws my guitar neck out intonation perfection and playability. I usually order 100 sets at a time online and the last time I think it was like $3.50 a set. that was 3 years ago and I have maybe 10 sets left. I would really hate to keep track of strings on a bunch of guitars,,,, For me, one guitar is more than enough.

Glen, I guess Im one of those guys who plays strings til they die and then I play them some more, when I was playing every week or so I used to change them ever couple of weeks to keep life in them.

These days I have 2 primary guitars, and a couple that I may use from time to time, plus i tend play a lot for upcoming gigs and then rest them til the next gig gets close then woodshed like hell to get my chops up to snuff.

I dont break a lot of strings anymore, but I think that is from playing tech, I just dont push into them as hard as I used too, and I also have learned to play with a very light touch.

The ones I broke were fresh strings, and your statement about knicking them when I put them on is probably what happened.

Another side of my question was how long does a string last before its put on the guitar, as I said I have a big case of strings and some of them may be 20 years old, so the other day instead of buying a few new sets I decided to use them up.

I use GHS Super Boomers 10-46, it just works for me on my Gibsons.

When I played strats I would go 11-58, it seemed to work better for me.

Thanks for your input!

Another side of my question was how long does a string last before its put on the guitar, as I said I have a big case of strings and some of them may be 20 years old, so the other day instead of buying a few new sets I decided to use them up.
JW thats a tough one. Are they sealed? Any rust? That would probably just be a question of trial and error.

I have to admire you for being able to switch so easily from guitar to guitar with different string sets.

Why do you put the heavier strings on your fenders? Is it tone? I like the heavier strings, but most electric guitars don't.

I once tried to switch to 8s many many years ago,,,, All they did was break.

One month ...

Well that simplifies everything Sans, why didn't I think of that before?

Then the only remaining question is, at what point do you stop playing,and start praying, you don't break a string.

Fun , Sans thanks.

Really strange,,,, I met this cool bass playing girl that never changed the strings on her bass. After 3 years she would just trade it in, when the intonation started to go flat.
I bet she did the same thing with her husbands.

Well that simplifies everything Sans, why didn't I think of that before?

Then the only remaining question is, at what point do you stop playing,and start praying, you don't break a string.

Fun , Sans thanks.

Really strange,,,, I met this cool bass playing girl that never changed the strings on her bass. After 3 years she would just trade it in, when the intonation started to go flat.
I bet she did the same thing with her husbands.

That Cracks me up... I dont know that chick...but I know her type

To date with my Les Paul strung with 10's.
I have not broken a string.
If it's close to the change interval and I have a gig scheduled I change.
Will always take a freshly strung guitar ( within 72 hrs ) for studio work.
The last two engineers I worked with both insisted ... makes sense.

Glen I hardle ever play my Strat anymore, but I used to go between the two guitars all night long with different gauge sets, really never thought about it, isnt beer wonderful!!!!

No the strings are still sealed, they were in a box in a closet, I did find a few that were rusty so I didnt use them, but Im gonna use em up, at the rate I change stirngs it will be quite a while before I get thru all of them.

All my Gibsons and Epiphones have 10-46's on them.

I used to try and get that elusive perfect tone, everything from strings picks, cords and tubes and tweaking, but over the last couple of years and listening to my recordings I cant really tell any difference or even remember at times what I used to record with. I get the same basic tone whether Im using big mesa, little mesa or even this little Fender amp that i have, plus my POD PRO gets about the same sound. Maybe since I dont play as much my ears just cant hear sonically the differences.

The last gig I did, I just left my amp set just like I play it at my house all night long, just adjusted it in the mains and just a touch in the monitors and my bassist said it sounded great, getting old and lazy aint too bad!

Not sure it's old and lazy or just your comfortable with your equipment and sound JW.

I find now that I am quite comfortable with my amp and my guitar.

I lust for others just the same, but do I need a different amp or guitar ?

By the way ... how do those EPI's work for you.
Saw a beauty in the store a week or so ago and have been resisting all sorts of angles to get her in my possession.

George, I have an EPI Sheraton, really nice guitar, I was wanting one of those BB King Lucilles, but got the Sheraton for a fourth of the price. I played it side by side a 335 and to tell the truth it played and sounded just as good to my lazy ears.

These days I raised the action up and use it mainly for slide for recording, on my player Im using it for the slide solos in Tush, and running it thru this little Fender solid state amp Ive had forever, basically we layed it on the floor pointing up at the guitar and just dimed the amp. I put toilet paper at the nut of the guitar to help mute the strings for slide.

10 years ago, when I was really playing a lot I used it for many gigs, its a little mellower sounding than my Les Pauls, but I sound the same on it as anything I use, LOL.

I really think I could use any old amp and a distortion pedal and get my tone, so why bother worrying about some new amp.

In fact if you look at some major guitarist, many of them have basically played thier whole careers on one guitar or amp setup. Brian May of Queen comes to mind, the dude with Rage Against The Machine uses the same basic gear on everything, Slash is a basic example of this.

I think every player is different ie. how much do you sweat , how corrosive is your perspiration ,how hard do you play etc . but to be safe pro players usually change before ea performance. I had a good friend who i dreaded playing my guitar, he could kill the strings in 5 min . that said I dont

This from the Guitar String Guide:

Modern guitar strings should be fine for at least 3-4 years if kept in good conditions. If using strings in traditional packaging, keep then in an air-tight container and away from cold and damp - high humidity is the enemy of guitar strings! If in any doubt about the condition of older guitar strings, check the top E string first, as rust or other corrosion tends to attack the thinnest plain strings before wound strings.

Modern sealed guitar string packaging such as D'Addario corrosion resistant sealed packs and new Ernie Ball foil packs are a big help in extending shelf life of guitar strings.

So if you see a bargain, go for it! That bulk pack of ten set of strings or eBay "wholesale lot" could keep you playing for years...

Did you ever boil your strings and then use them?

Try it, you might like it.

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I use a Floyd rose setup on 1 guitar and I was boiling busted strings and reusing them..and actually wasn't bad at all.

I remember bass players used to do this to old strings back in the day

Capt, Im gonna switch from GHS Boomers to GHS Boilers. LOL

I do pull the caps of our SM 58s and boil them, those things get rank sometime, LOL!