General Music Chat

Well, about 6 months ago my son kept bugging me to buy him a guitar. He did lots of chores around the house to earn it. I know virtually nothing about music instruments, and my son is only 14 years old, so his knowledge in this area is limited as well.

I was just wondering when is the right time to replace the guitar strings. When I bought him the guitar and accessories I also bought him a new package of guitar strings. Well, today I was cleaning out my truck and I found the guitar strings underneath the back seat. The package hasn't been opened yet. I'm also wondering if the strings are still good or could they be ruined from the cold temperatures of winter and high summer temperatures inside the closed truck (they have been in the truck for 6 months).

Thanx in advance.

Check the strings for rust. That's about it. I barely change strings every six months.

Important! Only remove and replace one sting at a time. If you remove all the the strings at once, you could end up losing all of the tension in the neck, leaving the guitar in need of an adjustment/ set-up.

Watch some YouTube videos on how to do it. Get a tuner or use a piano/ Casio keyboard, anything that will give you accurate notes to tune the strings to.

How is his playing coming along? Most people who get a guitar with the intention of learning to play it quit.
Does he take lessons? Play along to the radio? What's going on there (if you don't mind me asking)?

I used to change strings after 40 hours of use, so it depends on how much I was playing. Sometimes a few days, sometimes a week or two.

But in recent years I'll often go until one of them breaks...or the intonation gets way off....or they're just gross dirty.

With a decent guitar, there's no issue with taking all of the strings off at one time, nothing will happen to the neck. With a cheap guitar that may not have a truss rod in the neck, its better to do one at a time.

When to change them?
If they sound dull.
If the guitar becomes hard to tune (won't stay in tune, or just can't get the strings quite right.
When it sounds out of tune playing up the neck (intonation issues).

Is your son taking lessons? A good instructor will be able to tell and advise.

Ok, thanks for all the replies. I will answer some questions that have been asked and add a little more info.

Me and my son opened up the guitar string package and there was no rust on them.
We both watched some youtube video's to learn how to change the guitar strings.
My son changed the strings himself (one string at a time), (gonna have to get him the string wind-up tool).
No piano or keyboard for tuning the guitar, but my son has the foot board with the tuner button (the big string is D).

He does not take lessons....neighbor across the street plays in a bar band and gave my son a stack of guitar books and my son has memorized some finger positions. Across the street, the neighbor also has drums, guitars, microphones and all the speakers to record songs in his house. My son has been going over there alot lately and hangs out with the neighbors kids (same ages) and they make noise with all the big speakers. In all I paid $600 for everything in used condition:


Dave Mustang electric guitar. (Has a picture of The Grim Reaper on it). Paid $400 (used) (craigslist)

Black Heart Killer Ant 1watt amplifier (Didn't know it doesn't have a built in speaker and the seller wouldn't give me my money back for it. Oh well....live and learn). Paid $100 (used) (craigslist)

Marshall 3 piece amplifier stack, looks like the Big Boys speaker stacks but in a smaller package. Comes with the electric amplifier head on top and two speaker boxes on bottom. Paid $100 (used) (neighbor across the street)

Boss GT3 electric guitar sound processor (Son still figuring out how all the effects work together) Paid Zero.......actually, my son traded the little Marshall amplifier head for the GT3 effects processor.

So basically this is my sons set up: Dean Guitar>>>Boss GT3 effects processor>>>>Killer Ant 1watt amp box>>>>top Marshall speaker box>>>>bottom Marshall speaker box


And here's a little tidbit of information. The Killer Amp head only has one speaker box connection so there is something that has to be rewired in the speaker box if you use two boxes like the small Marshall boxes. I don't know what has to be done.....but my neighbor hooked it up for me.

Ok. Sounds like he's playing in drop-D. Very popular these days. Learning to play is cool, but playing with other people was a huge step for me. It's nice to have a neighbor like that.

I've been playing for about 45 years, now, have written well over 100 songs, copyrighted over 70 of them have gigged over 100 times . . .
And I run 2 different open mikes, occasionally, and talk to a LOT of guitarists.
So here's what I've found:
Most of them change their strings when they start deciding that they just don't like the sound so much, anymore. And that seems to be around every 6 months or a year, with some of them going longer than that, even
When strings get older they lose their twang.
If you don't care - then don't change them.
I've used my strings for up to a year, but I have an equalizer in the guitar to make up for it.
I play a lot of complicated songs with a lot of fast chord changes, so my strings tend to go dull sounding in an average of 11 days.
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btw way, the 'fat' string is your "E" string, which should be tuned to "E."
As a beginner, I think it's too early to start doing 'drop D . . .'
You should first learn to master the guitar as it is, without resorting to 'tricks and shortcuts' for new sounds.
You can play hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of different chords already, without resorting to tuning changes.
First learn all the basic open chords, then all the basic bar chords: all the majors, minors, sevenths and ninths.
There's others, too, of course, but the ones I've listed seem to be the most important for the many different styles of music I play.
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Then he might, start learning some of the 3 and 4 finger chords up through the 9th fret: There's a lot of cool open chords on the 5th, 7th, and 9th frets, for example.
Suggest that he learns a few hundred chords first, before trying drop D, for it'll become a crutch and an obstacle to progress.
But, of course, if all he wants to do is play stuff like "Smoke on the Water," maybe that's not for him!

When the strings form little bridges over the frets would be a good time. My old bass player let me use his bass to back another lead player at a jam. When I looked down at the dead strings I saw that there were "bridges" over the frets. I asked him when he changed his strings the last time. He said that those were the strings that came with the 14 year old bass. Back then we worked the clubs 6 nights a week and hosted Sat afternoon jams on top of that. You could actually silently tune the bass by aligning the humps over the frets. I told him it was time for new strings. The next week he had new strings on his bass. Tragically it was more in tune and sounded better with his old strings on it.

I change mine when the D & G begin to unravel at the frets. .

I once played on a congregational music team with a guy who had not changed the strings on his bass since 1967.

In 2010 he broke a string. That was when he finally put new strings on. That's 43 years if you're wondering.


The old strings gave it a "smooth" bass quality. Ry Cooder (slide player) swore by old strings for his sound.

Yeah, there is a good point someone posted.
This:
I change my strings after they have been on my guitar for several hundred hours of playing.
The small "E" string and the "B" string are scalloped for a full foot.
Although I have never broken a string in the last 30 years, those two strings are in danger of breaking where they rest on the saddle (on the bridge). Perhaps they could break at the other end, too (the nut).
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And the "G," "D," "A," and low "E" strings are all notched where they wear over the frets.
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When strings are like that, they are in a greater danger of breaking.
if you see notches in your strings, it's always a good idea to replace them.
If you like the way they sounded, then be sure to replace them with the same strings.
If you don't know the gauges of the strings, then save the package when you install new ones.