OT"Vintage Strings"

[Tony Forestiere]

Greetings to all

How often does everyone change their strings. I normally play blues/old school rock, and love the sound and stability of strings that have been "aged". Haven't changed mine in three years. Very mellow, thick tone. They are cleaned before and after playing. Just wondering aloud.

[MarkB]

you're supposed to change your strings?
:shock:  :shock:


I'm pretty bad about it, myself.
"-)

[bwanasonic]

When was the last time you checked your intonation? Strings that old cannot intonate accurately. If you can run your finger under the plain strings and feel any kind of uneveness, the string is not vibrating in a manner that allows it to play in tune along the whole neck. I once kept a set of flat-wound strings on a hollow body jazz guitar for over a year, and I could get some almost ring modulator effects the metal was so fatigued.  If you only play single-note lines, you can get away with old strings, but chords, especially complex chords higher up the neck don't tend to sound so good. I hate changing strings, but I also hate the sound of old, out-of-tune strings, so I change them pretty often, and always before a gig.

Kerry M

[Peter Snowberg]

I'm one of those people that usually plays until I have a 5 string before replacing. My last set was years old.

Take care,
-Peter

[Rodgre]

I'm kind of a mixture. My main gigging guitars get new strings quite often. Sometimes I change them between soundcheck and the set, which is kind of frowned upon. I will try to change them the day before a gig, if I have a chance. On tour, I'll probably change them every other show, or change them on these two guitars tonight, those two tomorrow, etc....

At the studio, there are dozens of guitars. Those I change whenever they are a problem: i.e. we need the Tele Custom for this track, but it's really dead and out of intonation.... I'll restring it and intonate it and do the track and those strings will stay on there until we need it to sound like it has new strings again.

Some of my guitars haven't had new strings since the early 90's.

Roger

[Tony Forestiere]

When I clean my strings, I use Fast Fret (don't know what the stuff is?) and scrub the entire string with the enclosed flannel cloth. My strings are as bright as new, but much less "twangy" as new ones. The intonation is set to where I can tune harmonicaly or open with equal results. My guitar is a 1976 Gibson Marauder with the neck GLUED into the body to increase the sustain. It works! I use Dean Markley .009 sets, and let them "age" :wink:

[WGTP]

What ever works for you IMHO.  I probably like old strings better on my strat than on my Les Paul.

When I gigged a lot I would change before each night, mostly so I could stay in tune.  I guess I do a lot of bending and getting the open chords and the others to be in tune seems to take new strings.  Now, I go 6 mo.s or until one breaks.

The thing to be careful about it voicing your Distortions with new or old strings and then finding them too dark or bright with new/old strings.

I like mine to sound good with old strings and then I can cut the treble/presence with new strings.  

[smoguzbenjamin]

So that's why my guitar sounds detuned whatever I do. Right, gotta get new strings then. I didn't know that old strings did that. I like new strings myself. The have a nice ring to them. The ole "these are new strings and they sound great' vibe does it for me

edit: Stupid question coming up - what exactly is intonation? :?

[bwanasonic]

edit: Stupid question coming up - what exactly is intonation? :?

Basically adjusting the bridge so the fretted note at the 12th fret is the same as the harmonic at the 12th fret. Some people use various *offsets* of +/- 1 or 2 cents for each string. A couple of links:

http://www.accessrock.com/ReferenceLessons/string-a-guitar.asp

http://www.fretnotguitarrepair.com/intonation.htm

Kerry M

[Peter Snowberg]

edit: Stupid question coming up - what exactly is intonation? :?

In a nutshell, setting intonation involves moving the saddle pieces on the bridge so that the harmonic from the 12th fret is the same as the note play when you press on the 12th fret. When you fret a string, you actually elongate it a little. The intonation adjustments "take up the slack" from that string bending and keep things almost in tune. I say almost because the guitar is an instrument that is ALWAYS out of tune in one way or another.

For more info on tuning and intonation, check out the Buzz Feiten tuning system. http://www.buzzfeiten.com/

Take care,
-Peter

[Tony Forestiere]

edit: Stupid question coming up - what exactly is intonation?

Hello, Good to see you back on the forum.

Intonation is the musical/mathmatical theorem of an equally tempered scale. That means that if you hit a harmonic at the 12th fret, it should coincide or match the frequency of the open string. (Someone help me if I'm wrong). If you adjust your bridge sadles with a tuner to make the 12th fret and open string to hit the same frequency, your intonation will be set.

Best of luck

[petemoore]

"NEVER: Wait 'till they break off".
 [He does't clean them, and they, at that time were actually quite rusty]
 He continued to explain how old strings sound just fine...
 I asked: "Do you think that may be one of the reasons you were cajoled into playing bass?"
 With an obnoxiously loud and super distorted and noisy sound, it's hard to tell sometimes.
 When you want sweet clarity, and very 'intune-ness' to the tone of the sound of the guitar....old strings should do that bad compared to new ones.
 Dude was wondering why his guitar sounded like half out of tune with new strings on it.
 I looked very closely at the plain steels, and could see pronounced blemished, and unevenness to them, they were the cheepos' types, that were run off an old beat 'string rounder' ... I guess google guitar strings for an explaination of how they're made.
 Basically premium strings come off of a more freshly 'toleranced' string shaping device. The thing that makes the string shape, gets less than perfect as more strings are run off it, they like to keep the presses running, once a higher  tolerance [less perfectly round/straight] strings start coming off it, they're packaged differently and you can find them in some stores for 1$-3$...garbage...IMO, there are big differences in new string quality.
 When I read up on it, the reads stated there are three major string MfR's that make all the strings for piano's guitars banjo's, but sell lots to distribution and marketing companies like Ernie Ball of S.I.T.
 I use Ernie Ball of Di Addario, I find the S.I.T.'s last much longer, and don't twang much at all in comparison. They are made from harder to break metal, they just don't 'flop around' and twang/ring like E.B.'s or Di.A.'s, way too stiff for the sounds I most often prefer.
 SIT's keep their promise of S.'ing In Tune and go "DAAAAAAAAA", instead of DWAAAAAURRRRRR... :oops:   ...that's just not going to have the same type ring when notes are combined into chords...personal taste, I like the striking of a chord to initiate more complex attack/sustain events, and stiffer strings don't do that as well...Oh yes I've tried them a couple times...just not for me.
 Dude showed me the Gold Plated strings...I dunno, I like a medium priced car, that way I can buy another NEW car once in a while...they we're like 120$ and boasted all this and that...gold looks wierd and cool on a guitar, I guess if you're rich or something...If it had sounded superb or something, I personally would have taken the string money, and put that toward a more interesting amp than he was using, but he was getting ready to replace them old golds with new ones...I hope he melted the gold off before trashing them !!! I thought they sounded dead, but supposedly the gold up's output from the pickup...get gold patches over the string just over the pickup? Wouldn't ring right.
  The more even and true the string is all the way over the playing area the more accurate the note definition will be. Certain tolerances are tolerated, obviously, it's impossible to produce an absolutely perfectly shaped string.
 IMO they start great, and get less great as time, and playtime on the set, or string increases. Cleaning after playing is a good excersize to promote longevity of performance.
 My plain steel strings Always exhibit symptoms of fatigue earlier than the wound ones, some players order bulk extra plain steels and change them say twice as often or more than the wound ones.... :idea:
 Your tuner [I don't swear by tuners, I swear AT them...lol] will respond better to newer strings, your amping setups also respond differently to new or old strings.
 I find the worst is: play the strings enough to dirty and sweat them up a little, when humidity is high and put them away that way for about a week, come back and the strings, after only one hour say of playing, are crustied up and shot.
 Your acid is different than mine. Combining acid types [in the oil in our hands] and applying them to strings can kill them instantly, depending on the combination. I hesitate to let others use my guitar just after a restringing, whether they understand or not. I'll bring the spare guitar just for the perfect response [that I can feel at ease with] in expectation of that scenario. "Can I use Your Guitar?" yes...you can use that one...
 Old strings Suck Tone.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

It's suprising what upsets people, I was in a share house once & fighting broke out because someone was using the soup pot to boil guitar strings. (it wasn't mne, but I didn't mind!)
Whether boiled strings sound brighter, I don't know. But my friend believed it.