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How to tell when it’s time to change guitar strings?
I play my acoustic 2 or 3 times a week and wipe down my strings after every time I play and there is no build up or color change. I play my electrics a couple times a month but the strings are 6 months old. Does the sound change as they age? Thanks
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12 Replies
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Curious about this too. One of my 3 guitars has seriously old strings, but it’s my Open D guitar for the week. As a result I’ve been bending the dickens out them and they’re still in tune!
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that might be less about your strings and a reflection of stable humidity in your guitars’ environs. Strings for sure stretch when they are new and the stretch can be done all at once at the time of first tuning (manually) or it can be done slowly over time by continually tuning for a few hours.
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Hi Marty
Thought this might be helpful.
Over the years i had the habit of never changings strings. Okay, i would only change a string when it broke!!
Strings are not that expensive. I now change them every 4-6 months. Probably not soon enough for some players but my ear is happy when my strings stay in tune.
Here is an article excerpt from Acoustic Guitar Magazine that might be helpful.
“There is no way to pin down how frequently strings should be changed, but it’s safe to say that if they look dirty, feel rough, or sound dull or out of tune, it’s well past time to give your guitar a fresh set. (Check out the January/February 2021 issue of AG for a simple and reliable way to put strings on your guitar.25 May 2023″
<cite role=”text”>https://acousticguitar.com › how-g…</cite>
How Guitar Strings Age—and How to Know When to Change
acousticguitar.com
Acoustic Guitar Magazine | Homepage
Acoustic Guitar serves players, beginning and experienced, with instruction, information, inspiration, advice, and a voice in the acoustic guitar community.
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Change them now… (I can recommend the Lowden range)… Play a tune you know well… And make a mental note of just how good your Guitar sounds with new strings… Maybe even record it…
Then every month, Play the same tune and compare with your mental note to how good it sounded before…
Then decide…
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Anyone have any thoughts on your favorite strings (brand, gague, coatings, etc.) and why?
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And defintily change your strings just before you start learning a barre chord, the mini-F for example. It makes a HUGE difference, in particular if you use low tension strings. (I like the Santa Cruz low tension strings).
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Whats up @MartyP ? Great question. I spent a good deal of time figuring this out early on in my journey. What I have seen and heard: strings do change over time. Different strings age differently. Santa Cruz strings, as much as I complain about their high price, have a coating process different from others. Santa Cruz coats the metal wrapping before the strings are wound. If it is longevity you are looking for this is probably the best option. Other end of the spectrum is my personal favs, D’addario phosphor bronze. These strings will change tone even when they are not played. The bronze oxidizes and losses some of the sparkle over time. I get about 100 hours out of the Phosphor-bronze strings. There are folks who prefer the more percussive sound of the “dead string”. More often than not I will unintentionally break a string somewhere in that time frame and be forced to change out the strings anyway. I love changing the strings on my guitar. It is my chance to look inside, peek under the hood as it were, do a good exterior clean, paying special attention to the fret board, check the fasteners on the tuning machines. It reminds me of when I would spend hours under the hood of my car, when I was a kid, just messing around, getting the lay of the land.
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@MartyP it’s a great question with alot of great answers… Guitar strings are alot like car tires… They wear out gradually and you don’t usually appreciate how bad they are until you replace them… Thankfully as already mentioned, guitar strings are not as expensive as new tires, hehe!!
But really, everyone has a different “tolerance” to aging strings. Professional musicians who charge people money to hear them play, usually change their strings every day they have a performance, to play with fresh strings. And it goes down the continuum to people like me (hobbyist players) who can’t really even hear the difference between new strings and old strings. I change mine once a year (or so) whether they need it or not, haha!! Or if one string breaks I change the whole set. I like “old” strings because they stay in tune better and like I said, I can’t really hear the difference in tone. That said, there’s nothing more gross than taking a really old set of strings off, coiling them up and then doing a side by side comparison with the new ones….
If you need a tetanus shot before you play your guitar, it’s probably time for new strings. But everyone should do what’s right for themselves.
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You’ve got some great advice in the comments. I personally change them on the guitar I play most often every 2-3 months, because I can tell when they’re losing that tonal value and resonating like I want them to. On the other hand, I have several guitars I don’t play often, but the strings still age and deteriorate over time. I have to change those strings typically every 6-8 months. I agree with @jumpinjeff that you need to have the guitars in a room that is humidity-controlled. I like humidity around 50%, but I’ll accept 40%. Below that, the wood will dry out and shrink, and that affects the strings, as well as the coating on the strings deteriorating faster.
As for what strings to use, it is a personal preference. They all sound different, and I can put the same brand on multiple guitars, and they can all sound different. Play around with it. I bought so many brands of strings at the beginning. I narrowed it down to preference based on each guitar. I use D’Addario Phospher Bronze Light,
Here’s what I currently have in my collection of strings.
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Today I got confirmation that guitar strings have a shelf life even in a sealed package! I opened a package of Martin&Co Marquis, that I purchased for my wife probably about 20 years ago. She never installed them because she never actually played. Although sealed in the package inside the guitar case in air conditioning the high E and B strings had rust on them. I threw them all away of course, even if no visible rust is on the other 4 strings they can’t be much better than the rusty ones. It’s funny because the strings on the guitar are significantly older but still playable at this point.
I just ordered new strings because all the spare sets I have are for electric.
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for me it depends on the guitar. for example, when my hd28 loses it’s luster i swap them out. i like the sound of “dead” strings on my 00015 hog, Nick Drake style. so the strings are just shy of rusty on that box.
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I should keep track maybe every 2-6 months. When I do change them it seems like NGD. I really like the crisp clear sound new strings give my guitar. I think I will change them later today.
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