I have several guitars that I seldom play. They mostly stay on hangers on the wall adjusted to tension.  I am wondering if they need a string change every so often regardless of how often I play them. The reason I am asking is that the other day I decided to change the strings on one of them and it literally sounded like a new guitar. It was like my tone opened up and got better.The old strings haven't seen much use either.
 
 I recently read about similar problems with strings and that cleaning the strings after every practice is a good idea. I went to GC and bought some string cleaner thinking this might help.
 
 What should I do when not playing a guitar for awhile? Should I be: loosening the strings slightly to reduce stress on the necks? Changing strings every so often no matter how much the instrument is played? It almost seems like the longer the guitar goes with a set of strings the worse it sounds over time,even if I haven't played it.
 
 These are the strings I just put on.
 

Dude I am laughing because I am guilty of leaving strings on a guitar so long they have stuff growing on them!  Honestly, I sometimes like the sound of dead strings... I actually EQ for it!

LMAO

In all sincerity though, I don't know what the experts say, but minimizing the number of tightening/loosenings on a glued neck seems like the right thing to do in my non-professional opinion.  I leave my strings at tension at all times, and have never noticed any adverse effects...including a 1972 Les Paul.

Looking at it from a practical point of view, I wouldn't want to pick a guitar off the wall and have to tune the bloody thing while I've still got something going round in my head.

And like Tony, I've left strings on for so long without issues that I don't think this can ever be an issue.

Same here..I've had guitars hanging on the wall for years with the same strings on.

Im with Tony on this Star.

I hardly ever touch mine outside of tuning and an occasional wiping.

I can see where if one was gigging with it it would be wise to do a good cleaning after use because of sweat, crud, etc...  but for the not so often studio use, I say nahhh

Same suffering here. My guitar recording sessions take place so seldom, that if I wanted to have the fresh, airy sound I'd need half a dozen sets of strings per song. It does bother me, as the sound, especially of my acoustic guitar, is SO much nicer with strings four-five days old maximum.

You can seldom get what you want...

As a rule of thumb, if I know I'm to use a guitar for a recording, I change strings the night before, and mess w/ the guitar a bit to give the strings a chance to stretch a bit. For my main guitar which I play pretty much every day, it's once a week. 

But as I've mentioned before, I have pretty acidic sweat. Wiping the strings between every take or every other take quickly became part of my routine and seems to help keep them fresh a bit.

Unless I'm experimenting with a new type of string or are taking them off to do some work, I tend to change my bass strings every 5-20 years, whether they need it or not.  

 Thanks for the suggestions guys, yeah Rain I read your post on strings and that's why I bought the string cleaner. I don't think my hands are particularly acidic but maybe they are .I do sweat like a hog.

 I'm wondering how long I can hope to keep the nice sounds I'm getting with new strings. It made such a difference in my sound that I would be willing to change them every time I seriously record.Maybe this is my imagination but the strings seemed to not only have better tone to them but they vibrated better. 

 I guess everything has its lifespan.  Thanks again. I will keep the strings at tension and hope the tone lasts awhile.

You're supposed to change the strings? 



yeah.... new string are better sounding. they are brighter, and they have that ring in them that old ones lose.  I don't think it matters if you play them or not.... if they are under tension, they are stretching out and that seems to take away that brightness....

guitars in the stores that set on the wall hangers for months..... I have never picked one off the wall and was impressed with it having new strings. 99% of the ones I have played in that manner were all pretty dead sounding.

How often to change strings.  that depends on a number of factors. I used to gig for a living and the band I played in was pretty tight and since we were a 3 piece band.... a broken string was not an option in the middle of a tune. My SG would go horribly out of tune instantly on a break of any string. So.....since we were gigging many nights each week and making some decent money, I took it upon myself to buy strings by the case and would change them at least every 2 weeks if we were gigging lightly that week or weekly if we were playing every night. I also cleaned the strings after the shows. 

Still....when I installed new strings, there was always a marked improvement in sound quality, tone and intonation. 

Now.... here in the studio, I leave them on for months.... sometimes years. But oh what a treat to put new strings on the Taylor Acoustic.... oh my..... it's a thing of beauty.