Never thought of retightening the strings periodically Robert. That makes perfect sense to keep the neck tension in order to keep things from bending. I'm glad I didn't try to loosen the strings.

 It is still amazing to me how that piece of wire can be stretched to that tension and not break right away...really is a science in metalurgy when looking at the physics of it.

 I appreciate the other comments. I hang my guitars on an inside wall and my house usually has a good balance in humidity so I'm not thinking that humidity plays any big role. My only acoustic guitar is in a case. My electrics hang on the wall and they do get dusty after awhile.

 I tried elixir coated strings on my acoustic and wasn't impressed. The larger gauges seem to work better for me on my electrics because I find myself not always using a pick. 

 Those cobalts look like something I am going to need to try for sure.

  I just took D'addarrios off with my most recent change. I liked them ok but guess I wanted to try something different. I seem to gravitate towards the Ernie Balls. I like the hybrid mix and maybe some of it was that bright green package that caught my attention ;) They are good strings.

Starise


 
 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.
 

I have strings on mine that have been on for years. As long as the guitars are kept in their cases, the strings still feel and sound new. Now the ones I have hanging off my rack on the wall, after a while even if the strings are new and sit, they sort of lose their brilliance but they still have a good sound to them.
 
I personally do not think you should ever lessen any tension. Guitars were made to withstand standard tuning. I feel it's ok to leave them that way. I've had more issues with lesser tension than proper tension. Meaning, when I've left strings off of a guitar for a period of time, it alters the way it plays for a while until the neck snaps back. I've also had this issue when I've broken a string and just hung the guitar on the rack for a few weeks. I don't just change one string, I do an entire set at all times and sometimes I may not have time to do a full change. So the guitar will hang off the rack. After a few weeks when I clean it up and restring it, it will play a bit weird for a week or so...but it will eventually snap back into action.
 
Cleaning fluids etc: I don't believe in them other than Fast Fret which I STILL do not leave on for long. It works best to me on necks without strings on them. For example, each time I change strings, I clean my guitar from top to bottom and then apply Fast Fret to the neck only without the strings being on. I let it sit for 3-5 minutes and wipe off the excess. The less stuff you put on your strings, the less chance of corrosion etc.
 
As far as cleaning my strings, the only thing I use is Web-Col alcohol pad wipes. They are awesome and small enough to manipulate wiping the strings down without touching the neck or any of the wood of the guitar. They even bring old, dead strings back to life. I just rub 'em down until I hear this ungodly squeek sound that is so loud, it makes the hair on your arms stand up. LOL!
 
As for the strings I use, I prefer GHS Boomer 9-42. They don't last long as far as keeping their brilliance, but they sound incredible and I barely ever break them. I change strings once per week on my main 3 guitars and get the strings by the case so this cuts down on breakage as well as the loss of tonality. But I really play my guitars hard. I can cook a set of strings in one 3 hour show. I've rusted them solid, have seen pieces of flesh all over them...I'm brutal when it comes to sweating and leaving pieces of me behind. The Boomers don't last long, but nothing else I've tried sounds as good as they do. Kinda like a 25 watt Greenback Celestion speaker....they don't last very long but sound great from the time you get them to right before you blow one up. :)
 
-Danny

have seen pieces of flesh all over them

LOL........REALLY.....?






Dude.....

timidi

have seen pieces of flesh all over them

LOL........REALLY.....?






Dude.....

Unfortunately, yeah. When I don't play as often and start playing more often, I literally file my finger tips down from playing. Once they harden up though, I could slice them with a razor blade and they won't bleed. Then the skin shredding stops. LOL! Yeah, I've carved a hole in my middle finger many times from playing. It's not even a blister. It's like a callous on top of a callous or something....but you can see the skin on the strings when this happens. It's pretty gross. This actually just happened this week. I had to play bass on 3 tracks and I don't play bass often. I had a nice little hole in my middle finger. It doesn't go down deep or anything...it looks like when you bite a blister or pop one. ;)
 
-Danny

I totally get what you mean. 

I remember a biology class in high school - we were studying blood groups and were expected to provide samples by pricking out fingertips. Being right-handed, I obviously tried to collect the sample from my left hand - but I could never get through the skin. 


After over a month off, I'm back to playing/recording/practicing 4 to 6 hours a night. You should see the tip of my fingers. Biting a blister is the best description. The strange thing is it doesn't really hurt though... 

I just took a lovely nick out of my fretting forefinger with a Stanley Knife whilst cutting hardboard for a kitchen floor base

Callus or not, it still bloody hurt and I sprayed blood out a good foot, all over my lovely new floor!

+1 on leaving guitars tuned to pitch. I would think leaving a guitar neck with no tension on it would do far more damage than a tuned set up.

As to changing. I tend to change strings on my hanging guitars about once very six months but I probably play them all fairly equally (but not much). My main two gigging guitars get changed anywhere between once a month to the once every six months, depending on how busy they've been.

I only have one bass and I change its strings regularly. Having said that the interval is once every 25 years and I've only had it about 12, so it's roughly halfway through its regular string change cycle. I'd like to thank bitflipper for pointing out in a thread about a year ago that bass strings could be changed, hence my new resolve to do it regularly.

Bob is right, keep the guitar tuned to pitch; even tension on the neck.
Chuck is right also, 10-52 all the way; gotta love a fat bottomed girl!
How can you break a .052 string???

T

lol... Finger divots. I always get those. I currently have a nice crater in the tip of my middle finger. When I'm playing a lot I'm constantly picking away at chunks of dead, shredded flesh from my finger tips. There something very satisfying to me about peeling big chunks of it off. ;-)