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Post by samspade on Feb 4, 2024 17:20:08 GMT -5
I just realized today I can restring a strat, with string stretching and tuning in 8 min, dunlop hand winder. Standard tuners. This might be relatively slow compared other people, but I was happy. Now I'm curious about kluson, locking tuners, bigsby, floyd lol
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Post by Leftee on Feb 4, 2024 17:33:55 GMT -5
Locking tuners on a top-loader Tele. I can do those super fast.
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Post by ninworks on Feb 4, 2024 17:46:04 GMT -5
Restringing is no big deal. It's the thorough cleaning I give them that takes the most time.
When I was gigging 5 or 6 nights a week, every week, I had to restring my SG every 3 days or I would start breaking strings. I was a heavy hitter. I used to beat the crap out of the strings. Not so much anymore. I used to wipe it down every night after the gig but the gunk on the fingerboard and in between the 3 humbuckers could only be cleaned with the strings off. It usually took me about 15 minutes to clean and restring it. Playing in hot smoky dive bars in Phoenix, in the summertime, under stage lights, was a sweaty and nasty environment. The strings sounded like flatwounds after 3 days anyway with all the smoke, sweat, and finger gunk.
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Feb 4, 2024 20:47:58 GMT -5
I feel rather strongly that being in the habit of changing strings often is superior to finding a set of strings that lasts ridiculously long. The super long lasting stuff is fine for guitars that spend a lot of time in a closet, but doesn't make a lot of sense for guitars that get played. It is often the same price wise.
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Post by ninworks on Feb 5, 2024 8:28:35 GMT -5
I feel rather strongly that being in the habit of changing strings often is superior to finding a set of strings that lasts ridiculously long. The super long lasting stuff is fine for guitars that spend a lot of time in a closet, but doesn't make a lot of sense for guitars that get played. It is often the same price wise. I equate that to using synthetic oil in your vehicle and changing it every 10,000 miles or using conventional oil and changing it every 3,000 to 5,000 miles. From a longevity perspective it's better to change it more often. Not because the oil breaks down necessarily, but due to the contamination from wear and tear. There are other factors that enter into this as well but I won't go into them here. Frets and metal saddles produce wear on strings as well. It's not just corrosion or gunk that kills them. Coated strings may not be as sensitive to build-up or corrosion but they still wear.
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DrKev
Wholenote
It's just a guitar, it's not rocket science.
Posts: 418
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Post by DrKev on Feb 5, 2024 10:29:31 GMT -5
Frets and metal saddles produce wear on strings as well. It's not just corrosion or gunk that kills them. Coated strings may not be as sensitive to build-up or corrosion but they still wear. ^ This ^ Strings that keep their tone longer will stay on my guitars long enough that normal wear and tear can lead to breakage. Once I realized that, I knew I'd rather change strings sooner than have one break when it's inconvenient. When I was gigging and studio-ing, that decision was pretty for easy for me. For home players, they may never care. Re: the OP, 8 minutes is excellent! Anything under ten minutes qualifies as fast. I once broke a string onstage in the middle of the opening riff of a song. MIJ strat, floating vintage trem, vintage Kluson-style tuners. I shouted a quick "keep playing!" to the band, had the old string off and a new one on and stretched in in 90 seconds flat, just in time for the guitar solo. I got a round of applause for that one! Still in tune at the end of teh song too!
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Post by samspade on Feb 5, 2024 13:20:14 GMT -5
"I once broke a string onstage in the middle of the opening riff of a song. MIJ strat, floating vintage trem, vintage Kluson-style tuners. I shouted a quick "keep playing!" to the band, had the old string off and a new one on and stretched in in 90 seconds flat, just in time for the guitar solo. I got a round of applause for that one! Still in tune at the end of teh song too!" Impressive I keep strings on guitars longer than I should, but always fresh live and have a backup guitar. If one breaks, I'd be too out of sorts to try it live lol
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Feb 6, 2024 11:24:45 GMT -5
Yeah, strings going dull is only one part of the equation. I have one client who plays very frequently (5-6 nights a week, solo acoustic) and very hard, and I finally talked him out of wasting his money on Elixirs. He would wear off the windings at the frets (he has stainless frets because he plays so hard), and whenever he broke a string, he had to break a set. He was changing strings at least once a week. Total waste of money.
Then, there's intonation. I get the sense strings don't lose their intonation as fast as they did 10-20 years ago, though. When I was playing more frequently, that is usually what I noticed first when strings died. I'd play something like an A at the 5th fret, and it would be impossibly out of tune, but in tune open and at the 12th fret. Now, I can take a guitar with old strings, set the intonation, put new strings on, and when I check with the new strings it isn't THAT different. Perhaps there have been improvements that I'm unaware of.
Part of the popularity of coated strings is that Taylor "recommended" them, and people took that VERY seriously... as in, I would semi-frequently have people convinced it was bad for their guitars to use anything else. They're great for guitars that just sit - sitting in warehouses, on shipping docks or on showroom walls is a PERFECT environment for a coated string. It is hard to sell a guitar with dead sounding strings on it, so knowing it is ready to demo is a real plus. Some players are like this, too. The guy who has 8 electrics and only breaks out the acoustic once in a great while for a backing track on a power ballad... he's almost guaranteed to have fresh strings when he pulls it out with a coated string.
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Post by reverendrob on Feb 6, 2024 12:10:40 GMT -5
Then, there's intonation. I get the sense strings don't lose their intonation as fast as they did 10-20 years ago, though. When I was playing more frequently, that is usually what I noticed first when strings died. I'd play something like an A at the 5th fret, and it would be impossibly out of tune, but in tune open and at the 12th fret. Now, I can take a guitar with old strings, set the intonation, put new strings on, and when I check with the new strings it isn't THAT different. Perhaps there have been improvements that I'm unaware of. I think the big difference likely is due to the "increased ability" of modern machining stuff to put out higher-consistency items plus metallurgy getting more consistent as well. That plus the packaging improvements so "fresh strings" get to you actually fresh even if they've sat in a warehouse for a decade etc.
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Post by cedarchoper58 on Feb 7, 2024 18:00:02 GMT -5
i can change a broken string durring a song live
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Post by jazzguy on Feb 9, 2024 3:10:38 GMT -5
I always used heavy strings, 13-56 and would only occasionally break strings. I've recently lightened up on the bass strings using custom sets 13-53. I'd get about a month out of a set gigging twice a week wiping them down before playing. Obviously better to wipe them down after playing, but I'd be in so much of a hurry to get home I wouldn't take the time. Since switching to the lighter set I've been taking the time to wipe them down after playing and they feel smoother/last longer. When the plain E and B get cruddy and the G starts getting fret groove I swap out the top 3 strings and get even longer life from a set.
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Feb 10, 2024 14:07:58 GMT -5
Then, there's intonation. I get the sense strings don't lose their intonation as fast as they did 10-20 years ago, though. When I was playing more frequently, that is usually what I noticed first when strings died. I'd play something like an A at the 5th fret, and it would be impossibly out of tune, but in tune open and at the 12th fret. Now, I can take a guitar with old strings, set the intonation, put new strings on, and when I check with the new strings it isn't THAT different. Perhaps there have been improvements that I'm unaware of. I think the big difference likely is due to the "increased ability" of modern machining stuff to put out higher-consistency items plus metallurgy getting more consistent as well. That plus the packaging improvements so "fresh strings" get to you actually fresh even if they've sat in a warehouse for a decade etc. Probably all of those, but my money is on whatever machinery they have for putting on the windings. As I understand it (and mostly a guess), the intonation goes wonky because the string has uneven density/mass/diameter across the length of the string. If the windings are bunched up too much in one place, tighter in one place than another, or loosen/shift in some way, your intonation goes out the window. It is like moving the frets around mathematically, you're just changing a different variable. You can definitely imagine string company X having the old machines they've had since the '60s and finally upgrading in the 2000s or 2010s to something better and fixing these problems along the way. I've never visited a shop that makes strings, so I'm mostly guessing, though.
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Post by reverendrob on Feb 12, 2024 21:11:27 GMT -5
I think the big difference likely is due to the "increased ability" of modern machining stuff to put out higher-consistency items plus metallurgy getting more consistent as well. That plus the packaging improvements so "fresh strings" get to you actually fresh even if they've sat in a warehouse for a decade etc. Probably all of those, but my money is on whatever machinery they have for putting on the windings. As I understand it (and mostly a guess), the intonation goes wonky because the string has uneven density/mass/diameter across the length of the string. If the windings are bunched up too much in one place, tighter in one place than another, or loosen/shift in some way, your intonation goes out the window. It is like moving the frets around mathematically, you're just changing a different variable. You can definitely imagine string company X having the old machines they've had since the '60s and finally upgrading in the 2000s or 2010s to something better and fixing these problems along the way. I've never visited a shop that makes strings, so I'm mostly guessing, though. It was only a couple doing most of them for ages IIRC.
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Post by LTB on Feb 13, 2024 14:09:00 GMT -5
Restringing is not a big seal for me except for guitar with a Bigsby. which definately slows me down.
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chucksmi
Wholenote
Posts: 174
Formerly Known As: Offshore Angler elsewhere
Age: I saw Jerry Live
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Post by chucksmi on Feb 19, 2024 17:49:52 GMT -5
Restringing is not a big seal for me except for guitar with a Bigsby. which definately slows me down. Yeah, I pull the pins out of my Bigsby's and string them through the hole it leaves. You're welcome!
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Post by LTB on Feb 20, 2024 0:29:12 GMT -5
Hadn’t thought of that! What a novel idea. Does it effect the operation to any gelreat degree?
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