Guitar strings must be changed when they start to look or feel rusty, start breaking, lose their tone and sound, or look dull. It is tough to know how long strings will be good as many factors such as climate, how often (or not) you use your instrument, whether you are playing in a band or just playing at home, will all effect the life of your strings. By and lare, when playing a full night with a band, strings will usually only last 3 – 6 gigs. After that, you risk the embarrassment of breaking a string during one of your amazing solos.
When replacing strings leave enough slack to ensure that there is going to be 3 – 5 turns of string around the tuning head. Don’t use several turns or wraps as this leads to wavering and constant string stretching. Make sure you kindly but firmly stretch the strings when they are new. While connected to your tuner keep pulling and stretching the string and re-tune as necessary. Remember that nylon strings will always take a great deal of stretching to remain in tune.
There are many interesting products which can assist in tuning stability and make changing strings easy. Two good ones are the Spertzel or Grover locking machine heads. They need no turns or wraps at all as they lock the string into the machine head.
A good idea on electric guitars with tremelo bridges such Floyd Rose types and also on Gibson style ‘tune o matic’ bridges is to change the strings one at a time. This stops the tremolo going completely out of adjustment and, in the case of the tune o matic, from falling off the guitar and losing the whole set up.
Always keep your new strings as new as possible by wiping them down after each playing and using string life products such as Fast Fret or Finger Ease before and after each jamming session. It makes a large effect on the stings and length of a good string tone. You can greatly extend string life by also using strings brands such as Elixir strings, which add about 8 times to the life of strings. However, these strings are about 3 times pricier than regular strings.
A essential tool to have is an all in one string crank/winder/ string cutter and bridge pin remover such as those made by Planet Waves or similar.
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