A different approach to changing strings...

[miko]

A while back I posted something about a band member who never changes his strings... or vary rarely

Now I met this other guy, he takes his strings and boils them in alcohol every now and then and they come out like new.... so he says...

Anyone here ever try that? Or even hear about it?

 

[Blues_Man]

i bet he drinks the warm alcohol as well

and changes his strings very often

 

[Rancid Rumpboogie]

I've accidentally soaked mine in Jack Daniels a time or two.

 

[Ian]

I have heard about boiling guitar strings to clean them and revitilise them for use.  It was used in the old days when there was little money going about and when strings were expensive to buy.  Apparrently it worked several times on a set of strings and made them sound like new as the dirt and grime that clogged the strings was removed. You soak the strings in alcohol for about 1o minutes remove them and then put them in a pot of boiling water for 20 minutes and then rinsed them in cold water, hang them out to dry.  Regarding the way guitar strings are now manufactured, the coating they recieve in the manufacturing process and the relevant costs of a set of new strings make soaking and boiling them a thing of the past, plus the fact that this proceess might actually weaken the modern type of guitar strings. I tried it a couple of times but one/two string always snapped. Guess it because of the quality of the metal used in modern strings or I was doing something wrong in the process.  Hope this helps you

Ian   

 

[sloslunas]

I'm sorry but that's just wrong...give me his address and I'll send him the 4 bucks to buy some new strings.

 

[PapaRaptor]

That sounds like a whole lot more work than I would be interested in.  Maybe bass guitar strings at $20 a set, but not a set of EB Slinkys at $4 a pop.

 

[ToneSeeker]

I'm sorry but that's just wrong...give me his address and I'll send him the 4 bucks to buy some new strings.

I agree.... just go buy some strings for 4 or 5 dollars, The amount of money you spend buying the guitar in the first place you would think you could spend 4 or 5 dollars a month at least...

Why would you want to go through all that hassle, once the strings have been wound on the pegs you've weakened them at that point.  Unwinding them and rewinding them is going to cause weakened structure and their not going to last...

Go buy some new strings... Support your local music shop... 

 

[giayank]

I ordered 3 sets of strings from amazon prime . delivered to my door in 2 days for 7.65 $ . they were d'ddario nickel wound 10's . I couldn't drive to guitar center for that price . don't know how amazon does it . It would cost more to pay for the heat and alcohol .

 

[FishKiller]

i bet he drinks the warm alcohol as well

and changes his strings very often

+1  tell the dude to buy some new strings.

Carlos

 

[Hopeful]

That sounds like a whole lot more work than I would be interested in.  Maybe bass guitar strings at $20 a set, but not a set of EB Slinkys at $4 a pop.

Yeah, I've heard this before about bass guitar strings, partly because of the cost and partly because it seems to work.

 

[panther]

It makes sense to me, that it removes the deadening oils, and dirt. But as far as reconditioning the string, I don't think so. After doing it a few times, the strings are just plain stretched out. No more flexible life left to tune. Metal fatigue. I would venture a guess, that if your friend, kept cleaning the same set of strings, at one point, they would not tune, but rather would probably snap.
Dan

 

[henryj]

How many here have taken the strings off a guitar then put them back on?  Not fun!

 

[DesmoDog]

How many here have taken the strings off a guitar then put them back on?  Not fun!

+1  I reused strings when I changed tuners once, and that was going from standard tuners to locking tuners so I could even cut off the kinked ends from the original tuners. I wouldn't even bother trying to remove and clean anything. Places like GFS have strings for under $3 per set IIRC.

Not to mention, there is mechanical/structural whatever you want to call it damage on the strings from where they were hitting the frets. Cleaning them does nothing for that.

I recently put new strings on my Telecaster. It had been too long... I was amazed at how much better the guitar felt with new strings on it! It was worth the $5 or whatever it was they cost me.

 

[PapaRaptor]

How many here have taken the strings off a guitar then put them back on?  Not fun!

I did it last week on my Dano bass.  At $!7 a set, I figured it was worth a shot.  I took the neck off the bass in an experiment for traveling. I was going to leave the strings on, but taped to the fretboard below the first fret.  But it became such a PITA in trying to pack that I took the strings off.  They have now been on and off the bass twice with no noticeable side effects.

On the Strat I brought out, I didn't bother and just cut the old ones off.

But I did keep a set of strings on a Telecaster recently when I removed the tuners and replaced them with a set of lockers.  No big deal.  But at $4 a pop, I'm not going to go out of my way to save a set of guitar strings.