How Often Should You Change Your Guitar Strings?

How often you change your stings all depends on how often you play and what type of strings you use. As you play a set of stings they will slowly lose their tone due to stretching and oil and dirt buildup. The sound of the strings may be the deciding factor in changing them.

You can preserve the tone of your strings somewhat if you clean your hands before playing the guitar and clean the strings after you are done. You can buy string cleaning formulas, but wiping them with a clean dry cloth should do. My hands build up a bit of a sweat when I’m playing for long periods of time, so cleaning that off really prolongs the life of my strings.

I have heard you should be able to expect anywhere from 12 hours of play and up depending on what types of strings. Now 12 hours of play isn’t very much. If you play 2 hours a day that’s once a week you would have to change your strings. Basically what that time means is after 12 hours of play the strings will start to lose their initial tone. If you are playing gigs or are a touring musician, that might be required for you, but for the average Joe its overkill.

Signs You Need to Change Your Strings

The Sound
When you put on a fresh set of strings the sound will be very bright and full. As strings grow older and are played a lot the tone will soften out and sound less… well, new. If you like that bright sound of new strings, simply the sound quality may entice you to replace them.

Dirt and Grime
When playing guitar you are going to get oil and sweat from your hand mixed with skin on the strings. If you don’t clean this regularly it will build up and affect the playability and tone of the strings.

A Broken String
Sometimes a string will break, whether it’s due to fret wear, a birr on the nut, or old strings. It happens. Although you can buy individual strings, I always suggest if you can change them all you should. Sometimes if you are in the middle of a gig or a jam session, that is not an option. I just like knowing I have a full fresh set of strings on my guitar. If you have one string that is always breaking, take your guitar into a shop. There may be a notch in the nut that is causing stress on it and making it break.

Fret Wear
If you are starting to get worn marks on the strings right above the fret markers it is time for new strings. These worn spots will affect the tone of the strings and could eventually grow into a break.

The String Winding is Coming Off
This is an extreme case of fret ware. If the bass strings get worn down too far at the fret the winding can start to come off. Usually this will result in the string eventually breaking. However, even if it doesn’t this is a sure sign you are overdue for new strings.

Overview

To sum things up, if any of the following conditions apply to you it is time to change your strings.

1. The tone of the strings is not as bright as a new pair and is not satisfactory
2. There is a lot of dirt and grime buildup on the strings which is affecting the tone
3. A string has broken
4. There is ware on the strings above each fret
5. The ware on the strings above the frets has resulted in the string winding coming off

Personally the tone isn’t a huge issue for me. I do like the fresh string tone, but it usually comes down to me changing my strings because they get dirty.

Posted Monday, April 17th, 2006 at 6:22 am under Guitar Basics.

tagged beginner guitar, guitar basics, guitar maintenance, guitar setup and guitar strings

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