Guitar String Maintenance

Guitar String Maintenance

Guitar String Maintenance

The most elementary requirement for a decent sound is the six wiry bits which you sweat, bleed and spill beer over. Although they are sometimes used to support half-smoked cigarettes, their original function was to provide a source of vibration between two fixed points. As playing techniques developed, guitarists discovered that moving their fingers up and down the strings produced changes in pitch. A chap called Steve Vai later proved that this energy was only relative to motion at speeds slower than 186.000 miles per second and, subsequently, began playing guitar in a parallel universe.

Since the accurate vibration of the strings is crucial to perfect tone and intonation, it's not true that strings "bed-in", mature with age, or improve with a coating of rust and dead skin cells between the windings. Strings are at their best when they are new and don't let anyone tell you different! Professionals usually change strings every gig! If you are a hardworking semi-pro, getting a bit hot and sweaty under your portable lights, you should expect no more than three gigs per set. (If you use a Floyd Rose tremolo in extremis, then two gigs absolute maximum.) If you only play at home, keep your hands clean, don't sweat or yank the whammy bar too much, you may get up to 20 hours of reasonable use.

Dirt, rust and metal fatigue will reduce performance and prevent correct intonation adjustment. Eventually it becomes impossible to match the fretted octave with the harmonic. Rust also acts as a vicious abrasive and causes premature fret wear. (Fret dressing and refrets are much more expensive than new strings!). Also, watch out for flat spots on the underside of wound strings above the frets. If you can see any, you should have changed them weeks ago! It's not true that boiling strings will revitalise them. This process merely cleans the dirt out of the wraps, but the additional stresses of removal and refitting does even more damage. There are various specialist cleaning agents which will provide temporary improvement, but they must all be used sparingly. Never drench the fingerboard (especially with WD40), and remember that the cost of specialist cleaners, and the potential damage they can cause if misused, could be another false economy. A set of strings, once every three gigs, equals a pint of beer per gig

Work out where your priorities lie! When fitting new strings, it's vital that you don't allow any kinks in the vibrating section. It's easy to accidentally introduce a bend, so take care. If you think you've kinked a string, let it hang free, vertically, and you'll soon notice any problems.

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