Changing Strings June 15, 2009
I love playing guitar, I really do. But there’s one aspect of it which I don’t find very exciting, and that’s the thought of changing strings.
By itself it’s not that big a deal, really. It’s only 5 bucks and 15 minutes of your life. But having to do it regularly can get quite…annoying. Sometimes I envy our bass-playing brethren, who can go years without changing strings.
We aren’t so lucky. At most I can go a month without suffering too much. But if you’re gigging or recording on a regular basis, then changing at least every week is the norm. Otherwise the tone starts to suffer.
I don’t even want to think about how much money and time I’ve spent on strings in the 20 years I’ve been playing. But what really gets me is that every time I change them, I hurt myself in some way…a poke, a cut, a scrape. Look closely at that picture, it was taken this morning. Notice the band-aid?
But after the blood, pain and time wasted, I’m left with the guitar sounding better than ever, full of life and resonance. Is it worth all the hassle?
Totally.
I change my bass strings once every 3 months if finances permit. I actually love the sound when they go dead, sometimes 6 months before I changed them. I had a bass where I let them go for over a year and its the best possible sound for Reggae.
I know a guitarist who’s got the “acid sweat” and he HAS to change his strings once a week.
Yeah, most bass players I play with, I think I’ve only seen them change strings when they break. It’s definitely part of the sound for certain styles.
On electric guitar I actually prefer the sound when they’ve been on for a day or two. On acoustic though, the newer the better.