Electric Guitar: When to change strings?

Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
2,041
Location
Lincolnshire
Had my Pacifica for around 6 weeks now & just wondering when I will need to change the strings?

Also what make & guage is best for a beginner?

Thanks

Nige.
 
i started with gauge 10 strings and used to change them every couple of months or when the low d used to snap (playing fast punk and it used to break often) so i went up to gauge 12 :) a bit fatter, i would stay at 10s unless ur thrashing it
 
I change my strings every 3-4 months or when the tone starts to sound dull.

Personally I've always used Ernie Ball 10-46 strings unless I've wanted fatter strings for low tunings, I've tried other brands but honestly can't notice any difference whilst playing. 10-46 should build up a bit of extra strength for a beginner too which I suppose is no bad thing.

You must be thrashing your guitar to snap the D string Vantis! I play thrash metal and very rarely break a string :p
 
Well, urr, I change my strings every couple of weeks. :p

It obviously depends on how often you play, but strings generally lose their charm after about ten hours of playing. That being said, I would change them every day, if I could afford it. ;)
 
Change them when you notice they feel and sound different. This will be different for everyone and will vary with experience. If you are not sure, leave it a few months for now (assuming you are playing a bit every day) and then change them and see what the difference is.

Oh and I play with 9-42s (that's what my first guitar was set up with and I've just stuck with them :p).
 
I recently sold a Yamaha SG2000 back to to the original owner and it had the same strings he put on back in 2002.
Eddie Van Halen said in an interview back in the 80s that he only changes the string that breaks.
My band members change their strings every 3 gigs.
I now change all my strings when one breaks.
 
Roughly every six months which is roughly how often I decide I'm going to make a real effort to improve. (Thats on an accoustic mind and I always think strings make more difference with an accoustic!)
 
Change them when either they start to sound dull or when they're looking tarnished. I need to change mine once every 2-3 months at the very most.

I would stick to the same gauge string they came with (a simple online check will confirm if you don't know already). 10's are fine.

Also may be worth finding a brand you're comfortable with as then you can just buy single strings of that kind for when individual ones break (normally G, B, E).

That reminds me, need to order new strings!
 
Well I play every day and change my strings once a month which is usually when the tone dies in them for me.
Tried the Elixir nano coated jobbies a while back and they did last a fair bit longer than ordinary strings and feel very nice on the fingers, I just thought they didn't sound that brilliant personally and not worth the extra expense.
A lot of it is down to how often you play and how sweaty your hands are.
Leaving them until a string breaks sounds horrible to me as I've not broken a string in the last year or so, though I am playing an acoustic, maybe you can get away with it on an electric via tone settings or whatever.
 
There's also a massive difference between playing in your bedroom and playing live on stage.
On stage I have to wipe the neck a couple of times a set and then a nice rub before they go in the case but in the house I'll never sweat.
 
You should change them when they either look manky (are there obvious black blotches on your strings), or they sound manky.

If you find your tone is sucking, then think when the last time you changed your strings was. Chances are they probably do need a change.

Today I changed from a set of 9s to 10s and gave my axe a clean up:
photoffa.jpg


All I can say, is 'ouch' - hand has gotten very lazy, bending with the little finger is sadistic at the moment :p
 
You should change them when they either look manky (are there obvious black blotches on your strings), or they sound manky.

If you find your tone is sucking, then think when the last time you changed your strings was. Chances are they probably do need a change.

Today I changed from a set of 9s to 10s and gave my axe a clean up:

All I can say, is 'ouch' - hand has gotten very lazy, bending with the little finger is sadistic at the moment :p

Did you redo the setup? Changing the string guage has a nasty habit of ruining the action on a guitar unless it's properly setup with the new strings.
 
Did you redo the setup? Changing the string guage has a nasty habit of ruining the action on a guitar unless it's properly setup with the new strings.

Exactly the point I was trying to get at in my earlier post. Changing string gauge can cause issues for sure, 9-10 not so much of a problem but still possible. I get my guitars setup whenever I think it needs doing. Going up in gauge would be more of an issue with buzz. Knowing about intonation is useful and easy to learn - something I always do each time I do a string change.

Also the amount of people I've seen remove all strings at once when doing a replacement :confused: :eek: (One at a time to keep the tension in the neck!)

Different guitars suit different types of strings as well - I have heavier gauge strings (flatwound infact) on the Les and D'Addario EXP 11 Nickel on the Dusenberg and Ernie Ball regulars on the Strat.
 
Last edited:
Also the amount of people I've seen remove all strings at once when doing a replacement :confused: :eek: (One at a time to keep the tension in the neck!)

Changing them all at once is fine. Your neck isn't going to warp if you take them all of at once. You have to take them all off to setup and clean your guitar properly.

If guitars needed constant string tension all the time, floyd rose tremolo's would destroy your guitar the moment you push the arm in.:p
 
I change mine once a month (use 9-46 custom), more out of habit than anything else, and I change 'em all at once (not 1 at a time). Floyd rose bridge, so it takes a little while longer :)
 
While on the subject of strings which make/model do you reckon last longer?
Losing their tone doesn't make a difference to me because of the guitars I use but because I pick heavy, over the last 3 months I've broken 2 strings on stage.
For as long as I can remember (and I've been gigging for 41 years) I've only ever used Dean Markley Regulars 10 to 46 Nickel but I am willing to try something else.
 
Back
Top Bottom