It is the guitar’s strings that produce the wonderful sounds when you play them. Aside from knowing how to tune your guitar, the next most important thing is to know about your guitar strings and how to change them when you need to. Let us take a look at the issues involved when it comes to guitar strings.
Types Of Guitar Strings
There are different types of guitar strings. The most common types for acoustic guitars are steel strings, nylon strings, bronze wound, and phosphor bronze wound, silk and steel. For electric guitars, nickel-plated, pure nickel and stainless steel strings are used. By the way, nylon and steel strings are not interchangeable, as each is built differently. The string gauge is also different and this can affect the playability, tone and tuning. Also, a single string in a set is never replaced. This is because the sound of the replaced string will differ vastly from the rest of the existing set.
Replacing Guitar Strings
There are differing views about whether or not to remove the entire string set as it is felt that the guitar neck will feel the strain. But the fact is a luthier often removes all the strings to perform repairs on a guitar, and some people have not experienced any problems by removing the entire set. However, while stringing the guitar, it is advisable to follow certain precautions. Excessive winding on the tuning peg can affect the strings. It is essential to work on your guitar strings with clean hands. Watch out for sharp edges if your strings break very often. Also ensure that while tuning down, the string does not get jammed in the nut slot. This is a possibility while tuning and can be avoided by rubbing flake graphite to enable the string slide freely.
Changing Strings – How Often?
How frequently you need to change your guitar strings basically depends on our playing style, how well as how you look after them and how worn out they are. There is no hard and fast rule – many players change their guitar strings roughly after 25 – 30 hours of playing them. Strings tend to collect dirt and sweat over time, and this interferes with their vibration and tuning. If not cleaned regularly, this can also seep into the strings’ core and corrode them. Certain techniques can also shorten the strings’ lives. Therefore, depending on the sort of wear your strings face, you would need to change them. If you play live often, then you might want to change your strings before you go on a gig, to avoid the possibility of an already worn string breaking in the middle of a show.