Worn strings – some useless information

Hydroman52
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Sun Jan 30, 2011 4:09 pm

Yesterday, I decided to change the strings on one of my guitars. They were still sounding good but they had been on there for about a month and a half according to my guitar maintenance log book and really should have been changed three weeks ago. This guitar has been getting some heavy use lately because I have it tuned to Open G and have been experimenting with it almost daily. When I go to practice sessions with friends, I take it, along with one tuned to standard tuning, and it always gets used to play a song or two.

I keep my hands clean and use Dr. Stringfellow String Cleaner on my strings after every session (usually daily), so I rarely need to change them out due to them getting dull sounding. They always wear out before that. My signal that they are getting worn out is that the third string (G) gets serious flat spots worn right at the frets and when I slide my fingers up the string without pressing down, I feel "bumps" at the fret positions.

So, I put the guitar on the bench to change out the strings and decided to look a bit closer at these bumps. I pulled out my 10X loupe and got quite a surprise (WARNING – if you show any signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder relating to cleanliness, you might not want to do this, or you may never want to touch your guitar again!).

What I found was the bronze winding broken at the 7th and 9th frets and there was minor to serious distortion at most other frets up to the 15th fret (this guitar doesn’t have a cut-away, so I have little use of playing higher than that). When I looked at the fourth string (D), I saw some distortion, but no breaks. On the fifth and sixth strings (G and D in Open G tuning), there was no noticeable distortion, probably because the windings are much thicker.

Here are a couple of close-ups showing the damage:

Fourth string - break at 9th fret

Fourth string - break at 7th fret

Fourth string - distortion at 5th fret

After discovering this, I didn’t immediately restring the guitar, but I sat down and played it to see if this made any noticeable difference in tonal quality or playability. The verdict? Not much. To be honest, once I sat down and started playing, I got more into practicing and forgot what I was evaluating. After about two hours, I remembered . . . . “Oh, yeah. I was going to change these strings . . . “.

Conclusion: I won’t lose any sleep over this. These strings are about the cheapest that money can buy. For those string wonks that need to know, they are Martin 80/20 Bronze Light M140 at about $3.00 US per set when on sale. The fact that I see this damage in this amount of time means that I am getting to play quite often. That’s good! And here are some photos of just how insignificant this is:

Guitar pick for scale pointing out fourth string - break at 7th fret

The BIG picture

Damage like this doesn’t surprise me. I probably press down harder when fretting strings than I really need to and I’m doing more bends than ever before. And, when bronze windings meet nickel (or stainless?) frets . . . . . nickel wins! What I don’t understand is why they didn’t start unwrapping. I’ve seen others who had this happen where a quarter inch tag unwound before they realized what was going on.

Regardless, the world keeps turning . . . . and now you know why I put “useless information” in the subject line (but it was quite fun playing with the camera to get all the close-ups!).

Hydroman52


thereshopeyet
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Sun Jan 30, 2011 4:16 pm

Thanks


tovo
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Sun Jan 30, 2011 4:32 pm

Well yeah, I guess it could be termed "useless information", but I found it to be quite interesting useless information. I changed my strings yesterday as well Hydro, mine were dead as a doornail. I love the bright sound of the new ones, but I find the constant retuning after putting on new strings to be quite a drag. Very precious I know.


sbutler
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Sun Jan 30, 2011 5:15 pm

So Hydroman, you keep a guitar log book?

Sounds like your very detail oriented in this subject matter. It would be extremely helpful useless information to see if you have exact data on different manufactures strings, and how well each holds up under the same time periods.

One of the videos Matt showed, of Tommy Emanuel talking about guitars strings, showed he certainly had a strong preference to two brands. I'd like to hear your opinion on which ones you like.


Scott


Chasplaya
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Mon Jan 31, 2011 1:33 am

Useless information definitely... Interesting most definitely , I am certainly not so fastidious as you when it comes to changing strings, I generally leave mine on way too long. This might make me think a bit more about the need to change though - so maybe not so useless after all .


mark
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Mon Jan 31, 2011 7:34 am

I find that much damage so quickly very surprising even if they are the cheapest type.

Do you have a very hard attack when you strum?

I haven't changed my strings for about 8 months and they show no signs of wear


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neverfoundthetime
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Mon Jan 31, 2011 8:28 am

That was interesting Hydro! I just changed the strings on my 12 string yesterday after about 4 months of pounding on them. They are Martin Bronze extra Light M180 and I can't find that kind of damage on them but can see some damage similar to yours on the bronze strings of my nylon 6 string.
Maybe the pressure is spread more across 12 strings or maybe you have fingers like the guy on the right of the photo below :-).

Image


frybaby
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Mon Jan 31, 2011 12:54 pm

Tovo,
This may help regarding the retuning after restringin. it works for me.
When you put on new strings the windings around the tuners must be tightened by pulling the string until it no longer goes flat when pulled. This requires repeated moderate pulling, retuning, pulling, retuning and so on until done. Pull the string away from the fingerboard, not across it to avoid breaking the nut. If you don't do this, then every time you play a song or bend a string you will be tightening those windings, causing the string to go flat. By the time they settle in, it will be long past time to change your strings, and the whole process will start over.
Proper stringing and stretching of the strings will prevent going out of tune 90% of the time


AndyT
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Thu Feb 03, 2011 6:14 am

One of my favorite answers to this...
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