How regularly do people change their strings?

I change the D on my guitar when it breaks (which is semi-regulalry), the A and low E when they break (fairly rarely) and the other three hardly ever (they don't break - I've changed them once or twice to improve the tone quality).

I've never changed the strings on my violin, other than to replace the one that had broken.

I know I should change my guitar strings more often, but new strings take ages to settle and it's bad enough trying to keep it in tune with one new string. Six is a nightmare.

So, how often /should/ you change the strings on your particular instrument and how often do you actually /do/ it?
Does /anyone/ really do it as often as they're supposed to?

T.

I must admit, that as a piano teacher who is not very good at the violin I very rarely replace mine, or my daughters unless they break.

I had a guitar lesson last week - 1st ever, and he replaced one of the strings (I'm so rubbish at the guitar I can't even remember which one) which sounded much better afterwards. We have also just bought daughter no 1 a new cello, and I put a new set on that because they were better quality than what came with it.

I guess it depends on how frequent you play on the instrument and the level of tolerance you have for strings that went false(dead).

For my violin, I changed my dominant string for every 3 month on average. During exam preparation period, I changed almost 1 1/2 month or shorter.

I only change mine every four to six months, and my violin strings probably get more of a hammering than most peoples on this forum. Realistically, strings are not going to be dead in a month or 6 weeks.

I haven't changed mine since I got my new violin in January, have got some new ones though and am planning to put them on in January so that they will have time to 'settle in' for my grade 3 in Feb/March

I change my strings every six months or so (basically whenever the fiddle goes in for it's twice yearly check-up at the luthier's) - but I change my e string about every two weeks - apparently (according to the luthier) I'm acidic and eat my way through the steel... charming!

acidic? cool!

LOL! It's outrageous isn't it? But it appears to be true - every e string I have goes black after a couple of weeks and starts to sound dull. It's a good job they're the cheapest strings!

When you think about it changing your strings every six months or so only amounts to about a pound a week.

It's not the cost that stops me changing strings occasionally though, it's the tuning problems which follow a string change. It's bad enough when I replace one broken string. Dealing with all 6 at once? Ugh!

Violin would be worse, because although there are fewer strings, there are no machine heads. One of my tuning pegs is very slippy and I find even the ones that aren't to be harder to deal with than machine heads.

I havn't even thought about the cost before. My guitar string costs about 2 pounds. If I changed all six every six months, that would be just under 50p a week.

How much are violin strings?

T.

Hi Teigr

Have you tried, for the guitar, D'Addario strings? They settle very quickly particularly the Pro Arte Composites but the EXP45 are also easy to settle. You can help your strings settle faster if you stretch them i.e. tune them approximately to the correct pitch, then pull it upwards away from the fretboard by giving the string a good tug a few times. Also, leave them tuned above the correct pitch for the first night after changing to new strings so again, you're stretching them.

Do you have an electronic tuner as this will help you tune faster.

Bass strings need to be changed more often than the treble strings. There's no hard and fast rule as to when to change as it depends on how much you practise, how you play (e.g. do you play gently or quite roughly), how much sweat and grease there is on your hands and the make of strings.

I definitely change my bass strings about 1 week before an exam given that I'll practice about an hour a day before the exam.

Hope this helps.

G

I use whatever the local music shop has available - there's not usually much (any!) choice.
I stretch it, I leave it tuned sharp when I'm not playing, I do everything I can think of to get it to settle in quickly.
Last time I replaced the D it took several /weeks/ before it settled and it was very annoying. It doesn't normally take quite that long.



I can tune it by ear just fine (and quicker than faffing aorund with a tuner). It's having to re-tune the D string over and over and over during the time I'm playing that's irritating. And having it flatten in the middle of a piece even.



The D gets changed the most (for obvious reasons), followed by the other wound strings.
Practice varies a lot. Sometimes don't touch it for weeks, other times play quite a bit. It depends on what else I'm doing and on whether it's lying around out of its case (I play a lot more then than if I have to retrieve it from the cupboard and take it out of its case). I play gently most of the time and usually have clean hands. The make of string varies - I use whatever I can get.



I don't do exams on guitar (or violin). Just play for fun. :-)

T.

In that case definitely try different strings. You can get D'Addario's from here.

I try to change my guitar strings every 6-8 weeks. Depends how much I play them. But it definitely improves the tone to keep them fresh - they tend to lose their brightness if you're playing an hour or so a day, and don't change them often enough. (I use savarez blue card - their upper strings have a lovely sound)

Cello - once a year. But they cost a fortune, and I couldn't afford to change them more often than that.

I would have thought you need to play 24hr a day to change them every 6 weeks! But I don't know anything about guitars anyway so.....

My daughter plays cello about 14 hours a week on average I think (between practise, orchestras, etc.) She gets a new set of strings about every 6 months and it makes a big difference to the tone. Wiping rosin off after every practise and cleaning them about once a fortnight with eau de cologne (keep it away from the varnish) seems to help them sound good.

Honest. Classical guitars, that's what you need for optimum performance, particularly on the trebles, which lose their brightness quite quickly. They're an entirely different structure from violin or cello strings.

Someone told me I should change my cello strings after every 250 hours of playing - thats twice a year for my teaching cello and much less often for my best cello. I don't usually do them that frequently because they are so expensive - around £100 per set for best quality strings.
I see some terrible school instruments where strings probably haven't been changed for 10 years or more - they are all brittle and tinny, and make a horrible sound.

That's odd, myself and my teacher find that the bass strings lose their brightness faster than the trebles. I personally find that some string makes and indeed, some models within the same make, last longer than others. Sorry to hark on about them, again (you'd think I'm a shareholder or something) but I do find that D'Addario's last longer in tone, they don't start fraying and settle faster than some other makes.

I haven't changed mine since 1982! But then the violin wasn't taken out of its case for 25 years after I got an exam result I wasn't pleased with and gave up in disgust! I have started playing again recently and am enjoying it much more!

Er, I haven't changed my guitar strings since 1977 Like Claudia's Mum, my guitar rested in its case through university and work and bringing up family. Now I've started taking 'proper' classical guitar lessons, as opposed to the strumming I did at school. My guitar teacher keeps telling me I need new strings, and that I'll be amazed at the difference in sound. However, they NEVER go out of tune from one week to the next. They must be set in concrete. But I have asked for new strings for Christmas!

Suzukimom

Son Viohazard's strings get changed about twice a year, but a little more often would be better.

I think that climate does have something to do with it - you can see quite clear corrosion marks on his violin strings - changing them every 2 months in summer would be better, and his teacher maintains that even Dominants should ideally be changed every fortnight!!!

He uses D'Addario extended performance strings on his guitar, and they certainly do stay in shape for longer - whether they sound better than regular strings or not when in peak condition, I couldn't say.

I change mine every two or three months depending on whether I remember. My trebles and basses go off at about the same time so I change all six at once.

A couple of years ago I bought a lot of different brands and compared them. If it helps, this is what I found:
D'Addario normal and high tension: I found quite "soft" and difficult to get hold of when playing. Especially the G string. I know they're the world leader and David Russell and apparently half of the world's top players use them, but that's what I found. The tension is lower than most other brands and there's not much between normal and hard tension. Also I don't like the tone (sorry gwu).

Ramirez have a beautiful tone (and are quite cheap) but they are very high tension - even the medium tension strings. Eventually I just found them too much like hard work, which is a shame.

Savarez Corum sounded good and were easy to play with consistent tension, but I had problems with breaking a series of treble strings. Since it's the first time I've ever broken a string I assumed it wasn't anything I'd done. Maybe it was a batch problem but I got fed up of being whipped with flying guitar strings and moved on to something less painful.

Hannabach. I eventually settled on Hannabach medium tension (the ones in the black packet). They have a good tone, break in reasonably quickly, and have consistent tension. They're a bit more expensive than D'Addario, but if you buy them on line I suspect they're still cheaper than your local music shop (I know we should support local music shops but the price of strings can be outrageous).

Hope this helps.

I change mine about every 5 months, depending on where concerts, auditions, competitions etc fall. I play 4 hours a day.

*waves at felix*

I've never had any trouble with Savarez blue card, and I think they have a lovely clear tone. I wonder if you did just get a bad batch? I used them pretty much all the time.

Hello MK - good to be back and playing!

I may well have had a bad batch of Savarez. And I agree the the tone was beautiful. The breaking strings just got too painful! Perhaps I'll give them another try but mostly I just want to play.

How's the Cathedral coming along?





They're also a lot cheaper!

I've had to change my violin strings every 2 months when I was using Dominants.. The winding kept unraveling and the tone just went downhill after the first couple of weeks. About a month ago I switched to Evah Pirazzi and haven't had any problems so far! Hopefully they last longer