String Cleaners

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String Cleaners

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gounaro

Posts: 875
Joined: Sep. 28 2008
From: Athens, Hellas

String Cleaners

Hello.

I want you to recommend me some products for cleaning the strings. I realize that its best to change the strings after while, but i think that there are products that can extend strings life. I wonder which products you use...

Thank you very much...

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 14 2010 18:17:38

Doitsujin

Posts: 5078
Joined: Apr. 10 2005

RE: String Cleaners (in reply to gounaro)

I never cleaned my strings. I just played them till I needed good sound for gigs in past and put on new strings for that. In past when I needed quick better sound without new strings that un-tune every 3 secs..I just turned them around. That brought the sound over one evening. EDIT:oh man my english sucks..

Now I play them till they break.

No cleaning.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 14 2010 20:22:58

a_arnold

Posts: 558
Joined: Jul. 30 2006

RE: String Cleaners (in reply to gounaro)

If the strings aren't worn through, the main thing that deadens them is accumulated dirt and oil from your fingers. I used to wash my strings when I was younger and playing a relatively cheap guitar. A really good guitar can make even old strings sound good. But here is the recipe for washing:

(1) Take the bass strings off.
(2) Put a teaspoon of ammonia and a few drops of liquid soap (they also sell ammonia with detergent in it already) in a coffee mug of hot water tap water (I never tried boiling) and let the bass strings soak for 15 mins.
(3) Stir/swirl it a bit to shake loose the dirt, then pour out the liquid
(4) pull/scrub the soapy strings through a cloth rag or washcloth while squeezing tightly through the rag. Rinse. (I let the tap run over the strings so the cup overflows for a few minutes.)
(5) dry. I spin them around my head to whip the water off them. THen dry them by coiling them up and resting them on a lampshade above the bulb.

Put them back on. They stay in tune better because they are already stretched out, they sound almost-new for a while, and the bass strings can be made to last almost as long as the trebles this way.

But, like Doit, I change them for new a few days before an important gig -- HOWEVER! I always keep a set of used washed bass strings in my guitar case. I've been paranoid ever since I had a D string break on me 10 minutes before going onstage in front of 700 people. My only choice was to put on a new string and it kept going out of tune during the performance. A cleaned, old string sounds good and stays in tune better in a situation like that.

_____________________________

"Flamenco is so emotionally direct that a trained classical musician would require many years of highly disciplined formal study to fail to understand it."

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 30 2010 2:37:20

ToddK

Posts: 2961
Joined: Dec. 6 2004

RE: String Cleaners (in reply to a_arnold)

quote:

1) Take the bass strings off.
(2) Put a teaspoon of ammonia and a few drops of liquid soap (they also sell ammonia with detergent in it already) in a coffee mug of hot water tap water (I never tried boiling) and let the bass strings soak for 15 mins.
(3) Stir/swirl it a bit to shake loose the dirt, then pour out the liquid
(4) pull/scrub the soapy strings through a cloth rag or washcloth while squeezing tightly through the rag. Rinse. (I let the tap run over the strings so the cup overflows for a few minutes.)
(5) dry. I spin them around my head to whip the water off them. THen dry them by coiling them up and resting them on a lampshade above the bulb.

That seems like an awful lot of work, when you can just buy a new bass set
for 3 dollars.

or;
You can detune each bass string and snap them against the fingerboard for
30 seconds each, and they'll sound like new for a couple of hours.

_____________________________

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 30 2010 4:25:19

rombsix

Posts: 7829
Joined: Jan. 11 2006
From: Beirut, Lebanon

RE: String Cleaners (in reply to ToddK)

quote:

snap them against the fingerboard for
30 seconds each

Que?

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Ramzi

http://www.youtube.com/rombsix

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 30 2010 5:31:14

at_leo_87

Posts: 3055
Joined: Aug. 30 2008
From: Boston, MA, U.S.A

RE: String Cleaners (in reply to a_arnold)

gounaro, NEVER use products like fret-ease. they suck!

most of these products are geared towards steel strings.

quote:

(2) Put a teaspoon of ammonia and a few drops of liquid soap (they also sell ammonia with detergent in it already) in a coffee mug of hot water tap water (I never tried boiling) and let the bass strings soak for 15 mins.

hey a_arnold, i use the same method as you but i just use warm water, not hot water. i've read that hot water can make the nylon unstable. have you had any tuning issues after cleaning them?