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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...
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..
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.
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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.
gounaro, NEVER use products like fret-ease. they suck! most of these products are geared towards steel strings.
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(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?
quote:
I always keep a set of used washed bass strings in my guitar case.
this sounds like a really good idea. i'm going to go do this now.
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most of these products are geared towards steel strings. 
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