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Richard Jernigan -> RE: String life (Aug. 7 2015 19:54:09)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: krichards
No. I can't think of any reason why it would.
If you're away half the time, your strings must last roughly twice as long anyway.
Well, I can think of a reason loosening the strings might prolong their life, but it's just a thought, no experiment to back it up. Furthermore, I don't keep careful track of how long the strings last, I just change them when they lose their volume and brilliance.
When you put on new strings they stretch a lot at first, then stabilize to the point where they stay in tune for ten minutes or so, as long as the temperature and other conditions are stable.
But when you put the guitar away for the night and take it out the next day the strings, especially the basses, have gone flat by a noticeable amount. This keeps up for quite a while. Eventually the basses pretty much stop stretching overnight. They are within a few cents of standard pitch the next day. In my experience, this is when the basses lose much of their volume and brilliance. I put on new ones.
When I just got back from five weeks of traveling without a guitar, without loosening the strings they were about 50 cents flat (half of a half step) on the two guitars I have played so far.
It seems reasonable that loosening the strings would slow this process.
Like I said, just a thought, no experiments to back it up.
RNJ
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