Fresh strings: clanky and bright

[Deleted]

I'm probably a bit odd, but I REALLY dislike the sound of brandnew fresh strings.
Only after playing them for a couple of days I like my "tone" again. They always feel a bit stiff at the start too. 

Are there other people who feel similar?

[blindwilly3fingers]

I agree you may be a bit odd @coldwar1977 😊

I'm much the same though it seems it takes a couple days to break new strings in. I don't know if it's an initial stretching thing? Or if its just getting used to a set of new strings to my ear. I can't make up my mind if the new ones are more bright or the old set was just knackered?

[Deleted]

I dislike new strings. Hence they stay on my guitars till they break.

[blindwilly3fingers]

So @defjef are you saying you never change your strings?

I've only ever broke 1 top E string and that was over 40 years ago. I can't imagine breaking the lower strings unless you were abusing them?

I did change a saddle on an acoustic for a guy because the top E had cut in to it. Causing strings to catch/bind and break.

[Deleted]

Pretty much blindwilly3fingers. Might do it if they all have to come off for some modding work or simply to try something different like some flatwounds but, other than that, they stay on and just do their thing. Not had a break for such a long time.

[blindwilly3fingers]

That's surprising @defjef. I clean and lube my strings quite frequently but change them about once a year. Obviously that varies to how much I play a certain guitar. I did use to rotate each guitar I played daily but I very rarely play my strats now.

I do find different brands can be quite different on the longevity side of things. But I suppose we all have our own preference and as @coldwar1977 said we can be a bit odd. 🤔

[LeoThunder]

I dislike zingy new strings but this quality depends on the brand. It is very pronounced on Pyramid and barely there on Harley Benton.
I wasn't displeased by new GHS Boomers either.

I never bought D'Addario but those I got on new Harley Benton guitars were fine out of the box, so unless the zing goes away through string tension alone, maybe they are nice when new too. I was told this over-bright metallic sound of brand new strings dissipates when stretching them, so maybe leaving them on and tuned up in a box until they reach customers does that.

I can tell that new D'Addario and Fender bass strings sound that way too.

[Scurvy]

I agree also about the brightness of strings when new can be offputting sometimes. After stretching them out and a week or so has went by they mellow out well enough for me. I go about 2 to 3 months before string changes, but I play every day an average of 2 to 3 hours a day.

My 1st choice for electric strings are .9 to .42 ernie ball super slinkys and 2nd choice are daddario xl's in .9's also. Consistent out of the pack every time for me.

I agree with Leo the the HB valuestrings are all over the place for sound from pack to pack. I have opened 3 now in the .9's and they have been duller than the EB's or daddario's I spoke of earlier.

But!
For the price I will continue to buy the HB valuestrings for the inexpensive guitars I own like; a squire strat, jaguar, and tele plus, the 4 (it was 3 until recently.) epiphone les paul special II's I have. Lol strings add up pretty quickly in my camp for changeouts so, HB strings will work well enough for me there...

P.S.
Still haven't broke a HB string yet! I am not sure what the hell people are doing, but if you read the Harley Benton reviews a lot of players are snapping these right and left. Lol

Personally that doesn't seem to be the case for me at all.

Cheers and be safe,

[Deleted]

I'm interested whether you folks are changing your strings because you are finding that they are sounding unpleasant to you or just as a routine sort of thing. I've twice had to change strings because they would no longer intonate. I had played for decades before I came across my first case of that though. In both cases it was the wound strings that caused this problem. An A on a 335 and also an A on a Jazz bass.

[LeoThunder]

I clean strings when they sound "rubbery". If I feel the improvement is not sufficient, I change them.
I also change them when they come rusted or mismatched on a 2nd hand guitar.

When I picked up my guitar again after some 25 years, the strings were somewhat rusty and did not hold tuning much. I played them for three months before buying new ones, though… The new ones felt nicer.

When I got a bass with old strings, one of which was clearly from a different set, I replaced them all.
I change them if I break one, which occasionally happens at the tuning peg when putting them back on but if I have an equivalent used one, I just replace the broken string. The plain strings are usually those that break and they don't really wear out, so an old one does the job until I decide to replace the set.

[Deleted]

I'm wondering if maybe 'rubbery' is the sound that I like. I've noticed in the past that the reason I like one of my teles over all my other guitars is a certain phasey, woody bounce and snap; "rubberiness"? I've not changed the strings on that ever. Now I'm starting to worry about ever doing so!

[Scurvy]

This is how I restring my guitars.
You need at least 16 knots tied in the low E string and strung backwards so that the string doesn't come in contact with the nut ever.
In fact, I think I'll just rip that pesky nut out completely as it really does nothing for me.


P.S.
This is just a joke folks.
Don't do this. Lol

[blindwilly3fingers]

I change strings when they start to become difficult to tune/intonate. I find after the initial stretching period the strings hold tune and intonation pretty good. Oviously if your bashing away a lot you have to fine tune but nothing drastic. I don't know if elasticity is the right word but at a certain point strings seem to me to not sound right when bending? This also seems to be about the same time of tuning/intonation starts to not be as precise?

I use HB value strings 9s on my strats. On my tele and JA60 I use 10s these are either Ernie Ball, Dunlop or Rotosound. On my LP's I use Rotosound blues 10-52 I like the sound and feel of these.

Obviously I've had D'addario's on new HB's and they were OK. I did try some Artist 10-52 they were cheaper and very much like HB value strings. They were OK but not as good as the Roto's in my opinion. As I mentioned in an earlier post I do clean and lube my strings, whether this improves longevity I can't honestly say but it appears to. You would probably have to set up scientific tests to verify it either ways. But cleaned and lubed strings definitely feel nicer to play in my opinion.

As Scurvy said the HB's are perfectly OK but maybe not top quality.

We all have our own preference, I like the fact there is a varied choice of brands. What I like/prefer may not be what someone else would go for. 👀

[blindwilly3fingers]

To add to the previous post I have 2 acoustic guitars the dreadnought has HB 12s and the folk sized has D'addario 11s. I have used cheap Chinese strings that were OK but didn't seem to last long. I have previously used Ernie Ball strings on the folk sized and they were pretty good.

[Deleted]

I change my guitar strings when one of them breaks, and that's about every 2 months.
Yes, I have a quite heavy right hand playing technique. Been using D'Addario's for decennia.

For bass strings it's different. Those don't ever break on me, so I play them for a couple of years.

Disclaimer: I have only one (yes 1!) guitar at the moment, so it gets played a LOT.