Changing strings How often

[Nubus]

About a month has passed and I'm about to do some fixes on a track I am recording. Since the strings were brand new when we started do I need to have the guitarist restring the old axe? They are D'Addario (had to look up the spelling on that).

[Whoopysnorp]

I would probably change them. I can't stand the sound of old strings. I tend to change mine once every month or so, although sometimes a set can stay new-sounding even beyond that time if they're good strings or haven't been played much. It's only like 5 bucks, so why not?

[smopo24]

since for me it's such a pain in the butt; i tend to wait till one breaks.....or till i can't stand the sound of them. i would do it more often, but i don't mind the sound of older strings. oh, nubus, i think you should change the strings to keep the track's continuity.

[Bellringer]

A few days before recording, record a minute of scratch to see if the strings have lost any brightness. If this guitar hasn't been played much they might be fine. If you have to change them you should have a day or 2 to let them stretch.

[mikegee]

this reminds me of a dilemma i had recently. like, on an acoustic guitar, if you break one string, do you change the whole set? i always do, cuz i dont want the one new string to sound brighter than the other 5 older strings. anybody else do this?

[dolivas]

Originally Posted by mikegee

this reminds me of a dilemma i had recently. like, on an acoustic guitar, if you break one string, do you change the whole set? i always do, cuz i dont want the one new string to sound brighter than the other 5 older strings. anybody else do this?

maybe it's not couth for other folks or even purists, but I would and do just replace that one string. Recently I had to do that on one of my high strings and it didn't sound that different compared to the other high strings. Maybe my hearing is off or something but to my ears it didn't make any to very little difference.

[Whoopysnorp]

In most cases, by the time a string breaks it's probably about time to change the other five anyway. I rarely break strings anyway. Sometimes I have a string break mysteriously shortly after putting on a whole new set and I have to go out and buy an individual replacement so I don't have to break up another set, but not often.