I've never heard -or felt - strings wear "in", but definitely feel them
wearing out quite quickly.
It entirely depends on how much you play, and your body type. I'm a pretty
sweaty player, so I'd warrent my strings go off faster than my wife's, even
though she plays more than I do.
To check, run your hand down the strings from the neck to the bridge. Where
your pick has been, you'll likely feel scuff marks. They get there fast,
but they definitely get worse.
As a rule of thumb: If you're wondering whether your strings need replacing
or not, they probably do.
Also, a good guitar setup can make all the difference. I didn't realise
this until fairly recently, and my god has it made a difference.
The bloke we use in Coventry is an absolutely wizard. One of his clients
comes all the way from Wales with his instruments, just so John can do them
up. If you're living near Coventry, or you don't mind traveling, I'd highly
Recommend Noise Works on Far Gosford Street.
I'm not saying everyone should come to Coventry, but I do know there's
plenty of ways to do a bad guitar setup.
Take care,
Chris Norman
On Thu, 27 Aug 2020 at 08:12, Andy C <andyc003003@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thanks David and Chris.
It rather sounds like it’s a problem here to stay because the problem
really isn’t so much in the string type as it is in the hands that play.
I’m still using the same strings that came with the instrument six months
ago, and I’m beginning to think the problem is getting worse not better
with age. I also have an electric with its original strings on from 12
months ago. This last year is the first time that I’ve started being
serious about my playing, and have dedicated more practice time to it. I
know strings wear in before they wear out, but those of you that are more
experienced players than me, how much life is there in a set of strings
used on a daily basis?
Andy Collins
Sent from my iPhone
On 26 Aug 2020, at 11:28 pm, DandGReay (Redacted sender dandgreay forDMARC) <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I put it down to feeling my way around the frets. I use a lot of rather
Hi, Andy,
This is a subject dear to my heart. I'm a very squeaky player. Sometimes
tortured jazz chords and go up and down the neck a lot. String squeak is
the bane of my life. I recently made some recording sfor a solo album and
bought loads of sets, coated and non-coated. I even went to the lengths of
putting six bottom E strings on my own Martin OOO to see which squeaked the
least. Guess what! They all squeaked exactly the same. The one thing I
thought made a difference was the gauge. I normally use Martin lights with
the E string at 12. I thought 11ss, with their slightly lighter winding
squeaked less than 12's. I didn't try 10's, but the same may apply. Of
course, power chords on 5 and 6 are likely to be pretty squeaky. The more
wound strings you play and slide about on, the more squeak you'll get. I
did once find some ground strings, which are wound and then ground smooth.
I think they were D'Addario and supposed to be for blue grass. I tried to
find them recently on the Strings Direct website where I originally got
them, but couldn't find them. Trouble was, I didn't really like their tone
much anyway. On an electric jazz guitar I use tapewound strings for less
squeak and an authentic sound, but I've never seen these for acoustics. I
believe John Williams put a lot of work into learning to lift the fingers
off the strings when moving up the neck to avoid the squeak, but it takes
some doing! A sound engineer I recorded with recently said you should rub
your fingers on your scalp to get a little grease on them to help avoid it.
I also find new strings squeak more than used ones and that using
lubricants such as Fastfret make it worse. Hope something in my ramblings
is helpful,
Behalf Of Andy C
Cheers,
David
-----Original Message-----
From: vibe-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:vibe-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Sent: 26 August 2020 22:27the recommended strings for this model. The whole guitar is solid mahogany
To: vibe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vibe] Guitar strings for a Martin acoustic
I bought this Martin acoustic 000-15 M 12 months ago, and it came with
and it has a lovely tone and is very playable. However, I’m getting a lot
of string squeak, particularly playing power chords on strings five and
six. anybody got any suggestions for strings that produce warm tones but
with less finger friction sound?
Andy Collins
Sent from my iPhone
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