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Thread: Change your strings right now!

  1. #1

    Default Change your strings right now!

    Good Lord, what a difference!

    Like night and day! Like the sun coming out of the clouds.

    Put down the mouse and change your mandolin strings.

    Do it right now!

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  3. #2
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    Considering your join date I go out on a limb here and make a wild guess: this is the first time you changed strings after two full years?

    OTOH you don't want these BG pickers to ruin the dry vintage Mayflower throb of their instruments, do you?
    the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world

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  5. #3
    Registered User belbein's Avatar
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    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    Quote Originally Posted by Bertram Henze View Post
    the dry vintage Mayflower throb
    Oh boy!
    belbein

    The bad news is that what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. The good news is that what kills us makes it no longer our problem

  6. #4
    Registered User Mike Snyder's Avatar
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    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    Just the wires, I think, next week. Got an indoor festival coming up. The flatwound ones are just getting right. But thanks, very thoughtful of you.
    Mike Snyder

  7. #5

    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    ehm, no

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  9. #6
    Registered User Ivan Kelsall's Avatar
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    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    That's something that sort of creeps up on us after a while. We play a set of strings for 'so long',then,despite an inner feeling that they still sound ok,we decide to swap 'em out anyway - that's when dawn breaks - our instruments sound terrific !!. That happened to me so many times on banjo,that it eventually ceased to be a surprise. The strings loose their tone maybe faster than we imagine, & it's only when we put a new set on that we realise just how relatively poor the 'sound' was.

    String changing on a mandolin isn't one of my favourite passtimes,but i sure as he** love the after effect !!,
    Ivan
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  10. #7
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    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    The tone leaves the strings gradually and our ears become accustomed to the point that we don't notice. Then all of a sudden we wonder why our mandolin doesn't sound like it should and we stop and think " when did I change strings". At least that's the way it works for me.

  11. #8
    Registered User Mando Mort's Avatar
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    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    I agree with Mandoplumb about not noticing the gradual degradation. I record a lot, so sometimes I'll notice it when I play a recently-recorded track and then listen to one recorded months earlier.

  12. #9
    Registered User Eric Platt's Avatar
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    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    Eh, after 10 months, the strings are finally starting to sound right on my Gibson. The Big Muddy strings are still too new. So is the instrument. I need to play it a lot more to get the strings to mellow.

    As one can maybe tell, I'm not a fan of the brash sound of new strings.
    Brentrup Model 23, Boeh A5 #37, Gibson A Jr., Big Muddy M-11, Coombe Classical flattop, Strad-O-Lin
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  13. #10
    Registered User Denman John's Avatar
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    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    Put some Thomastilk's on one of the oval holes last night ~ sounds and feels great!
    ... not all those who wander are lost ...

  14. #11

    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    Quote Originally Posted by T-E-F View Post
    Good Lord, what a difference!

    Like night and day! Like the sun coming out of the clouds.

    Put down the mouse and change your mandolin strings.

    Do it right now!
    Are you the same T-E-F that posts on the 'Fruit of the Loom' forum?
    "I play BG so that's what I can talk intelligently about." A line I loved and pirated from Mandoplumb

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  16. #12
    ************** Caleb's Avatar
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    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    For me, the feel of the string tends to go before the sound. When I find my fingers sort of catching on the string and slides become more difficult, that is usually when I change them.
    ...

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  18. #13
    Gibson F5L Gibson A5L
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    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    Well ... If you wait long enough strings stop intonating properly and won't hold tuning past a full playing of anything. As strings age they give off different tone and it's not all bad. Yet if I am planning to play in public and my strings are over a month old I change them a day or three in advance. Why would I not want my instrument to sound it's best. And mandolin strings aren't ridiculously expensive .... like fiddle strings. R/
    I love hanging out with mandolin nerds . . . . . Thanks peeps ...

  19. #14
    formerly Philphool Phil Goodson's Avatar
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    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    Quote Originally Posted by T-E-F View Post
    Good Lord, what a difference!
    Like night and day! Like the sun coming out of the clouds.
    Put down the mouse and change your mandolin strings.
    Do it right now!
    Yeah, yeah. Just take a deep breath and relax. We'll get around to it when we get around to it!
    Phil

    “Sharps/Flats” “Accidentals”

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  21. #15

    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    Thanks Bertram.
    Thanks Flatrock.
    Keep it up!

  22. #16
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    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    If you take your fingernail and slide it along under the wound strings and you feel dents in the string as you pass by the area the string contacts the fret, it is time to change them. That's how I do it. I can usually get two months.
    THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE JUST FOR YOUR SMILE!

  23. #17
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    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    Here's a crazy approach to improving my technique:

    I noticed a couple of days ago that my Washburn could certainly use a string change. The notes are pretty dead, but it's not so bad that the mandolin won't stay in tune. Rather than change the strings I have continued to play the mandolin as it is. My thought is that if I can find the proper techniques to make a mandolin with dead strings sound good, how much better will my playing be when I play my mandolin with good strings on it?

  24. #18
    Worlds ok-ist mando playr Zach Wilson's Avatar
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    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    I change mine ever two months... six sets a year. I changed them already in January and will do it next in March.

    This gives me time to try different brands. I rarely use the same brand twice in a row although I do have favorites.

    Remind me on March 1st... can I have a tiny sticker for the corner of my windshield 😂

  25. #19
    Registered User foldedpath's Avatar
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    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    Quote Originally Posted by MikeZito View Post
    Here's a crazy approach to improving my technique:

    I noticed a couple of days ago that my Washburn could certainly use a string change. The notes are pretty dead, but it's not so bad that the mandolin won't stay in tune. Rather than change the strings I have continued to play the mandolin as it is. My thought is that if I can find the proper techniques to make a mandolin with dead strings sound good, how much better will my playing be when I play my mandolin with good strings on it?
    Well, you'll definitely build some major finger strength and callus, as you bend the strings to compensate for the poor intonation!


    Loss of intonation creeps up on 'ya faster than strings start to sound "dead." Strings only intonate well when the metal is the same on each side of the 12th fret, and it doesn't take long for the metal below the 12th fret to accumulate a lot more stretching and fret contact dings, the way most of us play. And then your intonation starts to suffer, long before the strings oxidize or accumulate dirt and finger grunge that starts to make them sound dead. A big part of the "Wow!" when you put on new strings isn't just the brighter sound, but that suddenly your chords start to sound sweeter because you're back to good intonation.

    Which is why I always scratch my head and wonder, when people say they leave strings on a heavily played instrument for a year or more. Maybe they're just not fussed about intonation, or the intonation isn't set very well to begin with.

    Anyway, I used to change strings every 3 weeks or so, depending on gigs or recording projects. Now I'm not playing out as much, and I change once a month just before a monthly pub session, where fresh strings are the only chance to be heard among the fiddlers and (mainly) the guy playing reelpipes.

  26. #20
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    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    I don`t have a regular schedule to change mine, I just know when to do it and don`t know why....I do change them if they get grungy behind the bridge, but I do like the sound of old strings as long as they stay in tune which I have never found old strings to go out of tune...

    Just different opinions for different people plus I have heard some brands do last longer than other brands so who`s to say when we should change them...As I said something just tells me to do it...

    Willie

  27. #21
    Registered User Timbofood's Avatar
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    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    I change mine about two or three days before a gig or expected more than my band member jam.
    Timothy F. Lewis
    "If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett

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  29. #22
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    I change mine every two months, but I never know, what I will change them into...
    D'Addario, or D'Addario, or maybe D'Addario? So many choices, so little time.
    the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world

  30. #23
    ************** Caleb's Avatar
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    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    Side note: I know a fellow who plays upright bass. He has never changed his strings and has owned the instrument for 10-15 years.
    ...

  31. #24

    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    Thanks for the replies. 4-5 months since last string change. I changed 'em last night, and now I'm not shopping for new mandolins any more.

  32. #25
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: Change your strings right now!

    Quote Originally Posted by Caleb View Post
    Side note: I know a fellow who plays upright bass. He has never changed his strings and has owned the instrument for 10-15 years.
    He's excused. I hear they cost a fortune.
    the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world

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