How often are you guys changing strings when tracking rhythm guitars?

[AdamWathan]

Yeah I think some of these responses are a bit excessive... I'll put fresh strings on before recording an album and give them a few hours of play to settle a bit and that's it. The tone will be consistent enough for me anyways. Shouldn't take more than about 10-12 hours of total playing time to track an album anyways.

 

[Metaltastic]

True that - I prefer the sound of broken in new strings over new new strings anyway, and it lasts a whole lot longer, so win-win!

 

[BrandonS]

I retune at the beginning of each recording session for each song... The strings usually stay in tune for the duration of recording a song though... Better safe than sorry, and tuning really isn't hard so it's not a big deal.

 

[AdamWathan]

I'm sure everyone checks tunings between each take, but we're talking about restringing the entire guitar every song. Seems excessive to me.

 

[006]

Yeah some of these are a bit rediculous...

Everyone here, I expect, knows to tune up before each song. That's a given. But as far as changing strings, I'll get the guitarist to do it before starting final guitar tracking. If he has sweaty enough hands, I might get him to do it again, but I have yet to encounter somebody with such sweaty hands that it would be necessary. My friend has extremely sweaty hands and his strings can last about a month of consistent jamming, daily, but by the end of the month they are getting a little gross,

I don't sweat like that so my strings last me very long lengths of time, but I do make sure to change them when a band comes over to record, in case their guitar sucks or if they just want to use mine. I wouldn't want them to pick it up and it have old or slightly worn out strings.

~006

 

[AdamWathan]

My hands sweat like crazy and my strings corrode like no other, but I wipe them down after every single time I play and it eliminates that problem entirely. Dr Stringfellow FTW! Even if you just wipe them down with a dry cloth and no string cleaner, you will still remove 90% of the corrosive shit left on the strings. My strings never corrode now that I wipe them down.