string change for recording - how often?

[Pablo333]

man been so long since I've been on here, hope you guys are all doing well

just a quick question about how often you guys change strings - especially when doing some tracking...

I had a new set put on 1 week ago - and strangely I notice the tone is a bit less "alive" for want of a better word -

 

[Vinny]

This has been answered so many times.
But usually change 'em everyday when recording.
And once a week for regular gigging

 

[BLUElightCory]

I do plenty of records during which we change strings for every song.

 

[zer0_c00l]

if you have enough money, change every song, if not, try to change each day

 

[Melb_shredder]

On our album... I paced myself to 1 songs day, and consequently, changed the strings each day too! Otherwise 1 set per song. Trust me, the sound of new strings on ESPECIALLY the start of every song does make a difference, learned it the hard way with Bass...

 

[Trevoire520]

Once a day at least. Though even then you'll notice a difference in tone from the start of the day to the end of the day as you start losing the high end. So maybe changing every 4-6 hours is best if you can.

Record a quick test riff at the start of the day and check against it throughout the day. You'll be able to hear if the high end is starting to go.

 

[JamesNorman]

Change when they become dull, this deoends on player and how much its played, every couple of songs is normal for me, however maybe every song

 

[FIXXXER]

one set/ song, somettimes 2 sets, usually when i'm not able to nail the song in one day :/

 

[Behind]

How often you guys change your bass strings? I mean, they last longer than guitar string till they loose the high-end but how many weeks or sessions you wait till you change them?

 

[462studio]

Personally, I change about every three or four songs.

I like the liveliness of newer strings, but I also really dislike the feel and the tone of brand new strings too. It's kind of a balancing act.

 

[Vinny]

I'm gonna sound kind of contradictory here, but IMHO new bass strings impact your sound a bit more than new guitar strings (in my experience.)
But at the same time, I never really know when to change bass strings, since bass takes such little time (less than half an hour per song on average for my band.)
Not to mention, bass strings are 3x more expensive than my guitar strings. (Ernie Ball for both bass and guitar.)
On my band's 7 song EP that I recorded, we did all bass tracks in a single day, and only changed strings twice, and it seems to have a consistent tone throughout.

 

[mburton21]

I change them, wait a while till they set, then crush as many songs as I can in a couple hours, change them, and start over

 

[DanLights]

Bumping this thread to make a question instead of making yet another thread on changing strings. Do you guys usually let the new strings rest overnight? a few hours? at all? Or do you set ´em and blast 'em immediately?

And this might be a dumb question, but do you always adjust truss rod, action and intonation every time you change them, or in other words, do you always notice it needs to be done? I've read around that some people reccomend not to take all the strings out at once but to change them one by one so that way the tension isn't released and so you would need little no adjustment afterwards

 

[Scott Horner]

Bumping this thread to make a question instead of making yet another thread on changing strings. Do you guys usually let the new strings rest overnight? a few hours? at all? Or do you set ´em and blast 'em immediately?

And this might be a dumb question, but do you always adjust truss rod, action and intonation every time you change them, or in other words, do you always notice it needs to be done? I've read around that some people reccomend not to take all the strings out at once but to change them one by one so that way the tension isn't released and so you would need little no adjustment afterwards

Weird that you asked this because I much prefer to let my strings sit for at least an hour or so. I always figured I was the odd guy that did that. Even after a thorough stretching, they just don't seem to stay in tune until they've had a chance to sit for a while. Plus, as stated above, brand new strings sounds almost too tinny to me. Letting them sit seems to give a nice balance of bite and clarity.

Also, I do always check the truss rod, action and intonation after every string change. I've heard that it's better to change one a time but I usually give my guitars a thorough cleaning and plenty of lemon oil on the neck while the strings are off.

 

[DanLights]

Weird that you asked this because I much prefer to let my strings sit for at least an hour or so. I always figured I was the odd guy that did that. Even after a thorough stretching, they just don't seem to stay in tune until they've had a chance to sit for a while. Plus, as stated above, brand new strings sounds almost too tinny to me. Letting them sit seems to give a nice balance of bite and clarity.

Also, I do always check the truss rod, action and intonation after every string change. I've heard that it's better to change one a time but I usually give my guitars a thorough cleaning and plenty of lemon oil on the neck while the strings are off.

Exactly my experience as well, but limited as my experience is I thought I'd ask to see if anyone had other thoughts on this. Thanks for your input!

 

[Uros]

Yeah, you want to keep tension, so usually is better to change them one at the time. It would not be the end of all existence if you would change them all at once though. For example, when you want to clean up and oil the fretboard, as mentioned. Checking intonation and action is not that time consuming, so if you have time - do it. As for adjusting the truss rod - I find that it's pretty obvious to see visually if you need to do that (if the neck has a backbow or relief), and if you have a lot of buzzing while you play.

IME letting the new stings to sit over night produces better results. Do not want all that twang

 

[bryan_kilco]

With my Floyd equipped Ibanez, I find that it's best to change strings, stretch, beat the PISS out of them, tune, tune, tune, tune....repeat, let sit overnight, and repeat. then it's usually good.

 

[drew_drummer]

Just recorded our album guitars. A fresh pack of strings did the whole album for each guitarist, didn't change every four hours, and have not noticed anything untoward as far as the tone goes.

Also yes... let the guitar sit for an hour or so.

 

[OneDaySky]

Every 8 hours of play if budget isn't a issue for the band!

 

[Damphire]

Just use Elixir's