musicman74
From unknown
7 December 2009 - 1:29pm
As a guitar player I would like to add suggestion to help prolong the life of the guitar. You should change all the strings at once but only one at a time unless you are deep cleaning the neck area. This keeps tension on the neck which will prevent curving of the neck over time.
thanks for posting.
What guitar are you using, a taylor of some sort?
Thankyou, veery helpful. I've re-strung my guitar twice since I got it last Christmas, and the first time I made a right pigs-ear of it. Second time was alright, but I think third time'll be a charm thanks to your advice :)
I'll be getting some of those strings you suggest too for next time!
I have tried the coated strings but didn't like the feel and found that they didn't last as long as claimed. After trying several brands I have settled on Newtone 11-50 which are hand made in Derbyshire. They cost under £6 from stringsdirect and I find they stay nice and bright much longer than the D'Addario's I was using previously. They also have a lower tension which makes bar chords easier.
Interesting read - was quite reassured to see I have been doing OK all these years.
Personally I use RotoSound Golds - Phosphor Bronze coated but the Wound strings are not fully wound to the end, they are left unwound for coming over the bridge which gives a lovely crisp sound on all 6 strings and I personally find I get less chance of buzz on the bass strings (yeah - I know it's bad but anything that helps is good :D)
Musicman74, Taylor Guitars recently addressed the theory that it is better to change your strings one at a time instead of taking them all off at once. According to them, the practice of taking off strings one at a time was necessary a long time ago before truss rods were standard on acoustic guitars. However, now that truss rods are commonplace on guitars, they take care of holding the tension on the neck of your guitar. Taylor assures guitar players that as long as their guitar has a truss rod in place, they can take off as many strings at one time as they want and it won't affect their guitar in the short or long term. They also say that taking all the strings off at once is a good habit to get into because it allows you the opportunity to give your guitar a solid cleaning on a regular basis. Check out the videos section on www.taylorguitars.com for more information.
@shoelessman:
The issue I've found with taking more than one string off at a time is not to do with the tension in the neck, but to do with the correct seating of the bridge saddles.
Before I had my own guitar I borrowed a friend's and changed the strings, taking them all off at once as I didn't know any better. After replacing them, the balance of the bass and treble strings coming through the pickup was very skewed; I took the guitar to a workshop and was told that the coupling of the saddle to the piezo-electric pickup was uneven because the saddle had moved in its slot, and had to pay to have it fixed.
Now, this was not a cheapy-cheapy guitar, it had cost about £450. Perhaps on very expensive models the manufacturing tolerances are that much better and this problem cannot happen, but I see no reason to risk it and always remove and replace one string at a time.
It is also easier to get the new strings roughly in tune without constant reference to a tuner if you have the rest of the old strings still in place.
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