How often do you replace your guitar strings?

[jayx123]

How often do you replace your old string with new ones?

[kawa]

When the limit of the octave pitch adjusting.

[RoyaleT]

When I see or hear they need changing. I keep 2 sets of prefered strings for each of my guitars on hand.

[billkath]

My non-jazz gigging guitars-every three gigs. My jazz guitar-when they start to lose intonation, or have tuning problems. Those flatwound chromes seem to last forever with me, unlike any other string I've ever used.

[SamBooka]

1) I dont gig. (disclaimer)
2) Depends on the strings.

Archtone roundwounds last forever but I only used them on my Epi EmpReg.

D'add XLs I can get 3 weeks out of (on my fender lead / telecaster but those are more rock guitars)

Chromes (which I have always HATED actually work well on my 165.. I think I got a couple of months out of them)

I change them when they sound dead or the intonation is off. On my Lead I and Tele they die first. On the emp reg the intonation goes before the tone.

[FatJeff]

Probably twice a year.

[docbop]

I love the sound of fresh strings, but tight economy so every couple months.

[hot ford coupe]

I would say I like to change my strings about every 3 months although I could probably go longer than that. I use D'Addario chromes flatwounds and they last a pretty long time.

[jayx123]

thanks for your input I use D'Addario chromes flatwounds my self and change every 6 month or so

[jazzuki]

Point of interest.Jack Grassel reckons he changes his strings every five years!

[Marto]

With my TI flats I change them about once a month but I also change the two plain strings once within that time. I find with Thomastics the flatwound strings take time to wear in and loose that metalic sound. I also wipe my strings down after playing.
Does anyone here use finger ease on there flatwound strings?

[fws6]

a quote from the Time Jumpers (western swing) website - the set on Andy's 1966 Gibson Barney Kessel model are OVER EIGHT YEARS OLD

[Silentwiz]

I use TI Benson flatwound 12's -- maybe every 5-6 years. I play every day on one of 2 or 3 guitars in a slowly evolving collection. They seem to last a very very long time for me -- in fact, it's really rare that I find a need to replace them. Especially when they sound harsh as newbies and $20+ a pop is rough.

[fws6]

How many times you need to change strings is very personal. I think one of the main issues is, that strings corrode, because of the moist / acid on your hands.

A friend of mine cannot use a set of sdtrings for more than 2 weeks before they are completely corroded and will break or start to loose tuning / intonation properties.

I personally have very dry skin and hands though, so for me strings seem to last forever. I use Daddario EJ22's or TI Bebops both 013 and could be a year or more before they are changed out.

[P.J.]

I replace them when they feel totally nasty.

PJ

[mississippi]

Usually summer time and winter time

[P4guitar]

About once a year, sometimes every year and a half. Changing is normally precipitated by the inability to tune them up, otherwise it's all good

[jimiclaptoncarl18]

Well, I don't gig, but I do change my strings every 2-3 months though, more if I play more.

Tommy Tedesco said that you shouldn't change your strings until they go dead or bad in tuning, not just because a week or month is up.

[peterk1]

I don't gig but I practice fairly heavily. I used to change every 3 weeks but this year have been very lazy and now it's more like every 6 months. I've noticed very little effect on my general happiness with my sound.

If you play/record your archtop acoustically frequently you'll probably have to change more frequently but otherwise I don't really see the advantage to quick changes any more.

[TieDyedDevil]

When I see or hear they need changing.

Likewise. For me that works out to about 20 to 30 hours of playing on round-wound strings. (I haven't played flats enough to get a good time estimate.)

[telemust]

3-5 months...time to time i loose the strings a bit (relaxing) and lubricate...makes difference...ciao

[David H. Bebbington]

I have a small collection of guitars that I play in rotation (American Telecaster. American Strat, Gibson Flying V, Epiphone Emperor Regent). I used to try to string them individually to get different sounds, lately I find myself using only Gibson L5 strings (11-52), which last a LONG time (probably 2 - 3 months of intermittent use).