bass string snap dangerous?

[roarman1]

HI i always play with my strings until they break. Is that dangerous to me or my bass and if it is how often should i change them so that they do not break?

[swbest3]

There are a lot of rumor stories out there how a broken bass string can lead to "decapitation" and severe injuries. These stories are not true. You won't get an arm taken off by a bass string. However, your bass won't sound as good as it will with fresh strings. The only thing suffering is your sound. The general rule is change out your strings between 3 - 5 months depending on how much you play.

[SuperDuck]

Breaking strings on a regular basis is not normal. Are they always breaking in the same spot?

[roarman1]

no i've only broken one but im saying that should i change them before they break so that they dont hurt me or my bass?

[improvpwnd]

When changing dinky guitar strings, I used to be scared for my eyes. Never felt that with bass--I have never broken a bass string though.

[funkalicious101]

I've broken an E while playing, and a D while being an idiot and seeing how high I couldt tune it. Neither did any damage to me. Once while I was tuning a lapsteel guitar I stuck the end of a string THROUGH my finger, actually in one side and out the other. I was suprising as hell and took me a while to figure out just what to do.

[Phalex]

You're gonna shoot your eye out kid!

[iplaybasstexas]

I'm quite non-conservative and i change string every 3-5 shows. Sometimes longer. Thats on my "playing" bass.

We also sell the strings at our merch table :]
let me tell ya, an E makes a sweet bracelet.

[73jbass]

It still puzzles me how anyone can break a bass string.It takes an insane amount of force to do that. Ever though about backing off you technique a bit?

[mokkat]

i dig in pretty hard when I play. Ive broken the a string on my highway one a couple of times, always at the bridge. Turns out it needed a bit of lowering, and a little filing of the groove on the badass bridge saddle

[Kyon`]

Really I found most the strings I've broken are just from a poor set up, and just playing too "pointed" near the bridge.

[scronus]

Poor set up has alot to do with it but If you have an agressive technique (slap pop or metal picking )Its not uncommon to break strings .When i first started playing funk I would beat the hell out of my bass .Im not so agro anymore but have even popped a low b playing 16ths fingerstyle .Th whole bass went up about 3 steps from the releif of the tension .Had to finish the set though .

[Arx]

Originally Posted by scronus

have even popped a low b playing 16ths fingerstyle .Th whole bass went up about 3 steps from the releif of the tension .Had to finish the set though .

What's the neck on that one made of, rubber?

[Ian Perge]

I've only broken one string in 19 years of playing, but from that experience I can say that "the bark is far worse than the bite". An Informal Unpublished Study (conducted while sitting around with other bassists and musician friends drinking Malt and Barley-based beverages in the Summer ) showed a good amount of the time a string snapped it was the windings start to unravel first, making the "snapping noise" and not the actual string snapping in two as you'd think would happen. It's a loud noise but IMO actually far less dangerous than a bass string at full tension breaking would be, I imagine.

[DayoftheGreek]

I've only changed strings when they broke because I don't want to buy new strings until I absolutely have too. I've only broken one so far, and it took about a year, but it wasn't bad at all. It broke while I was playing, and the break was just the core, not the winding.

Although, after I changed strings, the improvement in sound was so huge, I will never go a year without changing strings again.

[ehque]

Generally, the core snaps first for me. In that case, the windings take up a lot of slack and hold the core wire in place, so nothing swings around. I don't see how the winding can break first, because most of the tension is held in the core in the first place, so it's unlikely. I'd be really wary of UNWOUND strings or strings with large core diameters compared to winding diameters.

I only change strings when they break, which is about once a year (i change the whole set).

[hallo]

I've broke around 3-4 in my time,only ever broke the D and A, combination of new bass with old strings on one occasion and the fact sometimes i really dig in and i tend to play pretty close to the bridge. All on different basses so know its my technique. Thought id broke a G once but that was down to a broken nut. My mate didn once break an E, almost took his head off but that was down to over tuning.

[GBGLJE]

Not dangerous physically.
Not very good for the neck though, that is a sudden release of tension. Bass strings have an incredible amount of tension.

*when changing strings on any instrument(especially acoustic guitars) it's best to change the strings one at a time, meaning take one string off and change it, then move on to the next.

[Jumbotron]

When a bass string breaks, it isn't so dangerous. When a violin string breaks, however, look out. They're pointed right at your face.

[SwamiRob]

Originally Posted by 73jbass

It still puzzles me how anyone can break a bass string.It takes an insane amount of force to do that. Ever though about backing off you technique a bit?

I've pretty much always used .73 Jim dunlop nylons (although I've changed to .88 now to get a slightly more solid sound) and I still managed to break top Es. Rock never seems to sound very good to me unless I play hard for heavier bits.

When I break bass strings it always seems pretty pathetic, compared to guitar ones which seem to fly everywhere once in a while.

Anyway if your playing music where your playing hard enough to break your strings you should probably be changing them more often, keeping strings for as long as possible always seems like the kind of thing you should only do with flatwounds to me. Old roundwounds are awful.