How many times can I remove and reuse strings?

[slopeshoulder]

I want to use flats occasionally for recording, sometimes J and sometimes P. I usually use rounds.

Assuming that I'm playing fingerstyle and don't mind a warm, not-so-new sound on my nickel rounds, how many times can I detune them, remove them, and then put them back on the bass before evil enters my sound and I gotta get some new ones? None? four or five times? doesn't matter-go crazy?

Thanks.

[SLaPiNFuNK]

It depends on your hardware...

If you have a bridge that the ball end just gets placed into, you can swap strings until they go dead / break...

If you have a bridge that you need to thread the whole string through (standard jazz / p-bass bridge) then you are going to also need to straighten the tuning peg coiled string to get through the bridge, plus, any extra friction of the string rubbing the bridge hole will shorten the life of the string / cause rusting etc...

I used to swap out compression wound strings for round wounds (compression for practice / rounds for gigs & recording) but my bridge allowed the string to be dropped into place. so did not really degrade the life of the string much...

But with a string through bridge, I never did it more than a couple of times, simply because more time is needed. In general, I change strings less on my Jazz / P-Basses...

If you are doing this, just keep an extra set of strings handy...

[Edward G.]

As always, it depends on many factors, including what strings they are and how many times you're hoping to uninstall/reinstall them. I've uninstalled/reinstalled the same set of strings as many as 6 times for various reasons (usually to change hardware or body components) without any noticeable difference in their performance, but this was unintentional and unplanned, and the strings were pretty new, going on and off the same instrument, with pretty carefully handling.

Basically, you're on your own, but I wouldn't worry too hard about it. It's one of those trial-and-error-type things that doesn't cause any harm. Just be ready with replacement strings in case your luck runs out.

[slopeshoulder]

OK, thanks. I figure to pop on a set of flats to record a track every now an again, or for 6 months to do a project, is fine. I wouldn't be changing all the time.