Spare Strings- A Good Thing

[Thunderthumbs73]

I was cleaning the (original) strings on my Sting Signature P-Bass by taking them off the bass and boiling them, to return the brightness of the strings (temporarily, of course). So they're clean and dry and cool, and I'm gently winding them back onto the pegs, and the D string breaks right at the tuning post. Crud. That's 1/2 hour each way to/from a music store, and I really don't want to deal with the traffic or take the time, but also don't want to leave the bass without the string. Then I remember that I have my first (and only) set of (GHS) flatwounds which I've always saved. They were too expensive to throw away, and were fine, just not the sound I wanted at the time. So I threw these on the bass, and now I've got flats on one of my basses again. I'll see how I like these again after not having them on any bass for about 5 years now, and never having installed a set on a fretted bass before. We'll see.

Just sharing a situation where, picking up some spare strings premptively, or keeping old, used sets is a good idea and is really helpful. Ya never know when you'll need/want a set.

As a sort of postscript, I've kept the three remaining strings from the bass, and have coiled them up with a note telling me which string is missing. Yeah, I could pretty easily figure it out, but just idiot-proofing it for the times to come.

My "organization" from years ago helped me today in a small pinch. Hopefully your organization will help you some day.