strangest thing with alcohol and strings

[SamJ]

I'm using alcohol to wipe my strings these days to preserve the bright sound.. but I'm finding that the E string especially tends to go flat (sounding) after a short while, and I have to re-wipe it to get that bright sound again. It's not dirty or sweaty hands as the ADG strings aren't the same way.. I wonder what the dynamic in play is.. Could the moisture of the Alcohol (before it dries) have this positive effect on it's brightness?

Anyone else do this?

[Garry Goodman]

Yeah.But isopropyl alcohol leaves a residue when it evaporates. Try using tri-ethylchlorine( forgot the correct spelling) the stuff in audio tape head cleaner.It evaporates faster and doesn't leave residue.

[jeff_bass28]

Dude-you turned your string into an alcoholic!

[SamJ]

Gary.. good point about the residue.. I never thought of this.. I'll research the alternative alcohol.. Cause it's odd how after they dry the start to go flat again.

The oven idea won't get a shot for me, cause frankly once the strings are off my bass, they're history.. it's to cheap to buy a new set of D'addario's for $16 or so and replace them by that point..

Jeff bass: we posted together, but that's quite witty, and actually kinda true!

[bongomania]

While heating the strings might "work" or "sound good", I wouldn't say it causes the molecules to pull together. After all, materials expand when they heat up, and contract when they cool. Maybe they get "stretched" by the heat? Some people swear by stretching their strings.

[Poon]

Yeah...I think you're using the wrong alcohol. I believe rubbing alocohol has a certain % of water molocules in it, which isn't good for the strings. You want to get Denatured Alcohol which you can get at a local hardware store. I think that works really well actually and it doesn't have water molecules in it.