What was the longest you went without changing strings?

[jasper383]

I had Fat Beams on a Yamaha 5 string for three years without changing. They still sounded fine.

[jasper383]

Here is David Labruyere playing a Jazz Bass that has 17 year old rounds on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdmFomFvl8Q

[bassdog]

I bought my son a new MIM P bass in '06. Strings have never been changed from stock. The boy went off to college this year and left the bass behind (not allowed to have an amp in the dorm. He took his uke instead) Anyway, I borrowed this bass for a while and just loved the perfect P bass tone it got. Old stock steel strings. Kind of dirty too. 7 or so years old. Bob

[phillybass101]

I slap and my hands sweat. Bad combo. I'm lucky if they last a month with constant gigging. For budget purposes I always keep a pack of EB Super Slinky 5's on hand. They're inexpensive and sound great when new :-) They sound great for slap and fingerstyle. They have a certain amount of punch for fingerstyle. Put it another way, I have plenty of spare G strings if I break one when popping. If my cash flow is good I'll have a set of DR HI Beams on my 2 primary basses.

[Smart guy]

Playing the same set of Labella hard rocking steel that Jimmy Cappollo put on my '90 Stingray about 11 years ago, as well as 14 year old EB slinkys on my Ibanez and still have the original round wounds on my '02 AVRI '62 Pbass which I am thinking if changing to flats.
If I like a string set, I don't change them. They all still sound and play great.

[Chico16]

When I first started playing I didn't know you were supposed to change your strings. They were Ernie Balls not sure what they were but they were on the bass for at least a year and a half until I finally got them off. Back then I also didn't know you had to clean your strings. Needless to say my fingers would turn black every time I would play even if it was just one note!

[burnunit]

About eight years for my J with Roto tapewounds.

[bootsox]

Dyna Bass went from 1985 to 2010 with one set of stainless rounds.

[FrenchBassQC]

Originally Posted by FranF

13 years for The Thomastiks on my Hofner Cavern bass! 33 years for the Fender flats on my '74 P.

If music fun uses diapers to wipe is strings, which one are you using on your 33 years old ones, depends for men or for women?

[VanillaThundah]

Two years on my Squier CV 60's P with Chromes. Sound amaaaazing

[schieckk]

My dad has had his bass for about 20 years

it is a "maple". thats what is on the headstock, never heard of them and cant find much out about them.

he has NEVER changed the strings. im 26 and he's had it since i was seven. same strings.

sounds good still, no crud buildup.
no idea what kind of strings were on it when he bought it, but they're probly the same ones

[Djentleman]

When I got my first bass I didn't change the strings for about 4 years cause I was young and naive
(well I still am, but even more so back then)

[Kmonk]

I change them about every 8 weeks. Sometimes more often if I am playing a lot. The longest I've gone is about 12 weeks.

[music fun]

Originally Posted by FrenchBassQC

If music fun uses diapers to wipe is strings, which one are you using on your 33 years old ones, depends for men or for women?

Ha ha ha ha.

[countrybass007]

36 years on a set of flatwounds, and still using them. "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," Donald "Duck" Dunn.

[mam1862]

I change them on all my basses every January.

[dlenaghan]

When I was obsessed with pop and zing, it was every month. Then I got into mahogany, Guilds, and the 60s, and I've had the same set of Sunbeams on my JS-IIs for two years and counting.

[dlenaghan]

As for crud on the strings... wipe down after playing! ;-)