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11-18-2007, 10:39 PM
|  | Bottom Feeders Unite!! | | Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Delray Beach, Florida | | | What's the longest you left your strings on?
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Well I finally got around to put a fresh set of D'Addario XL170's on my Wilma bass (a CIJ Fender Jazz '62 RI Fretless). I call it my Wilma bass because Mr. Postman delievered her (came from Japan) the day after Hurricane Wilma hit here in South Florida. Well the first thing I did when I got her was change the stock strings.....and that was two years ago!
For 2 year old strings they did not sound too bad...but they were a bit on the dead side. What a difference with the new strings!
So what is the longest you've gone before breaking out a fresh set? |
11-18-2007, 10:40 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Oakland, CA | | I've got a 35-yo set of flats on my '72 P.  |
11-18-2007, 10:48 PM
| | I'm a Roland man now. | | Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Cleveland, Ohio | | I was going to say a year with the stock ones on my old Geddy, but 35 years kills me.  |
11-18-2007, 10:49 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Syracuse, NY | | | I tend to leave mine on for a long time... 6 months to a year, generally... the longest was a set of D'Addario XL strings on my P-bass for... 4 years, I think it was.
I have, however, recently begun changing the strings on my jazz bass every other month. The P-bass still rarely gets a string change, though.
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11-18-2007, 10:50 PM
| | floppy b strings | | Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Bronx, NY | | | Hm... I've had a set of flats on my Fenders since last May. To be fair I switched them between my P and my J bass. Right now the flats are on the P.
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11-18-2007, 10:56 PM
|  | is, against all odds, still a scuba viking. | | Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Alta Loma, California | | | my starter ibanez has 3 year old strings on it.
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11-18-2007, 10:59 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Central Neb. | | Quote:
Originally Posted by de1orean I've got a 35-yo set of flats on my '72 P. | wait... 1972... plus 35... does that mean it's got the original strings on it????  |
11-18-2007, 11:04 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Oakland, CA | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Siegy wait... 1972... plus 35... does that mean it's got the original strings on it???? | according to the guy i got it from, he put the current set on shortly after he bought it. |
11-18-2007, 11:09 PM
| | Bottom Feeders Unite!! | | Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Delray Beach, Florida | | Quote:
Originally Posted by de1orean I've got a 35-yo set of flats on my '72 P. | WOW! I and thought 2 years was long!
How do they sound? |
11-18-2007, 11:18 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Oakland, CA | | Quote:
Originally Posted by ClassicJazz WOW! I and thought 2 years was long!
How do they sound? | thumpy and amazing. |
11-18-2007, 11:23 PM
| | | | Seven years + on my upright.
I can go several years with Thomastik flatwounds on a couple of my fretted electrics until the intonation gets a little cagey. On a fretless, I really don't think there is a time span.
IMHO, nickel roundwounds (like DR Low riders or equal) can go 3-6 months gigging hard until they go flat or get intonation problems, whereas steels probably wont go half that long. My roundwounds tend to smell nasty after 6 months so I am change em then, regardless.
When my teenage son plays my basses, the strings corrode out pretty fast. I remember changing out my guitar strings weekly when I was his age. Maybe there is hormone gunk in the teenagers sweat that rot the strings. |
11-19-2007, 12:05 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Santa Cruz, CA | | | Bought used, but I know for a fact that the strings(rounds!) are at least a year old. Still pumping out the harmonics cleanly, so I figure I can leave them on a bit longer.
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11-19-2007, 12:10 AM
|  | I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize! | | Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Ottawa, Canada | | I only started using flats about three years ago... so three years
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Clubs: Fender MIM #9, Fender MIJ #35, G&L #97, Lakland #287,LDS #14, Canadian #30, Long Hair #3, EH #131, Bacon #6, Flatwound #668, Blues #46 [Rippers] |
11-19-2007, 12:17 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Austin, TX | | | Five years and counting.
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11-19-2007, 05:37 AM
| | Banned | | Join Date: Apr 2000 Location: Route 66 | | You're supposed to change strings? 
I just put on a set of flats and there they stay until one breaks. |
11-19-2007, 06:07 AM
| | digipunk | | Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia | | | I have an unused set of flats that ill guess are atleast 30 years old
One day ill find a bass worthy of them.
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11-19-2007, 06:16 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Northern VA | | Quote:
Originally Posted by grommit I have an unused set of flats that ill guess are atleast 30 years old
One day ill find a bass worthy of them. | doesn't count, they only start aging when you put 'em on, like scotch but the other way around  |
11-19-2007, 06:21 AM
|  | User | | Join Date: May 2007 Location: East Coast | | | My Tele bass strings are at least 15 yrs old. I have a set of TI Jazz Rounds that sound good at 5 years.
I used to boil old strings an reuse them. |
11-19-2007, 06:33 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Haddon Heights, NJ | | | Wowiezowie. I thought a year was a long time, but 35 years takes the cake!
I typically change them in pursuit of an experiment (changing string types, etc.) or when one breaks. The clarity of new strings is nice, but at $35-$40 per set, they are too expensive for me to change too often!
imp |
11-19-2007, 06:41 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2005 Location: Loughborough, UK | | | When I lived in Scotland (I don't now) I had a friend who had a 1962 Hofner bass, and probably still has it, and to the best of our knowledge it still carried the original flats - that would be about 1992. | | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | | | | 
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