Wound E/A gut string maintenance
 

Hello,

I know that people oil their unwound gut strings but what about the wound E/A strings? I've got Chordas (which sound fantastic) but I'm curious what other people do to maintain the string life of the low strings.

Thanks

Keep the humidity between 35-40% and cross your fingers.

Basically. The Chorda E on my flatback is coming up on its' fifth birthday and has been on and off half a dozen basses in that time. No problems yet.

Five years! That's amazing to hear. It's a terrific string, I'm a little concerned about my fingerboard since they're basically a roundwound string. I take it doesn't bother you at all if you've had it for that long?

It will cause fingerboard wear. I'm not concerned about it as the strings are very high off the board, which is close to 100 years old and pretty much shot anyway.

This again? In a previous thread, there were 2 opinions: the oil will soak in and cause the string to swell and ruin them, or the oil will not soak in do nothing. Everybody agreed that you should not oil them! Ignoring that sage advice, I still wipe my wound E and A with a lightly oiled cloth because it takes up a lot of dirt.

I have heard that they should only be oiled if the windings got loose because the core was shrinking due to getting dry and the windings begin to ratle. But then you can put the whole string into an oil bath for some hours.
Don't oil them too much/long or the winding may break.

How is the oil supposed to penetrate the silk layer under the windings?

Do not oil wound gut strings,,if the humidity drops and they get loose you can wait it out until it goes back up,,or take them off and store them straight ,,if oil gets into the gut it will repell moisture and won't swell back to tighten up the windings,,A humidifyer will also help keep them from getting loose,,I will often just use something eles when its very dry

Ha ha! Yes!