Classic CL

[petrus61]

I think...
best of craigslist: Used guitar strings - 1 set (yeah I know, why would anyone want that?)

 

[BassCliff]

Hi,

I think he's actually being a little bit generous. "I blame the Oxford comma."

Here's the ad.......

Used guitar strings - 1 set (yeah I know, why would anyone want that?)

When I was a kid, I didn't have ANY money. A friend of my mother's had broken a guitar and was going to burn it in his backyard at their bonfire. I desperately wanted a guitar, saw this one about to get burned, and BEGGED for them to let me fix it and keep it. After taking it home and gluing it to the best of my ability, I realized I didn't even know what kind of strings it needed. I didn't know there actually were things called "guitar strings." So I spent a week or two experimenting with different types of yarn, string, twine, and wire. At one point, knowing that wax was instrumental (n.p.i.) in skateboarding and snowboarding as well as candle wicks, I coated several 3-4 foot lengths of kite string and tried to tune them up to a pitch. To my great surprise, they kept snapping! Because for several reasons my options were limited to what we had in the house, after ruling out rubber bands, copper wire was my last resort. It wasn't exactly pretty, but I was able to get a consistent tune out of it and sing along with one not-very-bassy-bass-note at a time. Songs like Basketcase by Green Day and Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix.

Then came a day when a set of strings was tossed in the trash by same person who nearly burned what became my first guitar. My mother, I think, had the surprising foresight to ask, "Can my son have those?" And that was my first set of strings -- with probably 100 hours of music already in them, going onto a guitar which was nearly burned alive in front of my very eyes, and tuned on the cracked tuning pegs with a lot of wincing and a pair of rusty needle-nose pliers.

I'm still pretty broke, but now I can afford a new set of guitar strings once in awhile.

I just took a set of strings off my acoustic guitar, so I'm offering them up for anyone who can use them for anything.

An old bandmate of mine used to use a guitar string as a tattoo needle when he was in prison. These may be a little too old and worn for that, but far be it from me to tell you how to use your free strings. I used to collect the string anchors and make jewelry out of them, but it took so many sets of strings to make just one bracelet, and once my friends and coworkers saw them, everyone just had to have one.

If you can use 'em, lemme' know and I'll save 'em for you. They're seriously really, really old. I just came back from a 26-city tour, and the strings hadn't been changed for a few months even before that. If you're reading this and thinking, "You're the worst musician ever, change your strings more often," I have no defense for my actions. I blame the economy, I blame whatever political group you don't support, I blame Canada (but not really), and I blame the Oxford comma.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

[dtripoli]

Funny thing is, I contemplated posting a similar free ad on craigslist for the abundance of used bass strings I have collecting dust. Then I thought better of it and nixed the idea.
I went through a phase of trying various gauges and brands and after spending $300+ I settled on the perfect strings for me, D'Addario medium chrome flats. Which just happen to be the strings I started with in the first place before testing began.
Not to outdo myself, last year I bought an Aguilar Octaver pedal and a MIM P-Bass specifically for one song our band decided to add to our set list. We ran through it once and the band decided to drop the song. Haven't needed the pedal or bass since then. One of these days I'll figure out how the Aguilar Octaver pedal actually works and if it can add to my playing sound. So far it's just sounds a muddled mess on any string below the fifth fret.