Cleaning Flatwound strings

[Don41_2]

I suggest you leave them alone, that way no one will want to borrow your basses.

 

[gary m]

Another vote for GHS Fast Fret. Cleans and lubes the strings, and smells good, too.

 

[TigerInATrance]

For fretboard protection, I use some saranwrap... It's quick, covers the whole neck, and stays put until you pull it off.

 

[Coolhandjjl]

Rubbing alcohol from the drug store is not the same as denatured alcohol from a hardware store. That's why it didn't work.

Bass Brites for me! They are small disposable squares with some sort of secret sauce in them, maybe some deoxit as well.

 

[physics]

The alcohol that I use is the 91% strength that is used for antiseptic wound cleaning, available from most drug stores. The common variety rubbing alcohol has a concentration of, I think, 70%. That may not be strong enough for a thorough cleaning. I wrap the neck below he strings with something like Saran wrap, as somebody else has mentioned, and then dampen a 2"x 2" white cotton bore patch, available from gun shops, and pinch the string with the alcohol wrap and then scrub the length of the string until clean. The white cotton patch has a slightly coarse weave which is good for scrubbing the string and the white cotton will embed and easily show any debris or chemical residue picked up from the string. The alcohol quickly evaporates with no residue of its own and leaves my D'Addario Chrome flats smooth, shiny and clean.

 

[1stnamebassist]

How about taking them off and washing them in good old Dawn dishwashing soap and water.Wipe them down real good and dry them with a hair dryer. Never done it but its something I would try!

 

[Randyt]

I use little alcohol swabs...1" x 1" squares...you get (100) hundred in a package and it only costs $2.00.....it works great for me!!! I buy mine at Walmart in the Pharmacy section

I wrap the square around the string... and rub it up and down the length of the string!

 

[ZenG]

Right now I'm using rubbing alcohol.
I just loop a piece of cotton material under the string, pinch it tight and then go the length of the string.

Cloth ends up with noticeable streaks of dark residue (dirt) on it.

According to the label the main ingredient in this stuff is " Anhydrous Ethanol"........

 

[quickfix]

Damp rag and pinch the strings in it. Run up and down. Dry with a rag. Clean, dry, long lasting strings.

I do the same with all my guitar strings (flatwound). Some of the archtop sets are a few years old and still sound great. I do change the plain strings (B and high E) a little more often. But even those seem to never corrode or even get fret worn as I've a light touch.

When I must use alcohol, it's 99% isopropanol. The others have too much water in them and don't dry as well.

 

[pcake]

i used to give my used strings to my broke buddy, and he used to boil them in a big pot. looked like mutant spaghetti while boiling, but he swore that the boiling cleaned them well and improved the tone.

I actaully heard that if they're stainless steel, you can boil them. I don't know if it's true or not but I heard about it in an Eddie Van Halen interview.