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Help! I keep breaking strings.

MiesLloydWright

MiesLloydWright

Guest
Jul 9, 2015
12
1
Somewhere in the western US
#1
So I own one bass, (I'm building one from the ground up right now but that's another story) and I play a lot, at least two to three hours a day and have been, fairly consistently for the last six months or so, and I have broken three strings in that time: two Gs and one D. The first one was a G string. Now, there were many reasons I thought of as to why I broke this one: 1) it was an old string, I bought the bass second hand from a guy who bought it in 2002 when it was brand new (it's a 20th anniversary squire p/j), and he never changed the strings. 2) I slap, or more specifically pop with a lot of force which I backed off of after I broke this string. So I just dismissed the string breaking as something that happens (we've all seen that video of Victor Wooten popping his G a bit too hard). So I borrowed the G off of a friends bass (as he's a guitarist and never really plays his bass anyway). Next, I broke this string after about three weeks, and what's more is I broke it in EXACTLY the same way: down strumming a 5 harmonic on the A, D and G with a .88mm USA nylon Dunlop pick. This time some of the same things occurred to me as to why the damn thing broke again: 1) the bass that I took the string from was second hand and old as well; but this time there was new evidence: I broke the string in the exact same was as I did the other! So this time I thought to myself 'you just have to stop playing harmonics with a pick' and thought 'well that's that', but the next day I saw that there was a burr on the saddle so now I jumped at this as the problem and sanded it down very smooth with up to 13 micron glass polissing paper so I new it wouldent break another one of my strings. This time the way I broke the D string was different: 1) I was popping (too hard), 2) it was one of the old ones, the 13 year old ones, 3) I had been playing (as I said erlyer) far too hard for far to long on it, and finally I found a burr on that saddle as well. So with all these thing said in order to get the most help possible I'll post a picture of the D that broke so you guys can look and see for yourselves what might be up with my bass. One of the reasons I'm posting this is that all of the string physically came apart in excataly the same way: The goddamn core wire snaped and the windings unravveld about a inch directly above the inntonation point of the saddle.
 

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#2
Is the core rusty or corroded at all? I never broke a bass string except recently with some defective strings. I've been playing since 1973. Why don't you invest in a new set of strings? Just get something that will last longer if your worried about spending money. I like Dean Markley Blue Steels because they sound great, stay that way for a long time and they are relatively inexpensive. Try the stainless steel ones first before trying the nickel plated steels. And try to take it easy with your playing technique, maybe your a bit too aggressive! Playing real hard isn't going to make you louder anyway. Try to find a nice middle ground. I know when I was a teen in a band my amp wasn't very loud and I use to try to compensate by really digging in to try to be heard. Didn't help!
 
#4
1stnamebassist said:
Is the core rusty or corroded at all? I never broke a bass string except recently with some defective strings. I've been playing since 1973. Why don't you invest in a new set of strings? Just get something that will last longer if your worried about spending money. I like Dean Markley Blue Steels because they sound great, stay that way for a long time and they are relatively inexpensive. Try the stainless steel ones first before trying the nickel plated steels. And try to take it easy with your playing technique, maybe your a bit too aggressive! Playing real hard isn't going to make you louder anyway. Try to find a nice middle ground. I know when I was a teen in a band my amp wasn't very loud and I use to try to compensate by really digging in to try to be heard. Didn't help!
Click to expand...

As for rusty strings, I don't think they were; looking at them now they seen to be plane gray steel at the point where they snaped. :/

I've ordered a set of Daddario heavy gauge halfwounds on amazon and they'll be ariving shortly.

And for my playing technique I probably am to aggressive with how I pop, and pick, and given the the G & D are the strings you most commonly pop on it's not surprising that they would be the first to go. While I am a teenager, I don't playing anywhere other than my house and I have small 50w amp that I leave on around half volume pretty much all the time. I don't play hard to play louder but rather when I'm not really thinking about it and am not careful. Not saying I don't play hard sometimes, but just that I'm not trying to play harder to go louder. :)
 
#5
gjooro said:
Where did the string break? If it's close to the bridge, it might be some irregularity on the saddles.
Click to expand...

All of my strings broke immediately above the bridge but, it was the core wire that broke I would imagine that if it was the saddles the wrappings would snap which they didn't. However I will sand all of my saddles VERY smooth before I put new strings on them. Looking at the saddles it almost looks like the string(s) (which are roundwounds) put groves in the saddle from where the wraps moved around :/
 
#8
Any burr on the saddle won't affect a string that is wound or taperwound at the saddle, the core is protected by the wrap wire.
You know why they're breaking as you stated, popping too hard on old strings.
Strings often break at the saddle because it is the point of highest stress, it's not due to burrs or a rough saddle.
 

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