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Keeping roundwounds clean and fresh.

#121
My gigging bass has flats and my body chemistry isn't particularly corrosive, but to me, roundwound strings are like skateboard wheels. I'm just dying to shred em so I can try a different set and see how they sound.

I do wipe em down because I don't like crust. Aside from that, I just go with the flow.
 
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#123
Just done once yesterday on my Sandberg SS strings.... I put them in an ultrasonic cleaner with some alcohol. Usually I'll use just warm/hot water and some dish soap. I didn't know how the SS strings would react to water if I didn't dry them properly. Some life seems to have come back to them. I wish I'd purchased a larger Ultra-Sonic cleaner. But for now I have what I have. Makes our diamond jewelry really sparkle. I do the rings about once a week now with water and dish soap. I can't explain the amount of gunk that comes out of the rings.
 
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#124
I used to use strings that went off after a week but now I will keep strings on until I dont like them anymore. Then I'll clean them and rotate back.
I get a minimum of 5 swaps..but I'm not really anal about logging that. I haven't thrown out a set of strings for years though and order 3 sets per year, typically so the pool gets slowly bigger.

I don't use really bright strings anymore ...you just noticed them 'degrade' more, and I keep my strings on until they feel gunky and have lost their 'snap'
I clean and rotate. I have brand new sets but not been driven to put them on.
 
#125
One in PVC, with a cap glued on the bottom...and cap that screws onto the top long with hook to hang the ring on, long enough for your old strings to slide in straight...filled with denatured alcohol soak for a couple days, or until the ones you are playing need cleaning and swap them out...makes them sound brand new....

McMoore said:
This is probably been discussed extensively before but, what's your method of getting more life out of your roundwound strings to retain the new string sound after playing them on gigs?
I used to boil them in the 80's. Now I soak them in rubbing alcohol for a few hours. I seem to get more life out of them.
What do you guys do?
Click to expand...
 
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#128
I have very corrosive skin chemistry, and can kill a set of uncoated guitar strings in a few hours. So now I only use coated Elixirs for my electric guitars, and they last about a year before they lose their intonation.

I bought a Fender P-bass on a lark in 2015 (due to my frustration at not finding any bass players), which came installed with Fender 7250 ml strings (nickel wound steel).

At the beginning of 2023 I started playing bass for a cover band, and now play maybe 5-10 hours a week.

The strings still sound fine, and I'm thinking holy crap, they're already 8 years old, surely I need to change them soon? Why doesn't my skin chemistry kill them like it does guitar strings?

I always wash my hands before playing, and wipe down the strings afterwards. In addition, maybe once I week I take a strip of velcro (the scratchy male side), and run up and down each string like I'm flossing my teeth. That cleans out a lot of the gunk between the windings.

At this point I'm wondering how I will know when it is time to finally change the strings?
 
#133
John LaTorre said:
What does the alcohol do to the PVC? I would assume that you drain it after two days and put it back into a glass bottle or something... or do you just throw it away?
Click to expand...
@John LaTorre Hey John...I have used the PVC tube cleaning system for many many years now and only had to top the tube up once..It doesnt do anything I can detect to the actual PVC plumbers tubing...when the top is screwed back on, the alcohol has no place to escape and the tube is always essentially full enough to take a set of 5 strings and sit them for a few days at a time. It really is the best method I have found. Here in Australia denatured alcohol is called Methylated Spirits. As an actual string cleaner this sytem works extremely well. (Link below for the actual build instructions).
I keep the tube in the garage outside for safety in any event, either when cleaning strings or just tube storage. Safety first when dealing with flammable fluids.
Clean hands to start with, wiping down between sets and after gigging still is the best "on hands" approach for live playing or practise.
The Bass String Cleaning Tube | StudyBass
 
#137
I usually save my fast food napkins (the clean ones) and gently, but thoroughly, pinch a folded napkin around a string and wipe from bridge to nut, up and down, and do that with each string, and then pull the string and let it snap back to the fretboard, once. This tends to make them last an okay amount, or at least I tell myself it does. Has anyone ever treid acetone before? I know most use rubbing alcohol or denetured alcohol, but I have a big load of acetone, and it would be fantastic if that worked for this purpose
 
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#139
I clean my strings with denatured alcohol in a tube.
I just switched over on one bass from stainless steel strings to nickel.
I am not sure if the denatured alcohol
works on nickel strings as well.
I have heard that nickel strings are steel strings that are just coated with nickel. I'm not sure if that is true. Will that nickel coating wear off over time if I keep recycling the strings?
Another question. Can I soak elixirs in denatured alcohol or would that dissolve the coating?
 
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