Mineral Oil really does clean strings!

[Arthur U. Poon]

Please bear with me while I give some background info.

Also, here’s a disclaimer: I’ve only tried mineral oil to clean my GHS Pressurewounds, which are oval rounds. But I do plan on trying mineral oil on one of my basses that is stung up with nickel plated roundwounds in the future.

So here’s the deal: I’m a long haul truck driver, (-well, I may be hanging the long haul stuff up due to a medical condition that I have, but that’s a different story)

My main bass is a custom built 6er, which travels along with me in my truck. It’s strung with my favorite strings in the Universe: GHS Pressurewounds.

I last time I changed strings was last February, while I was home recovering from being hospitalized due to the medical condition that I previously mentioned. So, this set of Pressurewounds have been on my bass for over six months.

Being a Trucker, sometimes it’s difficult to find a place to wash your hands. But I carry wipes geared towards Mechanics, that I thoroughly clean my hands with before I play my bass. I also vigorously wipe my strings down after playing.

This 6 months old set of PWs are going strong, but I’ve noticed they’ve been turning my plucking fingers gray. If you’ve ever played quarter or nickel slot machines you know what I mean.

I don’t have any GHS Fast Fret on hand, but I’ve read a few posts here from folks who buy mineral oil from a pharmacy to clean and oil their fingerboards, and that Fast Fret is also mineral oil. So I spotted the mineral oil at the pharmacy, and I bought a bottle. If I recall, it cost me under $1.50 for a pretty good sized bottle.

When I had some spare time, I cut a little square out of a beat up white t-shirt. I carefully applied the mineral oil to my cloth square. This mineral oil is a bit on the thick side. I took my oily square and rubbed down each string, being mindful to also get underneath to the bottom side of each string. When I was finished applying the oil, I grabbed another old t-shirt and I vigorously wiped off my strings, including the undersides. I noticed my cleaning cloth was getting some dark marks from the crud on my strings.

Later on this evening, I spent over an hour playing my bass, and my fingers were virtually clean when I was done.

Here’s one more disclaimer: This cleaning didn’t transform my Pressurewounds into a brand new set of Rotosound Swing Bass 66’s. But the cleaning did restore the tone of my PWs ever so slightly. And like I previously posted, prior to cleaning them, they still sounded great. The mineral oil rub down helped make them sound like they’re only a couple of weeks old.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, but I urge my fellow PW users to try this out on their somewhat “weathered” PWs.

Best regards to everyone.

 

[gigetto]

In my opinion cleaning or boiling strings is only a palliative for not substitue or long lasting strings. Covered strings are more durable and long lasting and these are the only alternative to simply round wound. I use on my gig bass. But I prefer round and decaying progressively of the sound in some cases (exl. Rotosound) they give beautiful tones on some basses.

 

[Vinny_G]

This type of trick may clean up the grime, but it should be remembered that the metal wears out on contact with the frets and loses its elasticity by being constantly deformed. This is what, in my opinion, reduces the most the punch and brightness of the strings, and ends up causing intonation problems. I don't know of any miracle solution to prevent this.

 

[hasbeen]

Mineral oil is the main ingredient in FastFret and Fender's SuperSlick FWIW.

 

[Vinny_G]

I would like to add that these products (FastFret, Fingerease, Superslick, etc.) are lubricants for guitar strings and necks, as the name suggests. I don't know where the idea came from that these products are used for cleaning. How many household products are oil based?

 

[michael_t]

my favorite strings in the Universe: GHS Pressurewounds.

I'm with you on that! PWs are the home sweet home I always come back to every time I go on a "journey".

This cleaning didn’t transform my Pressurewounds into a brand new set of Rotosound Swing Bass 66’s.

THANK GOODNESS!

But the cleaning did restore the tone of my PWs ever so slightly. And like I previously posted, prior to cleaning them, they still sounded great. The mineral oil rub down helped make them sound like they’re only a couple of weeks old.

I can usually go one year with PWs without any noticeable degradation in tone. In fact, I actually prefer their tone at 6 mths over 2 wks. The L7200 on my Yamaha and the M7200 on my J-bass are both a little over 6 mths and still going strong.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a truck driver. I hardly do anything to get my hands either dirty or sweaty.

 

[Arthur U. Poon]

This type of trick may clean up the grime, but it should be remembered that the metal wears out on contact with the frets and loses its elasticity by being constantly deformed. This is what, in my opinion, reduces the most the punch and brightness of the strings, and ends up causing intonation problems. I don't know of any miracle solution to prevent this.

I absolutely agree. For my tone goals, a set of PWs provide me a very useable tone for well over a year, - without wiping them down with mineral oil. I was just curious how mineral oil works, so i gave it a try.

 

[Arthur U. Poon]

I would like to add that these products (FastFret, Fingerease, Superslick, etc.) are lubricants for guitar strings and necks, as the name suggests. I don't know where the idea came from that these products are used for cleaning. How many household products are oil based?

I’m sure there are plenty. I read an interview with Jazz Legend, Electric Bass Pioneer Monk Montgomery. He stated he suffered from dry hands, and that he used a very small amount of Vaseline before playing. He said not only did it help the dry skin on his hands, it also helped clean his flatwound strings.

 

[Arthur U. Poon]

In my opinion cleaning or boiling strings is only a palliative for not substitue or long lasting strings. Covered strings are more durable and long lasting and these are the only alternative to simply round wound. I use on my gig bass. But I prefer round and decaying progressively of the sound in some cases (exl. Rotosound) they give beautiful tones on some basses.

Just in case you misunderstood my initial post. The 6 months old PWs on my bass still sounded incredibly good. The only reason I wiped them down with mineral oil is they were turning my plucking fingers gray. Not only did the mineral oil clean the residue off, it also livened up their tone ever so slightly. I was having zero intonation problems with my PWs prior to wiping them down.

I haven’t boiled a set of strings since the late 70’s/early 80’s when I was very young and money was very tight.


Regards.

 

[CGremlin]

I don't know where the idea came from that these products are used for cleaning. How many household products are oil based?

They're not really intended for cleaning, but do provide some degree of cleaning action just from the fact that oil will dissolve the grease and other gunk that gets on strings. You wipe the now-funky oil off, and poof - reasonably clean strings. If you truly want to completely remove anything oily/greasy from the strings, a detergent/water mixture is likely called for.

 

[Arthur U. Poon]

Well, I certainly didn’t expect the number of folks who posted to “educate” me on the lifespan of strings, and how strings eventually wear out and “die” when I started this thread. However, I do appreciate the education.

1. I’ve been playing bass since 1976, and I’m very well aware that the only substitute for a dying set of strings is a new set of strings.

2. I get incredible lifespan from GHS Pressurewounds, This is the third set I’ve had on my bass, and estimate I’m getting well over a year of playing out of each set.

3. I wouldn’t recommend PWs to someone who is hoping to sound like Marcus Miller. They are not a bright sounding string to begin with.

4. I started this post because I was surprised that mineral oil cleaned out a slight bit of gunk that was on my 6 months old strings, and slightly restored their sound.

 

[gigetto]

Just in case you misunderstood my initial post. The 6 months old PWs on my bass still sounded incredibly good. The only reason I wiped them down with mineral oil is they were turning my plucking fingers gray. Not only did the miral oil clean the residue off, it also livened up their tone ever so slightly. I was having zero intonation problems with my PWs prior to wiping them down.

I haven’t boiled a set of strings since the late 70’s/early 80’s when I was very young and money was very tight.


Regards.

Boiling string is a misused operation that started 200years or more ago with the expensive double bass strings. At time was only method to prolongue a little bit the life of strings.
Nowadays is only a palliative immotivate because strings today are not so expensive and boiling diminishing string life told me. At the time of boiling the sense of returning new is pleasant but the decay is faster.
Also other methods are the same. One constructor of string made an experiment and saw that the rust boiling or cleaning with solvent cleaners or alcohol put inside the outside dark....I've decided to try don't boil until the strings are gone inside spiras and don't away. A friend of mine bassist told me that darker strings are not death strings, boiled strings or cleaned strings coiuld appear clean and new but could be dull.

 

[Vinny_G]

Well, I certainly didn’t expect the number of folks who posted to “educate” me on the lifespan of strings, and how strings eventually wear out and “die” when I started this thread. However, I do appreciate the education.

1. I’ve been playing bass since 1976, and I’m very well aware that the only substitute for a dying set of strings is a new set of strings.

2. I get incredible lifespan from GHS Pressurewounds, This is the third set I’ve had on my bass, and estimate I’m getting well over a year of playing out of each set.

3. I wouldn’t recommend PWs to someone who is hoping to sound like Marcus Miller. They are not a bright sounding string to begin with.

4. I started this post because I was surprised that mineral oil cleaned out a slight bit of gunk that was on my 6 months old strings, and slightly restored their sound.

Thanks for the tip. Anyway, I'm always amused by the fascination that my fellow bassists have for oil. It's as if they wanted to put it everywhere.

 

[singlemalt]

Try a soak in denatured alcohol. You pick it up at the hardware store.

I made a tube out of 1” pvc pipe and a couple of slip caps. Glued the bottom on, the top just slips on and keeps the alcohol from evaporating. Nothing fancy. Some Velcro keeps it standing upright against a shelf.

I just drop roundwounds in there when I change strings. They can sit in there for months, no problem. Pull em out, wipe em off, and they are ready to reinstall, the set coming off the bass goes in thr tube to soak.

Under $10 project.

A Tupperware with a tight lid would work as well.

Nickels and alloys turn my fingers black when they get old and dirty. The soak fixes them right up.

 

[Engle]

This type of trick may clean up the grime, but it should be remembered that the metal wears out on contact with the frets and loses its elasticity by being constantly deformed. This is what, in my opinion, reduces the most the punch and brightness of the strings, and ends up causing intonation problems. I don't know of any miracle solution to prevent this.

I have cleaned strings by soaking in methyl hydrate(put a cap on a piece of ABS pipe)
It restores a lot of the high end even though there are usually flat spots from fret contact.
These days I usually just buy new strings. For the OP’s situation it may be worth trying.

 

[74hc]

It seems like I prefer natural finger oil on my strings since I prefer strings a bit aged. I'll wipe them down with a paper towel from time to time.

 

[gidbass]

I just built this and used it last weekend.

The Bass String Cleaning Tube | Bass Gear | StudyBass

It rejuvenated the set of DR LoRiders i had on my L2K. I'll use it on a set of strings for as long as they still sound good.

Good Luck!

 

[knight of ni]

Dunlop 65 string cleaner is also mineral oil I guess. I use it successfully.
IMO it doesn't clean strings in depth. Oil doesn't dissolve grease ! What it does IMO is lubricate the wounds/winding (what's the proper word ?!) so that they are not attached/stuck one another but more or less free to slide along one another, allowing the string to distort on a short distance and ring high frequencies.
Boiling strings and alcohol/ultrasound bring back some high frequencies, but I find aging string loose punch and bottom end and nothing brings it back. So for me it's Dunlop 65 cleaner regularly and when they're dead, they're dead.

 

[Arthur U. Poon]

Dunlop 65 string cleaner is also mineral oil I guess. I use it successfully.
IMO it doesn't clean strings in depth. Oil doesn't dissolve grease ! What it does IMO is lubricate the wounds/winding (what's the proper word ?!) so that they are not attached/stuck one another but more or less free to slide along one another, allowing the string to distort on a short distance and ring high frequencies.
Boiling strings and alcohol/ultrasound bring back some high frequencies, but I find raging string loose punch and bottom end and nothing brings it back. So for me it's Dunlop 65 cleaner regularly and when they're dead, they're dead.

I boiled my strings only a handful of times in my teens. I quickly realized what little brightness that it brought back was very short lived. And I snapped a string off at the tuning peg the day before a gig, from removing it to boil, then putting it back on. That “cured” me from boiling my strings. I simply suffered with a worn out set until I could afford a new set from then on.

I have zero complaints about how long a set of Pressurewounds last me. I’m actually amazed at their long lifespan. The first set of them that I bought were on my bass for well over a year, and they still sounded amazingly good.

20 years ago, I was all about a bright, zingy tone. I was gigging a LOT, which meant I was changing my strings every three to four weeks.

Early on, I got into the habit of wiping my strings down before I packed up my bass into it’s case. And it was very common for me to wipe my strings down at the end of every set.

I’d try the denatured alcohol soaking method, if I was still into a bright, zingy tone, but those days are way behind me.

Many years ago, I was playing close to 200 gigs a year. This was when I was into a bright tone, and changing strings often. On a whim, I started experimenting with how I EQ’d my bass. I rolled off my high end, and started boosting my low mids. It was a real eye opener. I could hear myself onstage better, and I didn’t need to have my volume up quite as much.

And I didn’t have to buy new strings as often! I’ve stuck with this kind of EQ setting, and now I’ve added a bit of overdrive. I run one cabinet with a “Deep” signal and a second cabinet with a “Driven” signal.

 

[non]

Also, here’s a disclaimer: I’ve only tried mineral oil to clean my GHS Pressurewounds, which are oval rounds.

oval rounds, who knew?