Ok to swap strings many times?

They may begin to unwind .

 

I've moved a set of TI flats around at least a half dozen times. The silk has gotten pretty frayed, but the strings are still fine otherwise.

That said, I'm not sure I'd want to do it much more than that. No formal scientific reason, just kinda feel nervous to keep pushing it.

But it may be worthwhile experiment anyway. I have four basses. I think TI Flats sound great on two of them, pretty good on a third, and just didn't seem to work at all on the fourth.

 

TI strings don't take well to being taken on and off a bass. You'll ruin them if you remove and install four or five times.

 

Once I came to this conclusion I just got a set for some of my other basses. If you love them on your L2K you will love them on something else.

 

They are higher cost. No way around it. But there is a seller on Amazon who lists them as Accordion Accessory and they are usually between $50-70. Wide pricing range but it beats $90+. Find it, book mark it. Set price alert.

 

In my experience, it depends on
1. The type, brand, and gauge of the strings; and
2. How little you straighten the tuner ends of the strings when you move them.
If you have a true top-loading bridge (no little holes to pull the strings through) on the bass you're taking them off of - and you're putting them on a bass with the same kind of bridge? Then you can swap those strings quite a few more times than you'll be able to, if you have to straighten out the tuner ends to pull them through those holes in a lot of bridges. Very few strings I've ever used (and I've used a lot of different ones) take kindly to that; and that's exactly where all the strings I've moved around 3 or 4 times, broke.
So... yeah; it depends on a few things...

 

Why and in what way?

 

I've done just this with my TI flats. BUT I have drop-in top load bridges. Same bridges on two basses, same tuners on 2 basses. Same scale length & headstock shape (therefore tuner location) so the swap is as stress free as it can be.

But, now that my experiment is over, I have 2 more sets on order since both basses are best with TIs.

 

Unbelievable on BBP34 or 35. Trust me!

 

Perhaps not ideal, but I'd darn sure try it at least on the 2 or 3 of them before I'd shell out $50-75 each.

Your chances of doing this are better if you put a right-angle crimp on the post end when originally installed.

I know lots of folks love these strings, but those prices are beyond silly for me. Tone and feel were fine, but I saw no real jump in them lasting any longer than anything else when I tried several sets. Like I said, other cats get something out of them I never found. Maybe sacrilege, but I'd rather have 3 sets of Basics or XL's for the same spend and change them more often.

 

Truth!

 

They have a silk wrap between the outer wrap and the inner core. You take the strings on and off and on and off and the wrap gets loosened, in my experience. You can swap them once or twice but if you were to take them on and off four or five basses, I think it would most likely ruin them.

 

I've moved a set of TI flats around on 4 different basses and they hold up well but definitely get a bit more dull sounding each time and I think 4x is about the limit

 

Depending on what state you live in you might first want to check with local authorities.

 

I have moved TIs around without issue. Probably not more than two or three, but no breaks or real changes in the tone. I do the same with Chromes and various rounds. The silks take a beating but that is about it. I do think you loose a bit of the fresh string zing with every move.

 

$73.50 today.

 

If the basses you’re swapping strings on are the same scale, have the same headstock configuration - 4 in a line, for example, and have quick change bridges (where you don’t have to run the whole string through the bridge), then swapping isn’t hard on the strings. If any of those conditions aren’t met, things can get messy really quickly.

Short answer: it depends….

 

The strings will let you know.

I've done this with strings over the years, and in my experience, up at the headstock they will have had enough and one will break when you're tuning up.