Reaching The Boiling Point....

[delta7fred]

Enough of this will make even the cruddiest strings sound brand new.

I can think of a far better use for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Edit - didn't read your post properly, I get it now. Disregard my previous statement.

Back when I was a penniless apprentice I would boil strings. I had an old saucepan and would boil them for about 10 minutes and towel dry while still very hot.

The silks soon lost their colour and the improved brightness was short lived but I managed to squeeze a few more months out of a set, very important when I was saving for a better rig.

 

[Ewo]

I've never had a problem with metho on the skin. It is actually an old trick to toughen up fingertips. Dip them in metho once a day and they get a lot tougher supposedly. Don't really know if it works as I've never needed to try it but it's never caused any problems for me.

I've used the denatured alcohol (methylated spirits) soak with a PVC tube for several years. First read about it here on TB, actually.

I keep the tube outside, in the carport. When I take the strings out of the tube, I just set them aside to dry before I bring them in the house. And with the tube, I don't need to put my hands in the alcohol because the strings are suspended from a hook in the cleanout plug.

 

[delta7fred]

Dip them in metho once a day and they get a lot tougher supposedly.

Yea I heard that in the 60s when I first started playing and tried it, still got blisters though.

 

[RJC1811]

Try this

I usually put a new set on but if I was going to try to clean them I would rather snap and slap my strings instaed of boiling them or soaking in alcohol.

 

[wraub]

Ultrasonic cleaner FTW!

Google

 

[mmbongo]

Id like to know where to buy decent $8 or $12 strings.

Yes its: "Methylated spirits, in Canada?" Rotate sets for a couple of soaks. Wear Nytrile gloves when handling the wet strings.

Bassstringsonline.com here in the states, not sure about Canada. He does of course ship to Canada, but it will cost extra and many brands do not allow their products to be shipped to other countries (for instance if you are in Canada, the manufacturer wants you to buy from Canada.)

 

[mmbongo]

I've never tried a set of strings in that price range that weren't absolute crap. Fender or Dunlop or "generic". Never ever gave me the sound or the lifespan I require from a set. Honestly once you go to DRs.... Well I will just say it raised my expectations for what a string "should be". They don't die after one gig (in fact not even after 5 long gigs, if you wipe them down regularly) and they sound truly amazing in that "removing a blanket from the speaker" kind of way, compared to most other brands.

I however don't have a huge plethora of basses that I need to keep fresh strings on. So it's not like I'm breaking the bank on strings by buying DR.

Dunlop SuperBrights. I used DR before switching. I get quite a bit more life out of them than I did with DR's.

 

[Coolhandjjl]

Just use BassBrites after every use. They're tiny little cleaning pads soaked with some custom brew of deoxit. Then when the rounds go dead, they're dead. BSO sells them.

Link Removed

 

[groovaholic]

I'll post my standard question when I see somebody talking about boiling strings.

Why go to all that trouble when new strings are less than $12? Of course that's assuming we're talking about 4 string roundwounds. So what's the point?

For silly people like me who play Dingwall basses; and strings are $35/set + shipping -- soaking them in denatured alcohol brings back 90% of the original brightness, with a more broken-in feel.

Like others, I do NOT recommend boiling. Water is generally not good for the metal in the strings.

But an overnight soak in a PVC tube filled with denatured alcohol will get rid of all of the oils and dead skin that clog up your strings.
Eventually, the strings will reach a point where the metal is fatigued and the brightness is gone, but I've found that to be after a couple YEARS of usage.

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

I stopped boiling strings and got some GHS Fast Fret. Works great, if applied regularly.

I'd have "liked" this^ more than once if possible. Most of the strings I use are over $100 per set, and a can of FastFret is $5, give or take.

 

[Haji]

What about wiping the strings down with naphtha or alcohol instead of taking the strings off?

 

[tfer]

What about wiping the strings down with naphtha or alcohol instead of taking the strings off?

You don't want that stuff anywhere near your fingerboard. It'll dry out the wood, and could cause damage.

I boiled my strings for years. It buys a couple weeks of brightness, and never hurt a thing.

 

[DanMax]

The only thing I have to add to this very complete thread, is that after I boil strings I put them under a ceiling fan and start it going. Dries them out in a hurry, even here in Atlanta where it's humid.

Yes, boil the steel and nickel strings, it can't hurt them. No, don't boil nylon, it sometimes can.

Is water bad for metal? Eventually, if you soak it long enough to get it rusty. Use your common sense. Is 5 minutes in a saucepan and another 5 under a fan going to be long enough to do damage? Do you SEE any rust?

Re getting naptha on fretboards, Dan Erlewine at StewMac actually recommends naphtha and 0000 steel wool to gently clean fretboards--but then you have to use Guitar Honey or some other treatment to recondition it.

If you use alcohol or naptha, drape a dish towel over the fretboard and under the strings, and be careful.

 

[Roxbororob]

Soaking in denatured alcohol even isopropyl alcohol does a far better job than boiling (review the whole thread). If you dont have a straight tube just coil them up like they were delivered and soak them in an old margarine container. Remember to mark the container as poison.

 

[Roxbororob]

Try this

I usually put a new set on but if I was going to try to clean them I would rather snap and slap my strings instaed of boiling them or soaking in alcohol.

For silly people like me who play Dingwall basses; and strings are $35/set + shipping -- soaking them in denatured alcohol brings back 90% of the original brightness, with a more broken-in feel.

Like others, I do NOT recommend boiling. Water is generally not good for the metal in the strings.

But an overnight soak in a PVC tube filled with denatured alcohol will get rid of all of the oils and dead skin that clog up your strings.
Eventually, the strings will reach a point where the metal is fatigued and the brightness is gone, but I've found that to be after a couple YEARS of usage.

Hmmmm, worth a try (took my own advice and read the most recent posts)!

 

[BruceWane]

FYI - buy your denatured alcohol at the hardware store paint department. Don't use the stuff from the grocery/drug store - that's usually at least 30% water. Not as effective and costs more per ounce than the undiluted stuff from the hardware store.

I used to boil strings - it does work to some degree, and it's basically free.

Alcohol soak works quite a bit better. A gallon costs about $15 at the hardware store. You can re-use the alcohol, just be sure to store it such that it doesn't evaporate. I keep my used stuff in a plastic 2 liter coke bottle so I can see when it starts to look dirty. I'd guess you could easily get 100 or more soaks from a gallon, so the cost is very little.

 

[Turnaround]

I think people use de-natured alcohol for this but I may be wrong, this isn't something I do. It is kind of hard to find in Canada though.

Don't get hung up on the nomenclature denatured alcohol. The "de-naturated" part only means that it has been made undrinkable by adding some really unsavoury things that make it taste really bad. Methyl Hydrate will work just fine and it's widely available - even on the frozen north.

 

[Sav'nBass]

I tried this once. To me it was not worth the hassle. I put a set of Dunlop SBson my Cirrus last week... Great strings. The first time I used something that was not DR or Elixer in a while... I still like the DR PB strings but the Fdunlops are keepers. I never liked the fret wear marks on the strings once you took them off and put them back on. I find if you just wipe your bass down after you play it helps keep them longer but I no er really had much a problem with that sort thing.

 

[Arvin]

I do the denatured alcohol soak when they get really nasty. It brings them back to that "already nicely broken in, but not quite dead yet" state. And for me, that's the biggest motivation for doing it: not needing to break in a brand new set. I had a set of Roto 66's that I soaked and reused at least 6 times before the windings got so hammered I had to get rid of them.

If you like brand-new sounding strings, soaking will get you part of the way there for a bit. If you like the sound of broken-in thumpy strings, soaking gets you back to that, over and over. It works.

 

[Bigskybassguy]

I've boiled them for something to do whilst working on the instrument... but if they're used enough have Fret Flats worn in, you're trying to polish a silver turd. Might as well do it right with newbies.