String Life

[dyuaru]

This is kind of a difficult question to answer but I've been having this problem for a long time so hopefully someone can help me out a bit. I own a 2005 Musicman Stingray and have been using DR strings for the past year or two but notice that they consistently "die" in a matter of weeks. The sound is great the first week but starts dying extremely quickly.
I'm not sure what's causing this so I'll just list some factors that might or might not be causing it.
1) I keep the bass underneath my bed its in case when I'm not playing it.
2) My hands gets sweaty pretty easily this might be the main reason but I'm not sure cause I play the school jazz bass and the strings dont seem to be dying as quickly as the ones on my bass.

I plan on switching to D'addarios for a while to see if there's any change but what are the main factors to string life and how can I make sure my strings stay alive longer?

Thanks.

 

[JAGGL3S]

Daddarios are great strings and last longer to.
also if you want to make the life of the strings longer you should try boiling them i do it and it makes them sound like new.

 

[elavate7]

well if your hands get swaety you can try carrying around a towel to dry your hand because string to rust if your exposed to moisture.....and DAs are really good strings. mines sound pretty good.

 

[elavate7]

Daddarios are great strings and last longer to.
also if you want to make the life of the strings longer you should try boiling them i do it and it makes them sound like new.

boil them???? how long dose that take?

 

[JAGGL3S]

boil them???? how long dose that take?

I usally put mine in for about 3 or 4 minutes while the water is boiling. it gets all the grime and gunk out of them.

 

[Zombbg4]

Boiling is not a good idea and only a quick fix. They'll sound new but die even faster. I had the same problem, what's known as "acid hands" in my case , and the only solution is to use coated strings. DR coated strings don't work, but Elixirs are the real deal. There are others like cleartone but I haven't tried them. String life with DR's, fender, GHS, D'addario, ect. For me was a week or two tops. My Elixirs are going on 9 months and still sounding great, and I've unstrung them a few times which didn't harm them much.

 

[3506string]

If you don't mind changing strings I would start a string rotation with Denatured Alcohol and a string cleaning tube. Basically get two sets of your favorite string, string them up, when they start to go, put on the other set and put that set in your cleaning tube. You can continue this until the strings are too chewed up by the frets or break or are no longer lively sounding. For me I order strings around every 4-6 months and usually rotate once a week.

 

[Handreas]

If you don't mind changing strings I would start a string rotation with Denatured Alcohol and a string cleaning tube. Basically get two sets of your favorite string, string them up, when they start to go, put on the other set and put that set in your cleaning tube. You can continue this until the strings are too chewed up by the frets or break or are no longer lively sounding. For me I order strings around every 4-6 months and usually rotate once a week.

+1

I was going to reccomend this as well. Boiling is not a good idea because boiling water + metal = ruined strings. Denatured Alcohol doesn't contain any water and will not damage your strings in any way. I also change strings on my main bass every 1-2 weeks.

Check this out:
http://www.tunemybass.com/strings/bass_string_cleaning_tube.html