What do you do with your old strings?

[Altitude]

Dude. MacGyver got a hold of you? That's a great idea, but oh my god, that was a bad result

The winding came off pretty quickly.

 

[FunkMetalBass]

Keep in mind that bottle is from 1996-1998! NOT RECENT!!!!

Oh I have a stock pile waiting for a special thingiemagiggie coming soon

Somebody out there is bound to want them. People brag all the time about their 40 year old flats.

 

[SLaPiNFuNK]

Back then I would cut them right by the nut, all totally useless... different now of course

 

[Solarmist]

I cut the balls off, and save them in a jar.

 

[ShiftyShift]

I only replace sets after I break strings (I play 105's, and often break E's). I keep the unbroken strings in an old jewelry box, as often they are still pretty good sounding when I break them.

 

[curbowkid]

Dude. MacGyver got a hold of you? That's a great idea, but oh my god, that was a bad result

Unwound strings would probably work better

 

[Altitude]

Unwound strings would probably work better

One would think.

 

[curbowkid]

One would think.

That must have been pretty vicious though on those weeds. I'm sure if you were to maybe toss a solid braze or solder wad on the ends they would hold up better

 

[t77mackie]

* Referring to bottle full 'o' strings *

Ever try to get that through airport security?

 

[bassist4dalord]

Throw them away most often. Currently I have one set of "backup" strings (EB Slinkys) that I just keep in case I decide I want rounds back on.

 

[poochiecheeks]

I tried to use an old E string as a weed eater line once. The string came apart after 30 seconds, and I'm probably lucky I didn't hurt myself.

I was about to go outside and try this so thank you

 

[dave64o]

I soak my strings in denatured alcohol a few times, but when they go completely dead, I cut off the ball ends to make jewelry.

I don’t know where she found it, but a few years ago my wife got a bracelet made of old bass strings to put in my Christmas stocking. I’ve worn it for every gig since then. Actually, you can kind of see it if you blow up my avatar picture.

Do you sell online? Maybe she bought it from you?

 

[digmeout]

Zip lock them and use them for setup strings when I build a parts bass.

 

[pepj]

I re-use mine multiple times until they don't respond to that any longer.
I swap out strings when they become too gunky to the touch. And after cleaning, if they no longer respond and remain gunky, I send to the metal recycling center.

 

[smatanovic]

I recycle them through D’Addario.

 

[Watchootognbout]

I work at a machine shop.
Plenty of scrap bins around.

 

[maturanesa]

I have two sets so when the one im using become too death i replace for the other and when the second become death i replace it with the first soaked in alcohol, and that loop forever.
Now im using flats so the "switch for the clean set" is almost always for recording.

 

[MrAB4003]

It depends on the type of strings:
- Rounds and strings that I will never play again get recycled. For example, I did this with a set of dead Rotosound 77s last week.
- Flats and tapes that I would reuse get put into their own Ziploc bags so I know what they are and what gauges they are. For example, I have a set of Chromes from last year that I used on one of my Rickenbackers, but they are a gauge too light. I would love to use them again in the future.