Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Just reminding everyone that it's easy to misinterpret a post as being abrasive or sarcastic, even when that's not that intent. We don't get to hear the tone of voice or see facial expressions, hand movements and body language in posts. So by all means, use the the smilies!

PH and hand sweat chemistry, probably a reason why peoples cleaning preferences are different than other. Different hand chemistry affects the strings differently. Some people's sweat can kill a set of strings after just an hour of playing, some people's strings last a long time. I usually wash my hands before playing also.

rickenbrother wrote:PH and hand sweat chemistry, probably a reason why peoples cleaning preferences are different than other. Different hand chemistry affects the strings differently. Some people's sweat can kill a set of strings after just an hour of playing, some people's strings last a long time. I usually wash my hands before playing also.

My hands kill strings within 5-10 minutes! And I used to be all about the "new string" sound. Lately, though, I've come to embrace the old roundwound sound, and even moved on to flatwounds! Plus it's cheaper. There is something special about the zing of a new set of strings though.

rickenbrother wrote:PH and hand sweat chemistry, probably a reason why peoples cleaning preferences are different than other. Different hand chemistry affects the strings differently. Some people's sweat can kill a set of strings after just an hour of playing, some people's strings last a long time.

Many years ago I played with a super-amazing guitarist whose body chemistry was... unfortunate. I vividly remember handing him my 4001 with Rotos that went "ching, chang, chong, chung", and after he played it for maybe five minutes, the neck was all sticky and and the strings went "thud, thud, thud, thud."

I'm fortunate that my sweat doesn't seem too corrosive. Even after a very active rehearsal or gig (hey, if you don't sweat, it ain't rock & roll), my strings don't seem too badly affected.

Still, there's nothing like NEW strings!

PH definitely will kill strings. Mine has never been super bad but the effect is noticeable. My guitarist used to have sweat that would trash strings after a single gig. He’d do the hand washing before, ragging the strings off after playing etc but that just slowed down the effect. I used to cringe when he’d play my guitars and basses. Luckily his metabolism appears to have changed over the past couple of years and now falls in the more normal range.

I was talking to an old guitar player in New Orleans years ago. He said he would spray WD40 on a rag and oil up his fingers… said it helped keep the joints moving and the strings from rustin….

I do like the feel of new strings thou… even flats have a fresh feel to them.

On the tip of ADDING stuff to strings to get a "fresh" sound... I've wondered about WD-40 and other lubricants. Back in the 80's, I used this stuff called 'Fast Fret' that actually worked pretty well. It made the strings sound fresher & brighter (if they had been dulled with grime) but made the strings a little slippery if you didn't thoroughly wipe the stuff off. I think the slippery aspect was actually part of it's selling point, just a little distracting sometimes. I've seen 'Fast Fret' around recently. I think GC carries it.

I guess that the only answer is, is that if like me & you like that new roundwound string sound when your strings are dead the only thing you can do is change them. When I go to guitar shows I always buy packs of cheaper roundwound strings for my other basses,still in 45-105 gauge & cost around £5 / $7.98 and I would guess again that all these companies sourse their raw material from the same places maybe (though I could be wrong). And on my other basses they sound ok the only reason they last longer, is that most of the time they are never used the Ric gets most of my attention & gets the better strings. Even though if Chris Squire put a cheap set on his bass he would probobly sound just the same.

I have enjoyed reading this thread as the knowledge that some of you have on the chemical make up of strings,sweat,& different cleaning products and their pro's & con's has been great to read.

I still try and clean my hands every time before I play and put apply rubbing alcohol if possible (to my hands). But that's the nice things about flats - don't have to bother!

yeah but even with flats, as I recall, there was a zippyness to them when new... and I have never seen boiling or other treatments make that come back...

Tetrachloroethylene does a nice job of cleaning the gunk out of strings...

It'll "clean the gunk" out of you too!

I'll try to remember to not drink it...

Personally whether flats or rounds, dont like the tone when they are fresh out of the pack, I love when the strings settle in and lose that extreme brightness to them..

ricaddic wrote:Personally whether flats or rounds, dont like the tone when they are fresh out of the pack, I love when the strings settle in and lose that extreme brightness to them..

I'm completely the other way - strings are little or no use to me once the brightness is gone.

Horses for courses though, isn't it?

Yeah, for my mileage, older is better. I think Roto 66's age quite nicely but still bark even when the zing is gone. I can tell you that in my experience, Maxima gold strings hold the newness for quite a while, but then I don;t sweat too much so that might be helping me.

Well, I tried the denatured alcohol. It helped a little, but not a lot. YMMV