Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

How often do you change the strings on your bass? I bought a 4003 last September and it still has the same strings on it that were on when I bought it. I play it at least a couple of times a week. I've seen people change strings at least once a month, and I saw a girl playing a bass with rust on the strings and the worst tone I've ever heard. No sustain at all. So, while I think monthly is definitely overkill, I hate to leave strings on till they break or are dead. What do you guys do?

I break strings somewhat often so I replace the strings on my main Ric before every gig. The others quite a bit less since they are used for only a few songs a night. Plus I like the tone from fresh strings.

i play in a regularly performing band. I play on all strings all over the neck on most songs, so my hands are putting oils all over the place. I use stainless steel strings that are supposed to last longer than nickel. A fresh set goes on, i play a 3 hour rehearsal, a 40min gig, and aanother 3 hour rehearsal and my strings are DEAD. in between those times i guess i play about an hour a day at home. However, when i started playing, i did not of course play long sweaty rehearsals and gigs so a set of strings lasted about 2months.

I reckon about every over month would probably work for you

I change strings a lot less often. Only when the tone is getting dull. I'd say maybe every 6 months or so. And I play quite a bit - an hour a night average and 1 or 2 shows a month. I am religious about keeping clean hands, though. Sometimes a friend will use my bass for a song, and I can feel the gunk from the hands on the back of the neck (and, thus, presumably on the strings).

Depends on your hands and your desired tone.

Sometimes I can get strings to last 6 months or more but then again I have 10 basses ... and sometimes I can ruin a set in a few hours ...

If you play on a hot humid day without AC your sweat can make a fresh set of strings go dead quickly ... but if you keep your hands clean then you can play a lot without ruining the strings ... I use cheap nickel wound strings ...

Good points, Jeff. I use my #1 bass (currently my mid blue '03 4003) probably 75% of the time. The rest of the time is my other basses. And... we don't do a lot of outdoor gigs, and they seem to all be freezing ones for the last year or two.

I use nickel wounds, too. Have tried several brands and am back with Rickenbacker brands, due to the weird standard guage.

Some folks (Stanley Clarke included) wipe down the strings with denatured (rubbing) alcohol after use. I tried this for a while, didn't seem to make a huge amount of difference in string life. Plus it's likely not great for the fingerboard itself, if the finish is compromised at all....

Greg, I think its a matter of personal choice, what you hear from the strings and what you can afford. As you see, the spread of answers already is "hours" to "months".

Dean.....was this your Midnight Blue 4003 after I borrowed it? Sorry about that .

Brian... I love that picture. No, I've never had THAT much gunk on a bass.

You must be an intense player if you break strings regularly. I've only broken one once ever... a D string, at the bridge, probably a defective string.

brian ... here are some basses for you ...

Hehe, I broke an E once. That sucked. I had to wait two weeks for new strings.It was on a 5er so I tried to work around it. Didn't work.

Mark King has his tech change his strings after every gig, Duck Dunn once had the same set for 13 years, and Carol Kaye in the 60's and 70's didn't want to even bother with changing strings so every year or so she'd trade her bass for a new one. There's no rule except that thud is cheaper than clank.

Greg,

As you can see, if you ask 12 different bass players how often to change the strings, you'll get a dozen different answers. So, what is the correct answer? Only you have the answer that works best for you.

Let me share some observations made by personal experience. You should change your strings if you start experiencing intonation problems or degradation of string tone or sustain. Bassists who use a plectrum will generally experience tone degradation sooner than finger pickers because of the different sounds produced by these techniques.

Atmosphere can cause strings to deteriorate prematurely. Anybody who lives along a coastline knows how hard salt air can be on shiny metallic surfaces. I recommend thoroughly wiping down the strings, fingerboard, back of neck after each set, whether you are along the coast or not. It is also helpful to wash your hands before each set.

Strings tend to wear out faster the more aggressively one plays. If you can avoid playing too aggressively, your strings will last longer and be less susceptible to breakage. One of the best self-disciplines that I ever imposed upon myself was to not overplay my bass. No more broken strings and I never missed a lick once I learned to control my aggression and competitiveness on stage. But as far as playing style goes, to each his own I guess.

Heavy guage strings generally tend to last longer than lighter guages, and stainlees strings are generally somewhat brighter than nickel and they tend to hold their brightness longer than nickels. With Rick basses, the slots of the nut are sized to accomodate the Rick nickel string set which has a guage of 45/55/75/105. If you wish to use heavier strings, you may need to enlarge the nut slots. If you wish to try a set of strings that doesn't conform to the Rick guages, you can go to juststrings.com and purchase many of the top brands of strings open stock. For example, you'll never find a standard set of Rotosounds that have the 45/55/75/105 guages included, but you can assemble a set by buying the individual strings open stock at juststrings.com.

Finally, I'm surprised that some yahoo hasn't jumped into this thread and proclaimed that boiling strings makes them last forever. If, God forbid, any of you know such an individual, please go seize all of his/her instruments and do not return them until this individual has gone to the chalkboard and written 1000 times "I will quit being an uber-cheapskate and I apologize for giving other bass players a bad name. Next time I need some new strings, I will forego the bong purchase and buy some decent strings instead."

Marcus Miller boiled his strings.
I've never tried it.