cleaning guitar strings

[logancircle]

can anybody recommend a household chemical to clean strings? Rubbing alcohol, oil, furniture polish, water? I don't have lemon oil either. Thanks!!

[Kyle]

Is there a reason why you would want to keep these stings? I'd be careful about putting strange chemicals on the guitar.

[cgarges]

Eraser and elbow grease, if you don't feel like boiling them. I boil my drumheads all the time.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[Electricide]

ok, here's the secret recipe:

'Lectric Shave.

Ya know, the pre-shave for automatic razors...liquid that stiffens your beard with alcohol. It makes a horrible screeching noise on your strings when you clean it tho. It could be a cool sound effect actually. Use that and a lint free cloth.

[eh91311]

You should wipe the sweat and dirt off them with a clean cloth after every playing or practice session. When they start changing tone, you should replace them. If you're playing shows or doing heavy session work, you should change them sooner. If the strings stop holding their tuning or a string breaks, they've been on too long.

Alcohol-based cleaners will probably help bring back some of the brightness, but do nothing for the intonation, or pitch accuracy. Once the string has been slammed against the frets one too many times, it's gone, and the only fix is a new set.

[Al]

After you change your strings,wipe them down before and after you play every time, and when there done bin them.That's the best way,avoid things like string cleaners,like" fast fret" and such,it's just shit and not good for your fret board.

I like Dean Markleys for electric,they hold there tone well and i've never snapped one yet!,and i play left handed, upside down to some people.

Happy strumming!!

AL

[wardshorsehead]

as a guy with super acidic sweat (my sweat eats eyeglass frames in a year or so, and white t-shirts are totalled in a few wears), i have tried everything to eek out life from strings.

i don't love the sound or feel, but elixers on the acoustic last for a month or so. i love john pearse strings, but they are gone - black on the unwounds and really gritty on the wounds in a fewhours.

on electrics, d'addarios seem to last pretty well, and i do use dr.stringfellow cleaner before and after playing. i've tried a bunch, includin the teflon stuff, and the stringfellow wins. pretty cheap, and smells like murphys oils soap. it is solvent free, and the oils condition the fretboard much like lemon oil.

goodluck...

[stillafool]

My old bass player used to tell me that Eddie Van Halen, before he made it big, used to boil his old strings to get all the dirt and shit out. I usually use alcohol and a cloth. This probably won't get the dirt out of wound strings though. If I were really desperate, I'd probably clean the unwound strings with alchohol and try boiling (or at least soaking) the unwound strings.