Longest lasting strings

anthon_74

It's tricky with strings. I've tried manouche tones, D'addarios, pierce nuages, and Galis (the brown pack), and NONE held a candle to Argies. Argies are far from perfect, but D'addarios go dead in half as much time as argies, Manouche tone strings are worthless after about an hour of play, Gali's brown pack's G string goes to crap after an hour... Only Nuages have shown to compare, but you can't get those in single strings like you can argies, which I need because I blow out my G, D , and break my E's fairly quickly.

That said, I DO plan to try the Gali green pack.

Anthony

Jazzaferri

Last summer when I was playing outside unamplified several days of the week and having to whack my DuPont pretty hard a set of Argies or Galli's would last about a week. Probably playing about 15 hours a week. I had a few sets start to rattle a bit when the grooves went into the core. Unfortunately I didnt hear about the Lenzer's til after that so no comparison. I never wipe my strings, hands dont sweat and the strings dont corrode.

Now having sorted the Feather/internal mic out I mostly play with sound reinforcement so can use a lighter touch. I also press the strings onto the fret with less force than seveal years ago and this seems to affect string life too. I make a concious effort when practicing to use the lightest pressure possible and still get a clean sound.

Buco

I tried this trick that's used to clean silver, to clean the guitar strings.
Worked great. Third day after cleaning and they still ring nicely.

The ingredients: baking soda, aluminum foil, water.
Take the strings off and coil them up as when new.
Take a cereal bowl or one big enough to dip the strings and line it with the aluminum foil.
Put 2 tablespoons of baking soda and enough water to submerge the strings.
Dip the strings in and stir everything around.
Let sit half hour.
Stir occasionally.
Uncoil the strings and wipe'em down one by one.
Put the strings back on the guitar and enjoy the fresh sound.

Impress your wife with using the remaining mixture to clean her silver jewelry.
Announce you're getting another fancy pick because you just saved money on a new set of strings.

Bones

Argies seem to last quite a while comparatively. They have the right tone too.

Use a light touch with the fretting hand may help.

Al Watsky

Strings are necessary.
There may be a set that the OP finds less likely to corrode with his given body chemistry .
Some folks have corrosive sweat.
I am a stringed instrument technician .
I see people every day for the last 30 years and they tell me their guitar problems.
Now and again some one will come in with a string failure story or frets that seem to wear very quickly.
Last month a fellow came in who had recently had a new set of frets installed on his arch top guitar . The frets were a copper stainless alloy that is known to be VERY durable.
This persons frets showed wear in-between the strings , in other words any place their fingers touched the metal was worn , with his body chemistry alone he had etched little hollows into the frets between the strings. In fact the area of the fret that was covered by the strings was pristine. Only the areas between the strings were worn. The strings were by the way stainless steel flat wounds.
I mention this to point out the fact that some people have a very excessively corrosive sweat.
Some times all bets are off.
Be happy that guitar strings are relatively cheap !

Bob Holo

Al Watsky wrote: »

Some folks have corrosive sweat...Some times all bets are off.

Been looking for an answer to this question. As it has come up here, I'll toss it out. The way I understand it, sweat is not corrosive in and of itself. It becomes corrosive after it has left the body because bacteria metabolize the fatty acids and proteins in the sweat to produce a corrosive acid. This happens hours afterward. Ie., sweat is not corrosive. Metabolized sweat is. So... if this is true, then reducing or removing or altering the sweat that gets on the strings & frets before it can metabolize would help a great deal.

If so, then is increased string life really as simple as washing your hands prior to playing, using separate towels to mop your body and your strings, and cleaning the strings well after playing? Somewhere, somebody must have a functional knowledge of the chemistry at work here and how to modify or mitigate it.

It's not a problem for me - my strings last a long time - but I know people who kill strings before they're even broken in, which must be a bummer. There has to be some good way to help those people that is based on sound science.

rob.cuellari

I think it'd be a valid test to soak some strings and let them sit out while wet, to see if this is really just a case of oxidation and not corrosive sweat.

Jazzaferri

People who's metabolism runs very much in the very acidic or more rarely very basic range have sweat that is in the more extreme.

Its more of a food, gut bacteria and lifestyle issue than anything else. And though the amount one sweats may not be controlable, checking the Ph of saliva and urine is easy. Changing the diet and lifestyle to regulate Ph isnt easy either.

BTW peer reviewed research has shownCancer cells thrive in an acidic, low oxygen, high glucose environments...the typical NA diet. Unfortunately doctors receive almost no training in gut health and diet.

The atmosperic oxidative process has quite a different effect from the corrosion due to sweating.

The darkened bronze of the strings on my flattop which are over 10 years old and still sounding pretty good are quite different from the black goop that would be present in the strings from my old rhythm player after a day or two. He had to change weekly in spite of coating strings.

Al Watsky

I told the guy to drink more water. Its a body chemistry thing. Like a lot more .

Bob Holo

The pH range within which our amino acid chains are viable is incredibly narrow, and our bodies are very good at maintaining it. So either I'm missing something, or the body pH explanation seems a stretch.

Granted, the metabolized sweat explanation is also far from a satisfying theory. Maybe the finger goo turns the silver/copper wrap into the anode of a galvanic cell? Haha... I'm just guessing at this point...

In terms of string recommendations for longevity. I use Galli GSL (coated Gallis) on guitars when I know they'll be played by guys with HOD (hands of death)

Argies are very good all-around strings too - decent longevity compared to other non-coated GJ strings.