intonation

a

why is it that intonation goes out of whack when strings get older ?

Michael Bauer

Alex, someone explained to me once that as we play, the acids in the oils on our skin and in our sweat eat away at the strings. Since most of that corrosion is on one half of the string, there is more metal on the half near the bridge, and increasingly less near the nut. Eventually the imbalance becomes so pronounced that it noticably affects intonation, because the "center of gravity" of the string keeps moving towards the bridge. I've seen strings so jagged with corrosion that they could cut a finger. I've noticed that if I wipe down the strings after playing, they last alot longer. It makes sense to me, but maybe someone else knows another reason.