Fast Wearing G Strings

dfellman

I've been playing Argentine strings on a John Jorgensen Gitane. Everything's been great for about 2 1/2 years, but all of a sudden within the last few months, the G string has been wearing out real fast, like in 5 - 6 hours of playing.

By wearing out, I mean that the winding is wearing through and disappearing over each fret, for about the middle 2/3 of the neck. We all know what happens then.

I thought this might be because the Argentine strings I got are from a bad production run, so I tried a set of GHS, but the same thing happened within the same amount of playing time.

Two possibilities I can think of are:
1) GHS strings are made by the same manufacturer that makes Argentine, and they all have the same problem since a recent change in production, or,
2) There's some problem with my guitar neck (frets) that has developed over time. I don't know what this could be, because I don't see or feel anything bad on the frets - and why would it only happen to the G string?

Has anyone had any experience like this, or have any idea for a solution (other than just buying lots of single G strings)?

Thanks!

Dan Fellman

MichaelHorowitz

dfellman wrote:

Two possibilities I can think of are:
1) GHS strings are made by the same manufacturer that makes Argentine, and they all have the same problem since a recent change in production, or,

Definitely not the case....Argentines are made by Savarez in France.

2) There's some problem with my guitar neck (frets) that has developed over time. I don't know what this could be, because I don't see or feel anything bad on the frets - and why would it only happen to the G string?

I've noticed that some people continually have string problems while others don't....I think unlevel frets (which the Gitanes suffer from) may be the culprit. But the type of fret wire and your technique may also contribute to string degradation. I think some people press way to hard on the strings. Also, a huge factor is the acidity of your sweat. Some forum members (they know who they are ), have such acidic sweat that they will destroy a set of strings after 10 min of playing!

Personally, I can play Argies for a month and they still sound good and hold up fine. I often change them earlier just to get that nice, bright, snappy sound. But it takes a lot longer before they start pitting out.


'm

Tele295

Sounds like a sharp fret(s) problem to me. It's probably time for a fret level.

dfellman

Thanks for your responses...

My sweat is definitely sticky, but I don't know if that equates to acidic or caustic. I'm not sure what I could do about that anyway (sprinkle the fret board with baking soda?), so I'll look into a fret dressing and see if that helps.

Thanks!

Dan Fellman