Members LnTh Posted October 11, 2007 Members Share Posted October 11, 2007 I've NEVER broken a string while I'm playing the guitar. NEVER. I've been playing for 11 years now. What the hell am I missing? Well I change the strings every 2-3 weeks. Maybe that's it? Or maybe my playing? I'm seriously clueless here. My cousins guitarist breaks a string every practice. EVERY SINGLE practice. They've kept telling me it's the guitar not him. I borrow his guitar for a 3 months back when I sold everything. In that time, the times I broke strings on that guitar was null. zero. Weird {censored}. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hulston Prickle Posted October 11, 2007 Members Share Posted October 11, 2007 Let me say first unless you are a session musician or excessively sweaty changing strings every 2 or 3 weeks is WAY too much. I've played guitar for 16 years and I've NEVER broken a string. You act like its a bad thing. Sometimes it's the guitar. Some Gibson bridges have snags that break strings. Sometimes {censored}ty strings have flaws and break. Some guys don't know what they are doing. My brother does not play guitar, and I would never let him near my guitars because a few strums and he would break a string every time. I like to think I have a heavy strumming hand, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JaGi Posted October 11, 2007 Members Share Posted October 11, 2007 Ive broke two but only when restinging, both top e strings, both d'addario strings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members -=Diz-Tortion=- Posted October 11, 2007 Members Share Posted October 11, 2007 When i first started playing i broke a few strings, but these days i never break strings...i duno, i've seen guys play with really excessive pick attack and naturally they easily break strings Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators justcrash Posted October 11, 2007 Moderators Share Posted October 11, 2007 I've NEVER broken a string while I'm playing the guitar. NEVER. I've been playing for 11 years now. What the hell am I missing? Well I change the strings every 2-3 weeks. Maybe that's it? Or maybe my playing? I'm seriously clueless here. My cousins guitarist breaks a string every practice. EVERY SINGLE practice. They've kept telling me it's the guitar not him. I borrow his guitar for a 3 months back when I sold everything. In that time, the times I broke strings on that guitar was null. zero. Weird {censored}. I don't know if you are doing anything wrong per se.. are you gigging with them? maybe you just aren't real aggressive? I've never broken one on stage, but I change them before every gig. I had a problem with string breakage on my 2000 deluxe strat all the time, on the B string at the bridge, but I replaced the saddles with graphite ones and that fixed the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jds22 Posted October 11, 2007 Members Share Posted October 11, 2007 Interesting. Do you bend much? What kind of bridges on your guitars? Do you have a light picking technique?Just wondering cause I've broken plenty of strings. Not all the time but it happens. Although I must say that I haven't broken any since I installed some GraphTech saddles about 2 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tommy Horrible Posted October 11, 2007 Members Share Posted October 11, 2007 I've NEVER broken a string while I'm playing the guitar. NEVER. I've been playing for 11 years now. What the hell am I missing? Well I change the strings every 2-3 weeks. Maybe that's it? Or maybe my playing? I'm seriously clueless here. My cousins guitarist breaks a string every practice. EVERY SINGLE practice. They've kept telling me it's the guitar not him. I borrow his guitar for a 3 months back when I sold everything. In that time, the times I broke strings on that guitar was null. zero. Weird {censored}. Most string breakag due a sharp edge on the saddles of your bridge. You should tell your brother to take his guitar to a tech and have them sanded, or if you guys are crafty research it on the internet and do it yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members metal_terrorist Posted October 11, 2007 Members Share Posted October 11, 2007 Changin strings every 2-3 weeks surely helps. I'd say that's about 1/4th of the reason you don't break strings, they don't have time to get worn out. The other 1/4th is the guitar. Like Hulston says, some tune-o-matics tend to snag. Tremolo's, when used a lot, are hell on strings. The last 1/2 is you. If you don't play with a heavy picking hand, don't dig the strings when you pick, don't do many step-and-a-half bends, etc then there's no reason you should break strings. You're not doing anything wrong. As long as you're happy, who cares. Do what you do and enjoy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LnTh Posted October 11, 2007 Author Members Share Posted October 11, 2007 Yeah I made it sound like it's bad but I can't complain Btw, I don't think changing every 2-3 weeks is a alot. You don't have to be a session musician to get through strings fast My hands do get sweatier than average musician but IMO 2 hours everyday is more than enough to get through strings in 2-3 weeks. I don't wait till they're unplayable. I change them when I start losing tone/sustain significantly. Oh and no, I can't say I'm a very light player. Lead playing I tend to get light but when I'm playing riffs I do strike pretty hard depends on the song too ofcourse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators justcrash Posted October 11, 2007 Moderators Share Posted October 11, 2007 Interesting. Do you bend much? What kind of bridges on your guitars? Do you have a light picking technique? Just wondering cause I've broken plenty of strings. Not all the time but it happens. Although I must say that I haven't broken any since I installed some GraphTech saddles about 2 years ago. Let me ask you this... I have the same saddles on one of my strats (see my first post in the thread)... do you notice a difference in tone between the metal ones and the graphite ones? I like that strat a LOT less then my SRV so I was wondering if maybe that is why (tone wise, I mean). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators justcrash Posted October 11, 2007 Moderators Share Posted October 11, 2007 Yeah I made it sound like it's bad but I can't complain Btw, I don't think changing every 2-3 weeks is a alot. You don't have to be a session musician to get through strings fast My hands do get sweatier than average musician but IMO 2 hours everyday is more than enough to get through strings in 2-3 weeks. I don't wait till they're unplayable. I change them when I start losing tone/sustain significantly. I think string changing is just preference. I perfer the brighter sound of new strings, some peple prefer the more mellow sound. As long as you can afford it, change away, I say! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thefyn Posted October 11, 2007 Members Share Posted October 11, 2007 Its the guitar not you. your cousins guitar probably has some rough jagged areas where the string meets the metal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LnTh Posted October 11, 2007 Author Members Share Posted October 11, 2007 Its the guitar not you. your cousins guitar probably has some rough jagged areas where the string meets the metal.Read my whole post again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jds22 Posted October 11, 2007 Members Share Posted October 11, 2007 Let me ask you this... I have the same saddles on one of my strats (see my first post in the thread)... do you notice a difference in tone between the metal ones and the graphite ones? I like that strat a LOT less then my SRV so I was wondering if maybe that is why (tone wise, I mean). Not that I could tell, but I don't claim to have a super sensative ear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JBecker Posted October 11, 2007 Members Share Posted October 11, 2007 I only broke strings my first year or so of playing, and since, even with the same guitar, have pretty much never had it happen. Sometimes it's the guitar, most of the time it's the player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators justcrash Posted October 11, 2007 Moderators Share Posted October 11, 2007 Not that I could tell, but I don't claim to have a super sensative ear. Ok, cool man. My 2000 (Lisa, after my wife) is the best sounding unplugged electric I ever heard but it is dull as heck when I plug it in. Probably the fender "noiseless (ie lifeless) pickups". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gaindrain Posted October 11, 2007 Members Share Posted October 11, 2007 When I started I broke A LOT of strings. Didn't matter what guage. Now....I just....don't break strings anymore. I hadn't really thought of that until you mentioned it here. It boggles my mind how a bass player like flea used to break strings at every show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members peavey_impact Posted October 11, 2007 Members Share Posted October 11, 2007 I use Elixirs and don't change them until the low string unravels, which takes about 2-3 months. When I'm forced to use normal strings I change them about once a month; any longer than that and they'd probably break on me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members peavey_impact Posted October 11, 2007 Members Share Posted October 11, 2007 It boggles my mind how a bass player like flea used to break strings at every show. A friend of mine who used to play bass in my band used to break his bass's low E every other practice. Blew my mind. I have had the same strings on my bass for like 4 months now; no breakage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members grayeyes777 Posted October 11, 2007 Members Share Posted October 11, 2007 if you don't break strings then you only need to change strings every 2 weeks or so. i don't break them that often on my music man so i can go about 2 or 3 shows or so without changing strings... LOL. At home when it's just church and studio, it's about 2 weeks. When on the road i change them every show though. It's part of professional guitar life... when people pay to see you, breaking strings isn't the best part of the show (especially when you have a trem bridge and the whole thing goes out of tune when a string breaks). Most stores will sell strings at about 3 or 4 bucks a pack... that's not a lot of money so change them before shows (imo of course). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blargh Posted October 11, 2007 Members Share Posted October 11, 2007 How hard do you pick? Sometimes I like to bash the {censored} out of my strings, so they don't last too long... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members potaetoes Posted October 11, 2007 Members Share Posted October 11, 2007 i haven't broken a string in years, and i typically leave my strings on until the frets wear through the windings to the core. i pick pretty hard, too. i must be doing something wrong too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ttiw Posted October 11, 2007 Members Share Posted October 11, 2007 Lucky you. I break strings all the time, and it's definitely because of my picking style because they break on all my guitars. And it's always the wound strings. I don't think I've snapped a string from playing leads in years... but I palm mute pretty {censored}ing hard, and my wound strings always break at the bridge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members knucklefux Posted October 11, 2007 Members Share Posted October 11, 2007 i have broken more A strings than i can shake a stick at. that's the string i break. of course, i use thick picks, and i really dig in on things like gallops...that probably doesn't help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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