list all the guitar strings youve ever broken...

[Voltan]

im gonna start with a black diamond wound G...  i ran it through the peg instead of wrapping it around a time or two and broke that sucker off right at the hole in the machine head...  next i broke the high E, tuning it up... same set of strings, yes, very same set of strings...   i was 12.   i went back to phillips pharmacy, down on wells street off the main drag in town and bought the last two sets of black diamonds...  two of the second set were dead right out of the pack!   the D and B...   maybe that should be a separate thredd...   

[Voltan]

oh, it can be either alphabetical or chronological in order... your choice! *thumb*

[1001gear]

A dozen or so E strings over the years although I can't remember what order they broke in.

[Grant Harding]

I used to break the high E on my Strat when I was young. Thought it was normal but turned out to be a burr on the bridge saddle.

I once snapped a D string on a friend's guitar in the 80's while trying to tune it. Turns out that you need to tune Floyd- equipped guitars with locking nuts at the bridge end. 🤪

The D string on my classical breaks regularly while in the case. Never while playing though. Still haven't solved that one.

[capitalist]

E, A, D, G, B, and E multiplied by every time I change strings.    I cut them with wire pliers.  

[onelife]

I break the fourth (D) string on many different guitars more than I break any others.

Once, or maybe more than once, I used a string winder and wound a different string than I intended to. Before I was able to figure out why the string I was trying to tune was not going up in pitch, the answer suddenly became obvious

[Emory]

I live at beach in Thailand. So lazy I don't have to do anything for strings to break: heat, humidity, salt air makes string breaking one chore I don't have to do. If I don't play a git for a month or so you can bet when case is opened at least high E will be busted, rusty and nasty. Like it's owner.

[Voltan]

1 hour ago, Emory said:

I live at beach in Thailand. So lazy I don't have to do anything for strings to break: heat, humidity, salt air makes string breaking one chore I don't have to do. If I don't play a git for a month or so you can bet when case is opened at least high E will be busted, rusty and nasty. Like it's owner.

i think i remember you talking about that issue once before?  i guess its added incentive to play every day!   

[Emory]

17 hours ago, Voltan said:

i think i remember you talking about that issue once before?  i guess its added incentive to play every day!   

you got it Voltan! I also have creeping dementia, so do repeat myself, forget what I was going to get from fridge while walking to fridge, I do repeat myself.. but still have access to trivia from way back when, to bore and astound the few friends I'v managed to keep. I have about 17 guitars, but being cheap, I string them up in some sort of rotation... "hmm what do I want to play for next 4 weeks?"  Elixirs and nylon strings strung gits do last several months.

[jwguitar]

Ive broke a lot of guitar strings through the years!  Mostly high E strings but pretty much all of them except the low E. 

 

[Voltan]

give that low e some time to catch up! and welcome to the boards... n00b!   

[Voltan]

i can remember when i only had 12 poasts...   

 

 

 

not with this moniker... lol... 

[RaVenCAD]

When I first started playing I broke some strings, but once I learned what I was doing and developed a much lighter touch, I haven't broken a string in a couple decades.

[Voltan]

22 hours ago, RaVenCAD said:

When I first started playing I broke some strings, but once I learned what I was doing and developed a much lighter touch, I haven't broken a string in a couple decades.

i like where youre going with this, but its linda like a readers digest condensed version of the story... c’mon...  this isnt really a list...  lol...

[mrbrown49]

Do you want me to upload the spreadsheet?

[WRGKMC]

I cant remember the last time no less the brands and numbers of strings i broke in the past 57 years of playing.  I remember the first string was on a violin. I was given one in school as a rental to learn and was allowed to keep it over the summer.  I tried to tune it up at some point and snapped a string. I was only 8 years old and worried what the instructor would say.  He just slapped a new one on and I was back playing again. 

I cant possibly count all the gigs where I'd break strings in the middle of a song and would keep playing till the end of the song then either repair it or put another on.  I got real good at fixing ball end breaks. You'd take the old ball and feed the string through the ball, loop it back around and feed it through again then twist it up.  I can say the quality of strings in the 70's 80's was about as bad as it gets, no better then most car built during those years I suppose. 

You do  learn some tricks to prevent breaks too. All of which I still use today.  You first want to be sure the surfaces where the strings contact like the nut, bridge saddles, tuners et have no sharp edges that can cut into the strings and be sure the grooves don't bind the strings. Second I started dabbing the ball ends in crazy glue back in the 80's and haven't had a string unwind or break at the ball  since.  I do allot of string bending and the plain strings used to unwind from the ball and eventually give way.  I put a drop of glue in the groove and in the string winding wipe off the excess. It adds strength and doesn't unwind break or go out of tune. 

Steinberger does the same thing on their strings with some kind of epoxy on their double ball ends and the strings never vary more then a few cents in pitch and most of that is due to temp changes. 

Bass strings?  I'm more likely to remember how many of those I've broken because it happens so rarely.  Most of those happen with improper installation, wrong strings for the wrong instrument.  The rest, like guitar strings, sometimes you simply get some defective batches.  I learned long ago to switch brands when you have more then two sets from a vendor break in a short time.  Best to wait till they get in a new batch that isn't stale or rotten. 

 

Allot of manufactures make a big deal about having their strings vaccine sealed to prevent moisture from getting in but many times it doesn't do a dam bit of good.  allot of strings get coated with chrome to make them shiny and if the un-chromed wire had rust starting they trap the rust under the chrome and it can continue to eat away at the wire and weaken it.  There have been allot of advancements using various alloys which resist oxidation.  I don't think I've ever seen any rust on a D 'Addario strings, but there again, the strings tend to loose allot of tone in about a week of two playing.  on the flip side LaBella still uses traditional manufacturing and can have issues with oxidation under the chrome. They are one of the last to try vacuum sealed packing I've seen but even with that I still get some with pit marks, because the pitting occurs before the strings are wound.  Even with the pitting I'd choose the SS Labella over the D'Addario because they last months compared to the others that have a measured lifespan of weeks.  They don't loose their tone either. 

I picked up a guitar last night that had a set on there for 6 months and allot of hours played and it still sounded as good as a new set.  I don't think I've broken more then one string in 50 sets and if you were to see how much I bend strings and not have them break its a pretty amazing testament.  I'm brutal on strings (and frets) when I play. Its just a matter of passion vs tone.  If you baby weak string because you're afraid of breaking them, the notes produces probably aren't going to create a whole lot of emotion in the listeners.  If you cant dig in and make the strings do anything you can imagine then you still have issues you need to iron out. 

Of course having a realistic expectation is still important and string gauges do play a part. if you use baseball bat strings, 11/12 gauge and play say 8 hours on weekends you may get a couple of months out of even the worst brands.  I typically use 9/46 because i like a tight bottom end.  I put in about 24 hours playing per week, sometimes more when recording but its pretty consistent.  If I want top quality tone I'd change them every other week, but given the fact I have about 40 guitars and basses I usually string a couple and rotate using them.  When I come across one that's not keeping its tune I'll change them before they ever have a chance of breaking.  I gestimate I currently get between 1 to 2 months on the ones I play the most. 

That number has gone way up in the past 2 years only due to brand of strings used now.  Most other popular brand I get 2 weeks tops.  I in fact put a set of D'Addario on one of my new guitars. sounded fantastic for one week.  Second week i couldn't keep the suckers in tine for more then 1 song and sometimes not even that long.  Two weeks they were toast.  The second set were the Stainless Labella's and its been 2 weeks and at least 40 hours playing and they still sound like new and keep their tune. 

Believe me with 40 guitars you save money buying strings in bulk and there isn't a bran of strings I haven't tried multiple times.  Some are so bad I wont touch an instrument that has them.  Example, Fender Bullets used to be my favorite strings for at least 10 years back in the 80's.  Then thay switched manufacturing to Japan and all the ball ends would break minutes after installing them.  You'd be lucky to get one set in 10 that lasted a week with a tremolo arm.  Then they switched manufacturing to Mexico. Absolute worst sounding strings I've ever used and you cant intonate them. Even with the lower saddles fully extended towards the neck the string pitch is a full semitone flat.  I've had 3 new sets on my shelf for 10 years now, I'm hoping to give them to some guitarist as a joke but that's pretty even for someone you dislike.  

[sammyreynolds01]

I haven't broken a string in over 20 yrs.

[Verne Andru]

Broke a bunch of strings of all brands tuning my Les Paul PeeWee in 5ths - Eb Bb F C G D. Ended up with an 8 on the high D and that's a semi-tone from snapping.

Here's a string story - when I started playing acoustic in the early 70s I used Larrivee strings. I would always keep the old set whenever I changed strings just in case something broke and I needed a replacement in a hurry. I kept the tradition going and ended up with quite a stack of old guitar strings over the years.

Fast forward to a few years back - it's the end of a NAMM show with everyone loading-out. I ended up walking out with one of the younger Larrivees and mentioned I had a bunch of their old strings still in packages. He didn't even know Larrivee sold strings and asked if I would donate them to the Larrivee museum, which I gladly did.

Moral of the story is even junky old guitar strings can have value if you hold on to them long enough 😙.

[Mikeo]

I haven't broken anything in years, but over my 45 years of playing I have broken a high E string, a B string, the G string and a D. I broke a A string and a Low E string once, but that must have been a manufacturing defect.

 

That's all

[Warhorse]

I break my girlfriends G string all the time! 

[Heroesforghosts19]

I remember the first string I broke. It was a white 62 Stratocaster,the strings were Black diamonds, and I was eight yrs old. I was playing through a Fender Dual Showman, it was 1964. Then I got a Ibanez LP copy that had burrs on the bridge saddles. Broke about 6 high e strings and blamed it on the Ernie Ball super slinkys. Then I broke a D string on my friends Strat,a 77 white model. Then I bought a 1988 Peavey Vandenberg and broke a b string. Since then(1988) I have never broken another string. Don't know why I haven't broke any more, but I quit using Ernie Balls and switched to D'Addario strings. I've used Ernie Balls since then and have not broken another string.