String Maintenance

George Vance

The trouble with bass strings is that they don't break when they are worn out. They just fade away gradually until one forgets how the bass sounded when the strings were fresh.

I change my strings about twice a year, usually prompted by an upcoming chance to play in public. And I advise my students who log fewer hours than I to change them once a year. Someone told me that the strings will lose their responsiveness even if they aren't played just from being under tension. I don't know about that but it seems reasonable. Steel has properties like tensile strength and flexibility that are affected by stress. Do your ears a favour - put on a new set of strings.

When you install strings it's a good idea to fill the bridge notches with the lead (really graphite) of a very soft pencil. An art pencil such as a 6B is practically like grease. We want to be sure that the wrapping of the string doesn't separate at the point of contact with the bridge. When that happens the string gets caught there and tuning up pulls the bridge little by little until it isn't standing up straight anymore. Periodically one should look at the bridge from the side. If it's not straight up push it with your thumb. Don't be shy. If the bridge gets warped by the aforementioned phenomenon you will have to get a new one and that is expensive (especially if you go to a luthier who really knows his job).

I use a little hand tool called a string winder to speed up the process of installing strings. With that inexpensive little gadget I can change all the strings in a half hour and get on to the fun part of playing them in. At first they are so twangy the bass sounds like a giant banjo. Weird as it is I rather enjoy hearing the brilliance of the harmonics.

After a day or two the strings settle down and sound as they are supposed to.

I've also tried using a power drill with a bit that fits over the tuning key. For me that is too speedy. I broke a new E string accidentally by over tightening it with a power drill. That would be impossible to do by hand. Be careful with any tools more complicated than a knife and fork.

If you've never changed a set of strings before, change one at a time and bring it up to tension. If you took off all the old strings at once the bridge would fall down and maybe the sound post also. Since those two items were probably installed in the right places by an expert you don't want to mess around with them. Setting the sound post is a particularly tricky business even for someone with experience and the proper tools.

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