When To Change Electric Guitar Strings

Whether it be from regular use or simply from time passing, it’s only natural for guitar strings to begin to wear over time.

Still, regardless of how experienced a player you happen to be, many guitarists often find themselves struggling to know when the right time to swap their strings for new ones is. This is where we come in! 

Regardless of whether you happen to play acoustic guitar or electric, after some time it’s only natural for your guitar strings to begin to be in need of a replacement.

That’s why, in this article, we are going to be showing you some telltale signs to look out for that will indicate to you that your strings are in need of a new set.

So, without further ado, let’s dive right in.

Why Do You Need To Change Your Guitar Strings?

As we have already mentioned above, regardless of whether you happen to play acoustic guitar or electric guitar, after a certain point in time, you will most likely need to swap out your guitar strings for a new set of strings. But, why do you need to change your strings?

Well, whether it be from regular use or general wear and tear, the more that guitar strings are worn out, the more that they will begin to diminish in quality.

With that being said, guitar strings that are nearing their expiration date will usually begin to sound bad when played, will be nearly impossible to tune, and will often snap quite easily, too.

In addition to this, guitar strings that need to be replaced may also sometimes begin to take on a strange texture that many guitarists report to be uncomfortable to the touch.

To give you a better understanding of how often you should be changing your guitar strings, as a general rule of thumb you are going to want to make sure that you are swapping out your guitar strings for new guitar strings every 3 months or so.

However, depending on how often you are planning to use your electric guitar strings, you might find that your guitar strings are in need of replacement even more frequently than that timeframe and luckily enough – there are often a variety of telltale signs that will indicate to you that your electric guitar strings are in need of replacement. This brings us to our next section!

Signs That Your Electric Guitar Strings Need Replacing

Now that we have covered why it is important to make sure that you are regularly changing out your electric guitar strings every 3 months or so, we are now going to be sharing with you what telltale signs you should keep an eye out for that will indicate to you that your strings are in need of swapping out.

Let’s take a closer look at the main signs that you should look put for below:

Sign One: Corrosion

The first sign that you should look out for when determining whether or not you should swap out your electric guitar strings for new strings is visible signs of corrosion. Just like the way that other metal objects will begin to rust and corrode over time, the same goes for your electric guitar strings.

However, it should be noted that the corrosion process is usually much quicker with electric guitar strings than other metal items and objects simply because it is combined with frequent contact from your fingers, too.

Salt and moisture from the fingers can speed up the corrosion caused by the moisture in the air, which leads to your strings needing to be replaced.

With that in mind, if you can see signs of rust on your guitar strings, then this is a strong sign that your electric guitar strings are in need of replacement.

Sign Two: Frequent String Breakage

Along with signs of rust caused by corrosion, another sign that your electric guitar strings are in need of replacement is if you are beginning to notice that your guitar strings are snapping and breaking more often than normal.

If this is happening, then this is a strong indication that your strings are beginning to become weak from frequent use. Therefore, you should replace your strings with a new set of strings.

Sign Three: Difficulty Tuning The Strings

Along with noticing that your strings are breaking more often than they usually might, as well as noticing visible signs of rust across the surface of your strings, the third telltale sign that your electric strings are in need of replacement is if you are having trouble successfully tuning your electric guitar strings.

The more that electric guitar strings are used, the more likely they are to begin losing their ability to tune, so keep an eye out for this sign.

Sign Four: Kinks Across The Strings

Last but not least, the final telltale sign that your electric guitar strings are in need of replacement is if you can see kinks at various points across your electric guitar strings.

Gradually, as you spend more time using your electric guitar strings, you are naturally going to begin to find that they start to form little kinks at various spots, although the most common place they can be seen is in the areas that your fingers touch the most.

Besides causing your electric strings to become weaker, they can also impact the tone and overall quality of the sound that the strings produce, not to mention being more likely to cause a breakage.

Wrapping Up

By making sure to keep an eye out for the telltale signs that we have shared with you above, we’re sure that you’ll be able to easily spot when your electric guitar strings need to be replaced and swapped out for new strings. Thanks for reading! 

References

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CtqfHmssx8