String boiling recipe

[Dad3353]

Just now, BigRedX said:

Bad news...

 

Even if you don't play them, most stings will eventually go off. I speak from experience.

 

It depends on the sting. Wasps..? Use vinegar. Bees..? Rub with bicarb (or maybe the other way round, I forget...). 

[BigRedX]

1 minute ago, Dad3353 said:

 

It depends on the sting. Wasps..? Use vinegar. Bees..? Rub with bicarb (or maybe the other way round, I forget...). 

 

Fixed. 

[Rich]

3 hours ago, itu said:

One thing that hasn't been commented yet is the hand hygiene. Wash your hands, and if you sweat a lot, use some alcohol based washing detergent. After all, the dirt is mostly skin and grease.

 

If I wash my hands before I play, I can wave bye bye to my callouses very quickly indeed.

 

3 hours ago, itu said:

M. Miller was changing his strings after three hours of playing in the studio. This may be just a rumour, but I like it.

 

I recall reading an anecdote from John Giblin of a session he did, where the artist made him change his strings after every second take.

Edited May 26, 2022 by Rich

[rushbo]

At the risk of hijacking the thread, I think at this point, we need to hear from the good Captain Beefheart. In his "10 Commandments 0f Guitar", coming in at #8 is:

 

8. Don’t wipe the sweat off your instrument
“You need that stink on there. Then you have to get that stink onto your music.”

 

I'm pretty sure this applies to the bass, too. 

 

Would you argue with Captain Beefheart?  I mean, he died 11 years ago, but would you? 
 

[Muzz]

Depends. Did he die of a stink-related illness?

[pfretrock]

12 minutes ago, Muzz said:

Depends. Did he die of a stink-related illness?

Might have been Stink Foot while playing with Zappa.

[pfretrock]

On 25/05/2022 at 12:35, nilorius said:

How many of You here use string boiling and is there different ways of doing that? How do You like the result?

I used an ultrasonic cleaner, same result. Once had a set boil dry, never again! Ruined Mrs P's best saucepan.

[gjones]

I found that even just loosening your strings for 24hrs will bring the life back into an old and dull set of strings. When you tune them back up again they're much brighter.

[Bassfinger]

I wash my hands before playing, and I wipe my strings down with a slightly moist microfibre cloth after every session. They never suffer a grunge build up, and don't risk breaking from being released from tension and re stretched.

[Lfalex v1.1]

I kind of did this a while ago with the original strings still on my  Hohner B2A V.

They're about 2 decades old, and are, of course DBE. I could have ordered some Hotwires from Status, but instead dug out my Ultrasonic cleaner,  filled it with stainless steel cleaner from a spray bottle, coiled the strings and did them one at a time for 2x3 minutes.

 

They came out spotty brown rather than solid brown (MMMmmm!) And the cleaning fluid looked like a tramp's urine sample!

 

Put them back on, and they sound and feel acceptably good. If only I'd cleaned them after only one decade, not two, then the corrosion might not have been so bad...

[casapete]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

Bad news...

 

Even if you don't play them, most strings will eventually go off. I speak from experience.

True dat. Sure I'm not alone in remembering buying strings in paper packets, which were often far from factory fresh.

The more recent practice of strings being sold in sealed plastic packs has meant the shelf life is much longer.

D'Addario have a Vapor Corrosion Inhibitor' in their packaging, whatever that is, as well as a recycle program for strings.

[Beer of the Bass]

1 hour ago, rushbo said:

At the risk of hijacking the thread, I think at this point, we need to hear from the good Captain Beefheart. In his "10 Commandments 0f Guitar", coming in at #8 is:

 

8. Don’t wipe the sweat off your instrument
“You need that stink on there. Then you have to get that stink onto your music.”

 

I'm pretty sure this applies to the bass, too. 

 

Would you argue with Captain Beefheart?  I mean, he died 11 years ago, but would you? 
 

As much as I love his music, being in his band sounded like an ordeal by all accounts!

[White Cloud]

Used to boil them back in the 80's when I was dirt poor and it worked reasonably well. 

 

Now that I'm just poor I put up with dull strings until I can replace them 😉

[Marc S]

I used to boil roundwound strings in water and white vinegar (I can't stress the use of white vinegar enough - I once used brown vinegar, and that made matters worse! lol).
It definitely worked, and the strings became notably brighter after treatment - albeit for a few weeks. But this was at a time when it was important to me, because strings were expensive relative to my income.

EDIT: Thinking back, it was a time when I could also afford only one bass - so I probably played that one bass much less than each of the several I now own....

Latterly, I've used "Fast Fret" to maintain some life in rounds - that seems to work, IMO. I did try using some Isopropyl alcohol, and I'm not quite sure about its' effectiveness - this may be because I only had a small pot of it, and perhaps tried using it too sparingly? These days, I mainly play with TI flats, which seem to improve with age rather than lose their tone and become dull & lifeless.

Edited May 26, 2022 by Marc S

[Grassie]

I don’t boil them as often as I used to (now I’m a bit older and a bit more flush) but I always add a couple of drops of washing up liquid to the water, for that… er…. lemon fresh feel… 

😎

[rushbo]

28 minutes ago, Grassie said:

I don’t boil them as often as I used to (now I’m a bit older and a bit more flush) but I always add a couple of drops of washing up liquid to the water, for that… er…. lemon fresh feel… 

😎

I'm sure I read somewhere that it's a good idea to add a little bit of non biological washing powder/liquid to the boiling water as it helps to dissolve the finger gunk. Citation needed as they say on Wikipedia.

[PaulThePlug]

When waiting on strings for a secondhand bass i gave the old ones a wipe with lighter fluid (didnt have any isoprope) and stuck em in the diswasher... to rack obviously.

More a splah n steam clean rather than immersion...

Edited May 27, 2022 by PaulThePlug

[stewblack]

On 25/05/2022 at 18:37, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

I usually fill a saucepan with petrol, bring it to the boil, throw the strings in and simmer for a couple of hours.

Actually... and I'm being serious... petrol is a fantastic cleaner. 

For anyone, um, shall we say cerebrally challenged, I don't mean heated petrol. 

[Newfoundfreedom]

You can take bass strings off? 😲

[Newfoundfreedom]

20 hours ago, casapete said:

True dat. Sure I'm not alone in remembering buying strings in paper packets, which were often far from factory fresh.

The more recent practice of strings being sold in sealed plastic packs has meant the shelf life is much longer.

D'Addario have a Vapor Corrosion Inhibitor' in their packaging, whatever that is, as well as a recycle program for strings.

 

I've opened "brand new" strings from a sealed packet before now, and they've been rusty. (Not bass. Good ol' Ernie Ball guitar strings)

[Bleat]

54 minutes ago, stewblack said:

Actually... and I'm being serious... petrol is a fantastic cleaner. 

For anyone, um, shall we say cerebrally challenged, I don't mean heated petrol. 

 

Without meaning to slightly contradict my earlier post about just buying new strings (which I still think is the best and easiest thing to do), many years ago a guitar builder told me to try a smidge of WD-40 on a rag to wipe down strings. Yes it works, and it works very well, much more effective than the boiling nonsense at least.

 

I will also add that the last time I mentioned this, a couple of people on here got their derrières in their hands at this suggestion. Obviously remove your strings first, wipe down, leave for a while then re-attach strings. Don't do it if you don't like the smell of WD-40!

[Grassie]

11 hours ago, rushbo said:

I'm sure I read somewhere that it's a good idea to add a little bit of non biological washing powder/liquid to the boiling water as it helps to dissolve the finger gunk. Citation needed as they say on Wikipedia.

Actually, the last time I boiled mine I gave them a very light dusting of GT85 just to help push out any moisture once I’d wiped them off.

[stewblack]

1 hour ago, Bleat said:

 

Without meaning to slightly contradict my earlier post about just buying new strings (which I still think is the best and easiest thing to do), many years ago a guitar builder told me to try a smidge of WD-40 on a rag to wipe down strings. Yes it works, and it works very well, much more effective than the boiling nonsense at least.

 

I will also add that the last time I mentioned this, a couple of people on here got their derrières in their hands at this suggestion. Obviously remove your strings first, wipe down, leave for a while then re-attach strings. Don't do it if you don't like the smell of WD-40!

WD40 is a great cleaner. However, with Harley Benton strings costing less than the price of a pint and sounding great, there is little point in boiling, washing, burning, snapping etc etc

[mcnach]

On 25/05/2022 at 21:46, nilorius said:

So, most of You prefer buying new strings than boiling old. I think it differs how long You play Your new strings. Someone consider old strings after 2 mounth, someone plays half year. I think the more giggers and recorders prefer buying new ones, more home and rehearsals have nothing wrong with boiling. 

 

Matter of taste more than how many gigs you play. I like roundwounds but I don't like them new. I've had DR Sunbeams on my Stingray since... August 2018 (I have a spreadsheet, yes, I'm a bit special  ) and they sound *just* right now (well, they've been sounding right for three years I suppose). I still turn treble down. Many many gigs. 

 

 

[4000]

I’ve always boiled my strings (although may no longer be doing so quite as much as I’m slowly moving over to the dark side and TI flats). It started because I had no money - I was at college, then on the dole for nearly 3 years, then only working part-time for about 3 years after that  - and I couldn’t afford to keep buying new strings. In terms of time, I had plenty of that!😂 And contrary to the experiences of some, I’ve always found it worked really well on my preferred Rotos (not so well on other brands and nickels IME) although it didn’t last as long as actual new strings, obviously.