Boiling and de-kinking

[Sambrook]

The title says it all, really...

 

 

No? Ok. You know when your strings go dead, right? You can boil them, innit? And they'll be resurrected...

Well, what if you want to transfer strings from a fretted to a fretless? The little dinks caused by the frets mean they won't play right, on the fretless. So will boiling ease the kinks out of the strings? Or do you have to iron them as well?

 

Answers on a postcard, please...

[TheGreek]

It's a bit of an urban myth - you may be able to resurrect them for a few hours playing time but they are essentially dead.

 

More aggro than it's worth - buy a decent set of strings which last.

[BreadBin]

The only strings I've ever snapped had been recently boiled.

As @TheGreeksays - they only really sound a bit fresher for a short while and are no substitute for decent new strings.

[neepheid]

Bass strings - worst spaghetti ever.

[TheGreek]

High in Iron though...

[Doctor J]

Boiling just removes some of your bio-crud and finger-gick which gets into the winds and makes the strings go dead in the first place. If you drink the juice left over it is like eating placenta, apparently, the crud absorbs musical energy from the vibrations of the string, you get rejuvenated musical energy and it's like having  bass super-powers*

 

 

 

 

 

* This is a lie and you may die a painful death. Don't drink the string juice!

[PaulThePlug]

Mojo String Juice... New Jazz Flavour!

[itu]

If you want to try something we have already done:

- boiling

- washing machine

- ultrasonic

- acids

- solvents

- nearly anything imaginable

 

After some trials to save anything (except the time wasted), the best option is to go to your local store and by new sets.

[Rayman]

Yep. Unless you can’t afford it, or you like dead strings, or you’re tight….. but new strings.

[gafbass02]

I used to often boil strings as a perma-skint teen back in the 90s. They tended to sound bright again for maybe a few hours, and I was always told it made them brittle, but I never had one snap. These days strings can be had so cheaply it doesn’t seem worth it anymore.

Oh the memories

[White Cloud]

1 hour ago, gafbass02 said:

I used to often boil strings as a perma-skint teen back in the 90s. They tended to sound bright again for maybe a few hours, and I was always told it made them brittle, but I never had one snap. These days strings can be had so cheaply it doesn’t seem worth it anymore.

Oh the memories

Same except my experience occurred throughout the skint 80's. 

 

[40hz]

25 minutes ago, White Cloud said:

Same except my experience occurred throughout the skint 80's. 

 

Skint 00's here.

[gafbass02]

Three generations of string boilers all in a row

[neepheid]

These days a new set of strings probably costs less than the gas or leccy required to boil the water...

[BigRedX]

I tried it once. The process ruined one of my pans and one of the strings snapped when I tried to put them back on. All-in-all a complete waste of time.

[Cosmo Valdemar]

There's always this...

 

 

I used to rely on the boiling method as a poor teenager, no pans ruined!

It gave enough zing to get me through a gig but with the amount of noise we used to make back then it probably didn't make a lot of difference. 

I think it's worth spending extra on some high quality strings, they generally last a lot longer. I've used DRs for years and I usually get 6 months out of them.

[diskwave]

Total urban myth. Steel becomes malleable at around 1800F, melts at 2500F. The best boiling can do is leech out the filth, which will may reduce the deadening affect of the KFC gunk and bogeys 🤪...Might possibly sound a bit brighter but the kinks are there for ever.

[lownote]

Don't play rounds, simples.  Flats will last for ever.  I believe Danny Mo Morris is still playing an 18 year old set on one of his P basses.

[LowB_FTW]

On 22/04/2023 at 12:25, Sambrook said:

Or do you have to iron them as well?

 

 

😳

 

Mark

[asingardenof]

The only thing I've ever achieved by boiling strings is ruining a saucepan.

[Waddo Soqable]

I melted a load of scrap lead in a saucepan in the kitchen at a girlfriend's mum's house once.. I made sure to do it when they all went out of course. 

[linear]

You  need to use a tungsten pan.  If you use an aluminium or steel pan it's going to boil long before the strings do, obviously.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Everyone boiling strings in water is doing it wrong. You need to boil them in pure isopropyl alcohol. That freshens them up a treat. If you don't have any isopropyl alcohol, petrol is probably just as good, but doesn't taste as good when you drink it after.

[Grahambythesea]

18 hours ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

Everyone boiling strings in water is doing it wrong. You need to boil them in pure isopropyl alcohol. That freshens them up a treat. If you don't have any isopropyl alcohol, petrol is probably just as good, but doesn't taste as good when you drink it after.

Wouldn’t gin work as well, but may be more expensive than buying a new set.

[itu]

22 hours ago, Grahambythesea said:

Wouldn’t gin work as well, but may be more expensive than buying a new set.

I prefer a sip of sherry and a new set of strings.