This is going to sound daft...

[discreet]

[quote name='geoffbyrne' post='855575' date='Jun 3 2010, 12:11 AM']I attach a small cork on a string to the nuts end so I can pull them out without emptying.[/quote]

I'm going to try this right now!

[witterth]

It works, but for a matter of an hour or so...
maybe I have very acidic sweaty digits?

[BobVbass]

[quote]bobs your uncle[/quote]

No matter how long you boil your strings we're not going to end up related.

I take the Bilbo approach although I normally change guitars quicker than that and get new ones when I set them up the first time

[El Bajo]

I find just giving them a damn good rub down with a cloth works, can't be bothered with cooking, why the hell would I be bothered with boiling strings

[OutToPlayJazz]

I used to boil years ago. Now I'll just order some more sets or if there's no time, I'll put a set in the oven on full power for about 20 mins. This causes the strings to expand and all the dirt drops out of the grooves. Okay, so they're not quite like new, but much much brighter. TerryK gave me that idea a while back.

[witterth]

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='855713' date='Jun 3 2010, 09:29 AM']I used to boil years ago. Now I'll just order some more sets or if there's no time, I'll put a set in the oven on full power for about 20 mins. This causes the strings to expand and all the dirt drops out of the grooves. Okay, so they're not quite like new, but much much brighter. TerryK gave me that idea a while back. [/quote]
Never thought of that but I now know,
... I'll be trying it!!!
note in the diary simply said "Bugger"!!

[Herbsley]

I too like to keep my strings for quite a long time as I don't like my sound too 'bright'.

I did try string boiling when I was uber-skint back in the 90s, and they did turn out looking a little cleaner, and some (awful) zing came back to their sound. As other BCers have noted, however, it is not a long-lasting effect, and they can turn a bit more brittle. Wonder if it has something to do with the extreme temperature altering the properties of the metal (or something)? A BCing physicist will undoubtedly take me up on this one.

Or mebbe my problem was the garlic, soy and noodles I had stirring round the pan. I recall I was trying absolutely anything to get that Japan tone at the time.

[chardbass]

+1 for boiling.
Its worth it for a few days of clear ringing strings- once strings start to thud they lose so much tone. Fine for some things but not for me.
Twas fine in the days of the strong pound/weak Euro and Dollar- strings were cheap. Not so now.

[OldGit]

Now I use Elixirs ... last me for years through many gigs and hours of practice. After a while they pass through puberty and start getting hairy which look strange but the tone remains ..

[MoonBassAlpha]

I think the breaking thing is more to do with removal and replacement of the strings - it stresses them each time.
I never broke a set of dual-ball end strings, and boiled loads! That's what led me to that conclusion.

[paulwillson]

just boiled for the first time. works fine for the first few hours, gets a bright crisp tone out of the strings but makes them a bit rough after a few hours

sliding can be a bit nasty ive found. doesnt feel quite right, has the sort of fingernails on blackboard effect for me. but saves buying a new set for a few days/weeks maybe

cooked up a nice d'addrio pro steel broth

[noelk27]

It might remove some of the crud from the voids in the wraps, but that's all it does. The fact that the corrosion damage done to the string over its life by all that crud being in those voids for weeks on end, not to mention the mechanical damage caused by fretting the string, striking the string, and maintaining the string under tension, oh, not forgetting the abrasion damaged caused by dragging the string through the bridge when you first fitted it, has already been done. Sure, in the 1950s and 1960s when strings were in short supply, somewhat expensive, and entirely hit or miss as to whether you'd get a set with a lifeless constituent, then boil away, not that it ever worked, no matter how hard people tried to convince themselves that it did. Urban myth, people, wake up and smell the meths, or vinegar, or lemon juice, or whatever it is you're throwing into your string soup!

Edited January 14, 2011 by noelk27

[WHUFC BASS]

[quote name='discreet' post='855025' date='Jun 2 2010, 03:08 PM']I would have thought drying in the oven would solve any rust issues, but I haven't tried it yet, tbh.[/quote]

I used to use a hair-dryer on mine.

[mrtcat]

Do it all the time as I'm really tight. Doesn't work for elixirs or any other coated strings and as mentioned can make silk wrapped ends look really tatty but defo works. Not tried the meths option but sounds good too!

[ShergoldSnickers]

Couple of drops of washing up liquid in the water if boiling them. Watch out for the water frothing over the pan sides though! Gets 'em clean as a whistle. It's worked on all the strings I've used over the years, roundwound, groundwound and flats.

[4 Strings]

Always have boiled strings, still do, once a year. Never throw away old strings.

I thought that the heating process may have put back some of the elasticity to the steel which helped bring them back to life (as well as degreasing them).

Works fine but, as other have said, not like real new strings and they go off after a shorter while. Me? I just boil them up again. (Actually, bit less poor now, for my prime bass just one boil and then replacement.)

I also found that they seem to be a little more brittle, whether that's the destressing/stressing process of taking them off and putting them on or the heat I don't know. Can't remember the last time a string broke though. Never had any rust appear either, but slowly lose the binding.

[4000]

[quote name='BarnacleBob' post='854935' date='Jun 2 2010, 01:47 PM']Yep! Done this many a time as a lad, though if you had binding on them it tended to unravel and look crappy

BB[/quote]

+1.

Chris May used to tell me off for doing it, but I did it anyway.

[Dood]

I tested the dishwasher theory the other day for a laugh.. I can confirm it works too!

[Buzz]

[quote name='noelk27' post='1088820' date='Jan 14 2011, 01:03 AM']It might remove some of the crud from the voids in the wraps, but that's all it does. *snip*[/quote]

Well, yes, that's the general point. You're right in that they've already been damaged, but don't forget how strings actually work. Clearing out the crud in the voids will help them vibrate a bit more freely, if only for a limited time.

It's also why some people say use meths, it should be a less harsh method of cleaning them compared to boiling.

Edited January 14, 2011 by Buzz

[tauzero]

I would just like to say that caustic soda doesn't work very well. It is also inadvisable to boil a caustic soda solution up in an aluminium vessel.

DAMHIKIJK.

[Mr. Foxen]

I run the silks through a flame to get rid of them because they are a bit pointless, with the meths bathing. Should really separate the fire and meths parts though, it burns clear so no-one will know why you are running round screaming.

[lee650]

Ive been boiling for as long as ive been playing (20years) a guy at college who played keys and basstold me about it, ive always used a bit of washing up liquid (smells nicer than vinegar, i even have a seperate pan for boiling dont want to use my circulons ) and quite early on i decided to use strings which didnt have windings (d,addarios or DR,s) as the silk always perishes works a treat but not for long, ive never heard of the oven thing i will try it!!! mind you im going to put some fresh high beams on my spector for a rock gig tomorrow night, YUMMY!!!

[noelk27]

[quote name='Buzz' post='1089450' date='Jan 14 2011, 03:32 PM']Well, yes, that's the general point. You're right in that they've already been damaged, but don't forget how strings actually work. Clearing out the crud in the voids will help them vibrate a bit more freely, if only for a limited time.[/quote]
The crud is not mechanical or magnetic. The void is not mechanical or magnetic. So, how exactly is it that the crud in itself affects how freely a string vibrates? The crud affects the performance of a string in a number of ways. Simply put, the crud clogs up the voids, and the clogged voids result in the mechanical bond, core to wrap and wrap to wrap, failing and the metals fatiguing (which, due to the expansion of the superficial area of the wraps, and a consequent decrease in the percentage of void to mass, has a greater affect on the degradation of a string's performance). Boiling the string might remove some on the crud, but why does the process of boiling a string only result in a temporary, at best a few days but most probably a few hours of, improved performance? It's because the clogging action of the crud is the least of the factors affecting the performance of a string, degradation of the mechanical bond and the corrosion of the metals being more significant, and it's these that result in a string losing performance. Combine that with the mechanical damage occasioned to a string by the act of stringing and tensioning, and the process of playing, and there's no prospect of boiling resurrecting a damaged string.

Edited January 14, 2011 by noelk27

[Dood]

I think the point is that we have established that boiling a string isn't in anyway going to restore a string to it's 'fresh out of the packet state'. Yes, after hours (and in some people's cases years) of use it has become stretched and damaged - however for those who kill strings with sweat in maybe a gig or two gigs worth of playing, boiling has proved to restore a bit of that new string zing temporarily. For those on a serious budget that can not afford new strings every month, it's a way of wringing every last bit of life out of them! I used to to it all the time when I was skint. I didn't care for the physics of it all back then.

[Mlucas]

I once tried it with cranberry juice in water, got my strings nice and plinky again, and even tinted them a lovely shade of red! Beats buying coloured strings