Knowing when to change your acoustic guitar strings comes from experience, but until you discover for yourself how often you need to change strings a god rule of thumb is to change them every three months or 100 hours of playing time. This is simply because strings tend to wear out by playing or by the atmospheric conditions and break down.
If you take good care of your acoustic guitar strings, they can last a lot longer, but often older strings don’t sound so good, they are hard to get in tune and keep there and they become prone to breaking. Often they will not feel right to the touch, so make playing more difficult
- What Happens to Acoustic Guitar Strings
These are the signs that your acoustic guitar strings are wearing down and may need replacement
- Corrosion
The moisture in the air starts to rust your acoustic guitar string after you first start playing, this is accelerated because of the moisture from your fingertips as you play is also very corrosive and adds to the condition. This moisture slowly attacks your guitar strings, killing the quality of the tone and their strength
- Kinks
As the strings come into contact with the metal frets wire on your acoustic guitar, causing very small dents to form along the string’s length. After a while, these dents start to weaken the string and change the feel and tone of your acoustic guitar. Eventually, they will cause the string to break, often suddenly while playing
- Loose Windings
An acoustic guitar has treble and bass strings, the treble strings are constructed from a single strand of wire, but the bass strings are made using a thin wire cord with another wire tightly wrapped around them to allow them to each the correct gauge or thickness
On a standard acoustic guitar, there are usually four base or wound strings and two treble or plain strings.
Over time and with use the sting’s windings become loose, which causes the string to become unpredictable both in sound and strength so they are likely to break or fall apart.
With nylon strings the windings can break off and leave the nylon core intact
Protect Your Acoustic Guitar Strings
You can help to prolong the life of your strings if you wipe them down properly using a soft cloth such as an old t shirt or a special thin cloth sold for this purpose.
Conditioning Your Acoustic Guitar Strings
You can purchase special guitar string oil conditioners that are designed to place a thin coating of protective oil on them to prevent corrosion from both your fingers and the air
The amount of time you spend playing your guitar can affect the time your strings will last. Most professional players who play often would likely change strings before each new playing session because they do not want them to break while playing. Most amateur players will find every three months about the average.
When you should change your acoustic guitar strings is largely a personal decision that’s based on your playing times, style and preference. Some players like to use specially coated strings like those commonly found on new guitars in music shops, others prefer uncoated acoustic guitar strings.
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