What Do You Do With Old Strings ?

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 13 Apr 2007 3:29 pm

When the question gets asked, "How often do you change strings ?" many members reckon they change their strings regularly, as much as every session. What do they do with their old strings which still have a lot of life left in them ?

Eddie Cunningham · Post by **Eddie Cunningham** » 13 Apr 2007 3:45 pm

At one time in my life when I was younger but had no money I would take all the strings off and soak and wash them in hot soapy water , then dry and put them back on !! When cleaned they sounded like new again !! Saved me a lot of money but don't even bother changing strings now unless they break !! I guess now if I changed I would just throw them away !! Eddie "C" ( the old geezer )

Rodney Garrison · Post by **Rodney Garrison** » 13 Apr 2007 4:02 pm

Change em' when you feel it's necessary.

Dump the ol' un's.

chas smith · Post by **chas smith** » 13 Apr 2007 4:34 pm

I use them to make little nooses to hang the cockroaches over the sink. It's much more interesting looking than using dental floss.

Whip Lashaway · Post by **Whip Lashaway** » 13 Apr 2007 6:05 pm

Actually at one point I had a fan who was into racing. He would take the lighter gauged strings from me and use them to cut the rubber seal around the windshields of the cars. He said it was the best thing he ever used to get a windshield out. Go figure!

Stu Schulman · Post by **Stu Schulman** » 13 Apr 2007 6:53 pm

I knew a woman who made necklaces alternating about 4 guitar ballends,and then a bass guitar ball end..beautiful stuff.

Ernest Cawby · Post by **Ernest Cawby** » 13 Apr 2007 9:12 pm

Put news paper on the fret boards, pour lighter fluid on them, they have been loosened already, pull the strings up and pot them against the paper all kind of things come from the wound strings. This will do agood job on the bass strings, and help some on unwound ones.

ernie

erik · Post by **erik** » 13 Apr 2007 10:09 pm

Brint Hannay · Post by **Brint Hannay** » 13 Apr 2007 10:09 pm

I have often thought about the countless tens (hundreds?) of thousands of strings I have discarded in my life--43 years of guitar, 24 years of pedal steel, the last couple of decades with WAY too many instruments. I change strings pretty often, because I hate the sound of "dead" ones, but I hate to imagine what the size of a landfill dedicated only to my discarded strings would be!

Shouldn't there be (Is there?) some way to recycle the metal in discarded instrument strings?

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 13 Apr 2007 10:34 pm

When I was poor and had more time, I recycled them by boiling and restringing once or twice. But now that I'm not as poor and have less time, into the trash they go. I have enough clutter in my life now that I sure don't need more in the form of a string recycling section. I do have a guitar cord recycling box with probably 50 guitar cables in need of repair. Once every year or two, I take a couple of hours and resolder the ends on about a dozen, haven't bought a new cable in years.

Yeah, erik, I think we're all a little too old for the "string fairy" story. But, you know, one could make a great cheese slicer out of the plain strings.

CrowBear Schmitt · Post by **CrowBear Schmitt** » 14 Apr 2007 1:07 am

i do like the Chinese w: banana peels

i throw 'em out

Bobby Snell · Post by **Bobby Snell** » 14 Apr 2007 3:45 am

They're really valuable for model railroading. Share with your friends.

Doug Earnest · Post by **Doug Earnest** » 14 Apr 2007 5:34 am

The big wound ones make a good pipe cleaner....especially if you heat them up with a cigarette lighter first.

Tom Campbell · Post by **Tom Campbell** » 14 Apr 2007 6:50 am

Dan Erlewine, a noted guitar repair man, suggests taking a 1 1/2" section of a wound string and glueing it to the edge of a popsickle stick. This makes an excellent file for resloting the nut an a standard guitar. You can have a variety of cheap files (gauges) this way, especially if you don't want to invest in an expensive set of nut files for resloting a few guitar nuts.

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 14 Apr 2007 7:08 am

That's a good idea for light work on an already-cut nut slot, Tom. Never saw that one.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 14 Apr 2007 12:01 pm

Bobby Snell wrote:They're really valuable for model railroading. Share with your friends.

Yes, I use the unwound 3rd strings for handrails. Glad to see other model railroaders amongst us. I have a basement full of trains and steel guitars in the middle. The trains even run round the back of my workbench.

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 14 Apr 2007 12:55 pm

I've used little lengths of the .011's and .014's to unclog fountain pens. Back when automobiles were comprehensible, various sizes of wound strings were good for cleaning out carburetors and such (bongs too - or so I'm told). Now I just throw money at them (automobiles, that is) till they straighten up.

Remember when computer paper used to have little strips that tore off the edges? I have seen some crafty-type people who saved those and arranged them into little wreaths and sprayed them with gold paint. This string thing looks like it could be a goldmine for Martha Stewart to make some craft doodads out of, why'nt one of you guys seduce her and we'll all mail her our strings. I'll bet she likes steel guitar.

(Steady job, nice car, her house's paid off - that thar's a musician's dream girl, alrighty)

Dennis Schell · Post by **Dennis Schell** » 14 Apr 2007 6:52 pm

Bobby Snell wrote:They're really valuable for model railroading. Share with your friends.

Hmmm....you too?

Dennis

(HO and 0n30 RRing nut)

john widgren · Post by **john widgren** » 14 Apr 2007 7:24 pm

Used strings make great feeler guages.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 15 Apr 2007 12:17 pm

erik wrote:Try putting them under your pillow.

Winnie the Pooh would have buried them to grow new ones...

Mark van Allen · Post by **Mark van Allen** » 16 Apr 2007 9:58 am

I remember reading an article a few years back about musicians behind the iron curtain, and how hard supplies were to get. Some of the guitar players would tie broken strings together to re-use, and have to play over/around the knots. There was a photo of a guitar with a string with four knots in it.
One of many things I've run across that remind me how fortunate I am.
I hate throwing stuff away...

Eric Jaeger · Post by **Eric Jaeger** » 16 Apr 2007 10:16 am

Dennis Schell wrote:
Bobby Snell wrote:They're really valuable for model railroading. Share with your friends.

Hmmm....you too?

Dennis

(HO and 0n30 RRing nut)

HOn3 myself.... RGS, mostly.

I still don't see what I'd use the strings for...

-eric

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 16 Apr 2007 1:20 pm

Landscaping, the telegraph wires !!

Lynn Stafford · Post by **Lynn Stafford** » 16 Apr 2007 3:47 pm

I always keep a couple of light gage short lengths (cut from new strings) around to replace those dang broken wires in cheese cutters with a roller in the handle

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 16 Apr 2007 6:52 pm

Didn't I see an unusual application in an old mobster movie somewhere???

Thought my 8th, 9th, and 10th strings had all gone bad at the same time. Deader that doornails suddenly. Changed them out, still dead. Turns out the mounting adjustment nut on the pickup had loosened and the pickup rose up to touch the strings. Never saw that before.
8, 9, and 10 are all shiny now.

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