My blog buddy, IG over at igblog always compels me to really think about playing. It’s uncanny. Thanks, IG. Anyway, in one of his latest installments entitled “You gotta fight your guitar a little…” he talked about how different guitarists actually “fight” with their guitar; overcoming bad setups or dead spots to really push them to be more expressive. That got me to thinking about my own experience in “fighting” with my guitars.
As far as dead spots and bad setups are concerned, I’m fortunate that my guitars are set up really well (a touch of luthier work here and there). But I do have a quirk that has actually served to push my expressiveness on the guitar. I don’t change my strings that often; in fact, I’ll have my strings on for months and months at a time, though it’s not out of laziness. I actually like the “duller” sound of worn strings. But there’s actually more to it than that.
Several years ago, I didn’t make much money – just about enough to support my family and have a bit left over to have some fun with. Unfortunately, that didn’t include guitar gear. And even though I played often, spending money on gear just wasn’t in the stars for me then. So I didn’t regularly change my strings. If one broke, I’d replace it, but generally, they’d stay on for a long time. I now have the means to buy strings and gear when I “need” to, but I still keep my strings on my guitars for a long time without replacing them. First, for the reason I mentioned above, but secondly because of a more important thing: Those dull strings push me to eek out as much sound from my guitars as possible.
When I didn’t have the means to buy gear very often, I actually had to learn how to do things with my guitar that I don’t think I otherwise would’ve done. You see, worn strings don’t have all that much sustain, so you have to do other things to sort of “fill in the spaces” like strum a chord then play an arpeggio, or sneak in a palm mute right before a chord to add some rhythm, not to mention strategically placed hammer-ons and pull-offs. I learned all these things not because they were cool to do (they were and still are), but more out of a drive to compensate for my dull-sounding strings.
To this day, I keep worn strings on my guitars. It creates a tension that pushes me to explore tonal areas that I probably wouldn’t go to otherwise.
Thanks to IG for jogging my memory!
Guitar Gear 
Guitar Tip #124, Giving new life to old strings. This technique really works, especially for bass and acoustic strings.
Step 1 take off old strings:
Step 2 hold all the strings in one hand at the ball end
Step 3 Twirl them through the air for a minute or 2
Step 4 re string your guitar with the strings.
I don’t know why it works, but it does.
Hmm… maybe the relaxation of the tension, then subsequent flexing does something to the internal lattice, not to mention breaking up dirt and grime that could be lodged in string grooves.
Thanks!
When I first starting playing, I always had junk gear. It definitely helped me learn … too high action for instance, helped me to develop finger strength. Once I had learned to overcome the awful tone of my first guitar (through playing style or creativity), any good-sounding guitar would be that much better in my hands.
There’s got to be a point, though, where you hit the “glass ceiling” of tone and expression. Bad gear is a good warm-up, but to fulfill your potential you’ll eventually have to graduate to stuff that sounds good.
[…] lot harder to express myself. In the very early days of this blog, I wrote an article called “Fighting with my guitars…” where I talked about not changing my strings that often because the used strings made me […]