How Often To Change Electric Guitar Strings?

Those who own electric guitars, always have concerns about their strings’ sound, quality, and tuning. However, have you ever wondered how often to change electric guitar strings? It’s one of the hardest things to guess. For those who are beginners and amateurs, knowing the perfect time to change their electric guitar strings can be a really hard nut to crack.

It is unknown to none that timely changing the guitar strings is as important as finely tuning a guitar before playing it. But, how on earth will you know that it is the right time to change your guitar strings? So, for this, we’ve come up with this informative yet compact article that will let you know everything that you need to know about timely changing your electric guitar strings.

Hence, if you want to change your guitar strings on time, follow the article religiously.

5 Signs to Notice Before Changing Electric Guitar Strings.

Before deciding to change your electric guitar strings, there are certain things that you need to check. These factors help you check whether or not you need to change your guitar strings. And, these are the factors that most people ignore, leading them to either delay the process of changing guitars or do it before time.

Therefore, if you don’t want to fall victim to such things, give the factors mentioned below a proper read.

1. How Often Do you Play Guitar: A Gauge For Changing Guitar Strings

Most people do not know that guitar strings do not expire with time. Their expiry is directly proportional to the number of hours you are playing them.

A standard set of electric guitar strings is liable to last as much as 90 to 100 hours. This is why the duration and the perfect time for changing your electric guitar strings depend on how do you play it.

First, if you belong to the family of those who play their electric guitars day in and day out, then it is suggested to change your guitar strings as soon as you complete playing, 90 to 100 hours. If you are pro, it is possible that you will have to change the strings every single week or at least every two weeks.

Second, if you are a habitual guitarist and pick guitar for fun, only then there are high chances that your strings will last for at least 2 to 4 months. No habitual guitarists play more than 5 hours a week.

Lastly, if you are an amateur and hardly pick up your guitar, then your strings can last for as long as a year. No beginner uses their guitar to the fullest, and they usually use it with care and calmness, so the strings will finely last for a year at least.

However, it must not go without mentioning that the average life of electric guitar strings is for high-quality strings; if you bet on lousy strings, they won’t last even 40 to 50 hours producing great sound.

2. The Sound Preference: Most Important Factor For Changing Strings

Sound preference of guitar varies from guitarist to guitarist, and this is one of o the most essential elements that let you know when you should and how often you need to change your electric guitar strings.

Usually, people love the bright, sharp, and fresh sound of the guitar. However, there are people who prefer dull and smoky sounds whenever they strum. So, if you love to play guitar with a fresh and bright sound, it is suggested to change your guitar string even if you have not completed the 90 hours of playing.

Because, most of the time, the strings start to sound dull when strings reach their half-life. Therefore, it will be better for people fond of bright and sharp electric sound to change their guitar strings after jamming every 60 to 70 hours.

However, if you belong to the category who loves their guitar sound dull and smoky, then you are good to enjoy playing the electric guitar with a single set of strings for more than 100 hours. The reason to change the guitar strings after 90 to 100 hours is the sound they are producing.

But, if you love that particular sound, then why do you need to change the string. Enjoy playing your guitar unless you feel the strings have become bad enough to perform any longer

3. The Moisture Factor: A Bad Symptom

We have discussed above two of the major factors that help you know how often you should change the strings of your electric guitar. But, if you live in a region where your guitar is exposed to moisture, it may lead you to change your guitar strings even before the due time.

Electric guitar strings are made up of metal, and when they come in contact with moisture, there are high chances of them catching rust, eventually leading to lousy performance.

SO, if this is the case, then there is no need to check the hours you have played your guitar. If the strings are catching rust or they are performing poorly due to moisture, it is high time to replace your electric guitar strings.

It will enable you to sound your guitar well and help your fingers stay protected while playing.

4. Quality of String: It Matters A Lot

Ironically, most beginner-level guitarists choose to get low-quality guitar strings. However, the issue is not that they get low-quality strings for learning, but the concern is that using lousy strings will become their habit.

If you’re one of those unfortunate who use lousy quality strings for their expensive guitars, you will have to change them every month. No matter how finely you keep them, they will not perform well after a month.

Hence, to avoid such a thing and to avoid changing your guitar strings so often, always bet on quality strings.

With quality strings at hand, you will not have to worry about changing the string for an average of 90 to 120 hours.

5. Change Strings Once they Start Degrading.

One of the essential things that you need to keep in mind is the degradation of strings. If this is the case, replace your strings as soon as possible. Due to the dirt and oil of your moisture, electric guitar strings start to degrade, and this causes poor sound from the guitar.

If that’s the case, you need to quickly change your strings. And it can happen between 40 to 50 hours of jamming. If you do not use a cleaner and keep on playing the guitar, you will have to replace the strings after 40 or 50 hours of jamming.

No strings will bear dirt and oil longer than this.

So, there is no particular time for you to change guitar strings, if you keep them secure, they are good to last for months, and if not, they will start degrading in weeks. The time period required for changing guitar strings depends entirely on the user.

How Can Enhance Life of Your Electric Guitar Strings

Electric guitar strings do not cost a lot, but what people fear is the changing process. For an electric guitar owner, changing strings is one of the hardest nuts to crack, and people usually try to avoid changing them.

So, if you’re also one of them and want to avoid changing guitar strings so often, we have some tricks for you.

• Stretch Your Strings

First, what you need to do is stretch your strings when you are putting them for the first time on your guitar. Doing this will enhance the string life as it removes all the tension and curves from your string which eventually helps a string to stay tuned and work finely for a longer duration.

• Keep Safe From Moisture

Second, the most important thing that you can do to avoid changing strings so often is to keep your guitar safe from moisture. Moisture is life, the fungus for electric guitar strings. It reduces the life of strings and lets you change them even if you have not played much. So, keep your guitar protected from moisture to help your guitar strings live longer.

• Use A String Cleaner

Lastly, the thing that you must do to aggrandize your guitar string life uses a string cleaner. Like other things, strings also get dirty, and this dirt can reduce their lifespan. Therefore, to help your electric guitar strings live longer, you need to use a string cleaner.

Following these steps, you can, with ease, help your guitar strings live longer. So, follow them and avoid changing your guitar strings so often.

Conclusion

Most people ask how often they should change their electric guitar strings. However, if you were one of them and you have been through this article finely, we are sure that you will not ask this question again.

The article above has come up with some of the most useful facts that answer you perfectly: how often you should change your electric guitar strings. From the playing hours to the moisture effect and to the quality of strings, the article has covered more or less every aspect to help you know how often and why you should change the electric guitar strings.

Along with it, the article has provided some useful knowledge about helping your guitar strings live longer than they usually do. It has covered more or less everything that you needed to know about the life of your guitar string and how to enhance it.

All in all, this draft is a treasure for those looking to know how often they should change their electric guitar strings and why they need to change them so quickly. But, if you’re still left with any questions, do let us know. We will love to resolve your queries.