: Why does the quality of the sound of guitar strings decay over time? Particularly, on classical guitars, strings 4, 5 and 6. At the beginning, the sound is very metallic. After a few weeks, it's like playing on coton.

Vote Up Vote Down   0 Reactions

Login to give Reaction!

Your hands are dirty and sweaty. The dirt is likely to stick in the grooves of the wound strings. Sweat will coat the strings, and over time you can see they start to rust (or other similar processes). One way to tackle this issue is to wipe off the strings with a towel after you have played. It is also the reason why some bass players cook their strings, to clean them to make them last longer.

Another approach is to use coated strings (e.g. Elixir, but other brands also exist), which have a layer of plastic(?) coating to protect the strings. I find that coated strings sound a tad bit brighter than non-coated, but that might just be me. In my experience they do last a fair amount longer, so I use them on guitars I don't play too often where string changes are rare.

Vote Up Vote Down   0 Reactions

Login to give Reaction!

In addition to Morten's answer, there are a few other things that contribute to strings wearing out:

Strings, particularly the wound strings, develop dents or pits at the spot where they vibrate against the fret. This causes them to sound dead, and also contributes to intonation problems
Strings lose their elasticity over time. Tuning and retuning places strain on the string, and can cause it to wear out or break
The unwound strings will corrode as a reaction to the residue left behind by your hands
If you play with a pick, the pick will chew away at the windings on the wound strings

Tone Gear makes a little gizmo you can clamp on to your strings and run up and down the fretboard a few times to clean the strings. It does a good job of degunking strings, and can help you get more life out of them.