Boil Your Used Bass Strings?

I've heard it's been done, but don't know anyone who's actually done it. I've also heard you can soak them in vinegar.....

But to be honest, I don't mind forking out for a set of bass strings every 18 months or so - it's the other guitars that are killing me! Since my local shop closed, I don't seem to be able to find D'Addarios - and while EB's are OK, they don't seem to last very long at all.

Let us bass players (and wannabees!) offer up a prayer of thanks to the Gods of Rock'n'Roll that bass strings do have a fairly decent life span.....

:D :D :D

Vic

Anyone do this? Do they really sound new afterwards? Boiling steel just seems weird to me.
:shock: :shock:
Never tried that before!
I did use the 3 low strings off my acoustic to hang a planter out back a couple weeks back though. Certainly strong, but I'm not sure how weatherproof they'll be.
:)

I heard of people doing it with guitar strings, and I've been told it works rather well. Supposedly it gets all the grease and oil from your fingers of the strings.

I did it once, in a pot like making spaghetti, with a couple of drops of liquid detergent. The strings sounded...weird. Like weird harmonics now emphasized or something.

Lots of the guys on this other board soak their old strings in denatured alcohol. The stuff with no water mixed in. They get PVC pipe (like for plumbing) the correct length for the longest string, screw-on caps for both ends, and then put the strings in there uncoiled, fill it partway with the alcohol, cap the pipe and (I guess) lay the tubes down so they're covered with the alcohol. Some of them say it works pretty good, but...I'd rather just have new strings like Vic mentioned.

For me anyway, I'm not so interested in the brand-new 'clink and clang' of new bass strings and go more for the thump factor, and with these string cleaning methods supposed to bring back that clink and clang, well, it's not something I really bother with.

Other styles of music/bass-tones, yah, maybe, but then I'd just get new round-wounds or something.

My tuppence.

I don't see how anyone could take bass or guitar strings off, boil, bake or vinegar them and then put them back on. The strings all have kinks where they went on the tuning pegs so it seems the would not be as stable.

It does work really well and they sound great after you boil them but only for a very short time usually, at that point the strings are usually pretty dead and its not worth the time to do this constantly in my opinion than just going out and forking a few bucks out for a set of new strings.

but it definitly does work, never tried with guitar strings though since their so cheap anyways.

What about wok? Maybe a Wok Fried Teriyaki Sea Bass?

I have thought of it many times but never tried it. Bass strings are expensive here in Norway!

Over time strings really stretch out when they're on an instrument.
If you pull them off and they're wavy, they're too stretched out so just buy new ones.
If you leave your strings on for a really long time, you'll see what I'm talking about when I say wavy.

What about wok? Maybe a Wok Fried Teriyaki Sea Bass?

I think that a chile coconut milk braise works much better :wink:

I've boiled bass strings a few times, they usually sound a lot more like new strings for at least a few days (y'know, more metallic, bright and punchy). Like the other guys said though, the new sound doesn't usually last all that long...

Sometimes the strings break shortly after you boil them too, so I don't boil my strings unless they are really over-the-hill. Great way to breathe a little life back into your strings if you can't afford a new set though.