Ok, I admit it, I am lazy. So lazy, that I haven't ever changed strings on my SX acoustic yet... and the Michael Kelly I bought in January still has factory strings on! That guitar hung in the store for a good while before I bought it, so these strings qualify to be called really old by now.
And why do I so rarely change my strings? Well, I guess I don't care that much. Especially since I haven't been gigging much lately. However, when I have an important gig or want to record something where I really want a good tone, I will use a guitar with fairly fresh strings.
How often do YOU change strings? If I played gigs regularly, I supposed I'd want to change strings every week, but as of now, I'm mostly doing video lessons and gear demos on video, and it's not imperative that I have fresh strings every week. Plus, it's so boring to change strings, I don't really enjoy it much!
Speaking of changing guitar strings, I thought I'd mention how I do it. On my Suhr, I have locking tuners, and with these, I stick the end of the string through the hole, tighten the locking screw and cut off the leftover piece of string with some clippers. Then I just tune like normal, and the guitar stays in tune beautifully, even though the string may not even go one lap around the string post. Effective those locking tuners are, Yoda would say.
On a guitar with a hole through the string post, I just stick the string through the hole, leave some slack and the leftover piece of string goes under and then over the string. As you then tighten the string, it will nicely lock that leftover piece. Tune the string and then cut off that leftover piece of string.
When I now read that description I just wrote, I realize it's pretty hard to understand! Some things are just hard to describe in words, so ain't it handy that I have a video camera close by! I'll demonstrate how to change strings as described above through a video. Here it is below, using my Michael Kelly Patriot Shadow.
By Robert Renman - www.dolphinstreet.com
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