rejuvenating old guitar strings.

Subject: RE: rejuvenating old guitar strings.
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 11:44 PM

As noted, carbon tet is one of the nastiest of industrial solvents. It is a known carcinogen, and can cause brain damage if inhaled in high concentrations; and it can cause renal damage if exposure is prolonged or repeated. I'd say there are much safer materials to do just as well.

The thing that causes strings to lose their "brightness" is mainly that they get lumpy. It's not so much that there's a bit of grunge on them, although of course that doesn't help; but the gunk isn't distributed perfectly evenly, so you string has lumps that prevent it from producing perfectly harmonic overtones. The "lumps" can occur as local deviations in string density (weight) and/or localized deviations in "stiffness."

The two opposite methods you can use are to get them scrupulously clean, and remove the lumps, or "fill" them with a uniform impregnant that spreads evenly in all the nooks and crannies.

Boiling them in clean water may help, if the grease and grime is made fluid enough to float to the top. What doesn't float off may also be rendered fluid enough to "even out" a bit. Let the water cool enough to skim off the top water, or "decant it," after you've boiled for a while so you don't draw the strings back through a layer of floating crud. (The surface layer will be there, even if you can't see it.)

Adding soap is likely just to put more grunge back, and if it gets into the windings may be very hard to remove.

Soaking in kerosene should have a similar effect since the kerosene should penetrate and will dissolve most "body oils" - if that's what your lumps are - and, if it's a good grade, will evaporate almost completely, although it may take a very long time to get it all out of the spaces in the winding.

If the lumps you've got are from localized "necking" of the core wire, or from displacement of the windings, or from internal corrosion in wound strings, there's not much hope of a significant restoration, and since you can't expect to remove corrosion and replace the "finish" to an original quality, no restoration is likely to last very long.

You can also just tell people you're a "folk artist" and you like the softer sound of old strings.

John

Subject: RE: rejuvenating old guitar strings.
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 09:20 PM

If you don't play it at all, they'll last forever...
:-)

Subject: RE: rejuvenating old guitar strings.
From: Mark Ross
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 02:22 PM

Way easier is to loosen the string and wipe them individually with rubbing alcohol. Also, if you string up your guitar, tune it and leave it sit, without playing, for at least 24 hours, they will last at least 3 times as long.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: rejuvenating old guitar strings.
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 01:58 PM

It's gotta be WAY easier to just buy new strings....

Subject: RE: rejuvenating old guitar strings.
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 01:55 PM

Wise caution re. not heating carbon tet., Richard. Industrial use requires it to be heated, but under safe conditions of course. It's also a known carcinogen so don't sniff it either. Good degreasant though.

Subject: RE: rejuvenating old guitar strings.
From: HiHo_Silver
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 01:51 PM

A cold treatment that works fairley well is to soak the strings in kerosene for a few days and then dry them well. Possibly lacquer thinner or acetone would do the same thing. I have also boiled strings but they will never come back to the quality of new strings and is a short term solution at best. Even cheaper brands of new stings will prove superior.

Subject: RE: rejuvenating old guitar strings.
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 01:26 PM

50/50 water vinegar

Subject: RE: rejuvenating old guitar strings.
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 01:18 PM

DO NOT HEAT CARBON TETROCHLORIDE

Subject: RE: rejuvenating old guitar strings.
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 01:14 PM

Carbon tetrochloride. You can get it at any eletricians shop.

Subject: RE: rejuvenating old guitar strings.
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 12:41 PM

Bugsy - yes, I used to do this all the time, before I started buying my strings in bulk.

However, I used to boil them with a teaspoon of baking soda.

Other friends boil them with a teaspoon of white vinegar.

Boil them for about 5 minutes, and pat them dry with a towel;

I now use a string-clceaner called Fast-Fret which i wipe on after each show, and I get a little more extended wear that way too.

I'll send you a sample.


Seamus

Subject: RE: rejuvenating old guitar strings.
From: Leadfingers
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 12:30 PM

Guest Jim - I was wondering where to get a Saucepan big enough for a Dreadnought !!

Subject: RE: rejuvenating old guitar strings.
From: GUEST,Keith(Pegleg Ferret)
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 12:29 PM

After you've boiled them you bake them in an oven to completely dry them. It works a treat! We did this in the 60's when we were young and poor.

Subject: RE: rejuvenating old guitar strings.
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 12:25 PM

I don't remember where I heard this, but I think it was in SING OUT! back in the '60s. I tried it a few times and it certainly did rejuvinate the strings, but you'll never get strings to last forever. After boiling they go dead a lot faster than new strings. Someone, I think it was Jason Fowler, told me that Gordon Lightfoot recomended this method of bringing life back into old strings. He said you have to be sure to take them off the guitar before boiling.

Subject: RE: rejuvenating old guitar strings.
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 03:34 AM

I'd expect it not to work with Elixirs - their coatings need to stay on. If they have dulled, the grease will be under the coating so removing the grease must affect the coating.

My late wife used (before I first met her) to protect the fretboard with plastic carrier bags and then clean the strings with a kitchen cleaner called "Ajax Ammonia plus". That cleaner went off the market and the replacement Ajax liquid cleaning products were not as effective. I had heard her speak of boiling strings too.

You can get bottles of "string cleaner". Use as described above. I have tried them and found them to give a slight improvement that only lasted a couple of days. I suspect the problem is they are only solvents, without emulsifiers so they do not fully "strip" the long chain grease molecules. It might be worth trying some of the "Mr Muscle" cleaners, because they are grease solvents designed to strip the grease. Maybe the kitchen or bathroom cleaner, or the glass cleaner. You could also try methylated spirits - very effective on stubborn grease on mirrors.

If you want to boil you should realise that water left under the windings may tend to accelerate corrosion on the cores, leading to breakage. Subject to that, I'd suggest boiling twice, the first time in a water with washing up liquid, to break down the grease, and the second time in clean water to remove the washing up liquid.

I don't think the temperature of boiling water is going to be hot enough to affect the temper of the strings or to anneal them.

Subject: RE: rejuvenating old guitar strings.
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 01:07 AM

I've heard this method recommended a few times so there may be some truth in it, it would certainly remove all the gunge which alone would brighten the strings, the only problem I can see is re-fitting them to your instrument, especially if you clip the spare end at the machine head.

eric

Subject: Rejuvenating Old Guitar Strings.
From: Bugsy
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 12:39 AM

I remember, way back when I was a lad, that some old folkie reckoned he used to boil his guitar strings when they lost their resonance. He said that, afterward, they sounded almost as good as new.

Has anyone tried this, and if so, is there a specific procedure to follow ie, do you boil them and plunge them into cold water, or leave them to cool in the atmosphere, or leave them in the water 'til cold.

I've never bothered with this before and have always just bought new strings, however, now I'm on an invalid pension and things are a bit tight on the $ front.

Any information gladly received.


Cheers


Bugsy

PS; If boiling really does work, can you do it with Elixir strings????