Boiling bass strings...

[stars]

Ethanol is also flammable :mrgreen:

lol .. i forgot then u can make fire strings .. whoa !

 

[spikes]

fry the strings then it'll melt, then put it in the confectionary cream dispenser(squeezer) of different sizes then squeeze back to the same, so you wont have to buy strings for the rest of your life...

 

[ZON_P]

ya vinegar is added to make ur strings cleaner, gettin the dirt and the rust out.

but my questions is bout black vinegar.

heh,. nvm,.

 

[stars]

black vinegar is the same as white vinegar.

its just that they are made differently thus different colours . white vinegar comes from distilled corn or rice grain if i m not mistaken. black vinegar i for the life of me cant remember what its made of but its just different.

lol ... u might even wanna use rice wine. rice wine is exaggerated vinegar if u wanna put it that way.

similar chemical properties , shouldnt have an effect. its just their use in different cooking. white vinegar tends to be more for western food and for "light" food e.g salads , fish dishes. used sparingly. black vingear is more predominantly used in asian food especially chinese , thai , cambodian , loatian vietnamese and myammese food. e.g rice wine noodles. fish head noodles in rice wine

lol ... i used to be a F&N student

 

[ZON_P]

thanks for ur reply.

but sorry eh. i think my question is if it will make the strings feel as new and sound mellow.. heh paiseh

from ur reply i guess it wouldn't eh.. cos the substance inside is same..

but wat i wonder is its black so would it cos the strings to darken and sound mellower.. dats why.

anyone tried b4 or will be trying pls keep me inform. thanks.

btw. i tried boiling Slowwound strings and it turn out dat after a few boil it gets yellowish,. but the tone is still there,.. and it wouldn't last as long as prism..

i'm a prism user..

tried XL not bad oso but it last for only awhile...

 

[Panopticon-3]

so its just basically using ethanoic acid?

 

[rottenramone]

ok i tried soaking my strings in methylated spirit for the the whole day couple of days back.

guess what? it works!

 

[fretless6]

but wat i wonder is its black so would it cos the strings to darken and sound mellower.. dats why.

LOL, then boiling ur strings with bandung, will make ur bass sounds girly?? :mrgreen:

 

[rottenramone]

..

hmmm... i prefer boiling in chin chow when playig chinese ballads

 

[mingrong]

Chin Chow?!

Anyway I only use vinegar to remove rust... The weak carbonic acid will react with the Fe3+.. Haha!

 

[squidospyder]

My gosh hahaha... this thread has some really wierd and funny replies...

For me, boiling... No. Tried it on my DR bass strings, dried them out after removing from the pot and stuff, and restrung my bass. Then a few days later noticed that the string's core (the inside part of it, a little is visible on the part the string bends around the tuning post) is rusty! I won't trust strings with rusty cores man, if they snap while I'm slapping erm... Nope.

I guess almost $50 spent on strings every 3-6 months (and wiping down with string cleaner religiously after every playing in between changes) is still ok for me. I mean sort of like a sacrifice... for good tone, even of not for a gig/show, for my own ears haha.

I mean owning a good bass but stingy on the strings... Like macam driving a Lamborghini running on taxi tyres like that.

 

[nebo1981]

IMHO ...
Boiling the strings for 1 week of "live" tone ....
not worth it lor ~
i mean ... if it was for 1 mth ... ok ... but 1 week ~!

Also ... i have this habit of changing one string at a time ...
and coz when you boil the strings ... you take them all out ~
den when restringing ... gotta wait a day before setting intonation...~
the neck seems to take abt that time to get back into place ...~

not worth it lah ~
anyways ... gotta change strings every 4-5 mths ... so ...wat's 1 week ?

 

[3notesAbar]

After playing bass for sometime, you guys will stop bothering about these things...Trust me.

 

[squidospyder]

After playing bass for sometime, you guys will stop bothering about these things...Trust me.

I think my tyres are important, I bother about them

 

[visa]

there's so much more to your tone than the strings alone. your fingers, your pickups, where you pick, etc. etc.

even with dying strings you can get pretty bright tones if you figure around

 

[squidospyder]

there's so much more to your tone than the strings alone. your fingers, your pickups, where you pick, etc. etc.

even with dying strings you can get pretty bright tones if you figure around

Exactly. So if you apply all that stuff about fingers, pickups and where to pluck etc to new strings, as opposed to the current dead state and also to the 'after boiling' state (control experiment) then would there be a difference? I'm sure there will be. The question is: how much is the difference, and whether one can stand that difference and reduced reliability (old strings are not as reliable... if one should snap at the ball during a gig with no backup and you're without an 'A' string for example, be prepared to run around the fretboard like hell. Especially boiled ones when there might be rust forming but you just can't see it). Different people have different levels of risk tolerance, but for me, I'll just change a new set. I'm not gonna wait for my strings to snap.

For fretted basses only: Ever tried looking under your strings (the point where the strings make contact with the frets) after playing a set for a few months? I mean playing it for a few months, not sitting in a corner for most of that time. You'll find these points will wear and this makes the string go dead too... reboiling it won't really make it brand new-sounding, the tone is not as even anymore if there is too much wear on the fret contact point. Intonation will be slightly out as well (that you usually can't tell unless you use an accurate digital tuner anyway... for live is still ok but when recording maybe can tell it is out... slight, but there is still intonation run)

Some people prefer older sounding/slightly deader strings, there is nothing wrong with that. My view is when it comes to a point where I have to boil my strings like cooking maggi just to improve my sound, I'd rather change a whole set and reap all the other benefits as well. Unless $ is a problem at that point of time of course...

Maybe one of the guitar shops can provide professional string boiling or string chemical treatment services.. like soaking in denatured alcohol etc. For $3 maybe? Haha... Maybe can have 1 week replacement warranty if the string breaks, but like that they sure go bankrupt... people will whack the strings on purpose... Or maybe a 10% discount off a new set if it breaks within 3 weeks or something...