New Strings: Instantly Get A Pro Sound

One of the most overlooked things you can do to prepare for the studio as a stringed player (guitar, bass, violins, etc) is changing your strings. You may think “oh it’s fine I changed them a little bit ago, they’re still like new” but let me tell you. Change them strings! Your ears can adjust to the sound of the aging string pretty well, and you may not notice that you need to change them. Once you swap them out with a new pair, you’ll usually be happy you did.

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The Benefits Of New Strings

Over time, your strings accumulate nasty sweat and grime that sticks to the string, dulling and muting it. One could say it makes it sound “warm” but in the words of Dave Pensado, one of the top mix engineers in the world, “warm is just another word for dull”.

Believe me, I’m all for warm sounds, they definitely have their place; but with string aging, it’s just not a particularly pleasant effect. You’ll get so much more dynamics and emotion out of them if the strings are in good condition, and it allows you to shape the sound down the line to a much greater extent.

It’s much easier to roll your tone knob back than it is to add brightness later if you want the "warm" sound. Adding the air and brightness after the fact just doesn’t sound as natural and has way less depth than if you had just changed your strings.

When Should You Change Your Strings?

You’ll want at least 12 hours before tracking or heading to a show. This will give the strings time to stretch and get used to being under tension, so you won’t go out of tune during a take quite as easily. You can go ahead and just strum as hard as you can and do crazy bends on every fret and every string to expedite the process!

While tracking just 30 minutes after you change strings is possible, it’s very hard to do so because you have to tune after every take, or possibly even stop mid take to tune. Not the ideal situation, so try to make sure you remember to change those strings the night before!

Making The Case For Using Older Strings

Some people are so adamant about using their old strings. Most of the time, it’s because they don’t want to spend the money :/. It costs just as much to get a Starbucks coffee! Or, if you already have strings from the last time you bought some, it’s free!!

If you’re willing to spend money to record for the best possible sound you can get, why does the budget not include new strings? I’m telling you, you won’t regret it!! The song will be available to be played forever. Make sure you aren’t cutting any corners!

I believe there is only one valid reason to stick with your old strings: you are specifically going for that sound.

Sometimes, a raggedy sound is what you need for a certain song. Ed Sheeran pulled this off when he was playing on the streets and writing those “earth-y” songs. It works particularly well for stripped down “vibey” acoustic songs where it’s all about being raw and emotional.

There’s definitely an attractiveness to being completely vulnerable/raw/real as opposed to completely and meticulously perfect in every single note. It just depends on the material and the mood and theme you’re going for.

For this reason, and pretty much this reason alone, I think old strings can benefit the vibe you’re going for. Just be careful it really does; most modern songs will benefit much better from new bright strings to cut through the mix and actually be audible.

Older strings can have a tendency to muddy up the mix and cause other elements to be masked by it. Either that or so shaped that it doesn’t really even sound that good. So, just be careful on what you think is best!

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Though this article is mostly geared towards string players, this can also apply to drummers! Change those heads and you’ll be happy you did!

Let me know if you took away anything from this article, good or bad, agreement or disagreement! Since I’ve already changed my strings, I think I’ll go for that coffee now :) or twelve, we’ll see

I've created a huge studio preparation checklist that includes changing your strings the night before a session, that should in theory save you money in the studio should you come prepared! You can find it at the blog homepage here!

Have a good one!

-Michael