How Often Do You Change Your Strings?

09/03/2026 07:58

Yesterday I was in a lesson with a student and we were going over pretty advanced material. I got him to change his pickup selection from the neck pickup to the bridge position. I noticed that there wasn't a huge difference in tone so I asked him: "When is the last time you've changed your strings?". He looked at me with a little shy smile and replied: "It's been a while.".

It had been indeed. Those strings were shot.

I get that question a lot - "How often should I change my strings?". It's not exactly straight forward because it depends on several factors:

1. How much you play.
2. How often you clean them after you play (yes, this is a thing).
3. What type of strings you play (Coated or non coated)
4. What type of strings are you playing (Steel String / Nylon / Flat)
5. What STYLE you're playing (Blues, Jazz, Metal, Classical, etc..)

There is a few simple rules that I go by. If the strings lose tone, change them. If the strings won't stay in tune, change them. If the strings show signs of age (discoloration), change them. By the way - my strings never get to the point where they show discoloration. You should change them WAY before that. Sure, if I've got one that's been sitting in a case (or a wall hanger) for months, it will oxidize in the case or on the wall - that's just the result of humidity and metal (and living in South Georgia)! So I do change those almost immediately upon opening the case.

I noticed when I was a young guitarist and playing two to three hours a day, that I would only get about six weeks out of my strings (and that was stretching it). I should've probably changed them every month. But hey, I lived in Hagan, GA and the closest place to buy strings was Kemp's Pharmacy (and they only had Black Widow strings in stock). Even at 15, I knew to avoid that brand….

Now I change my strings before every performance. I can usually go two performances with an acoustic set of strings, but I only get one performance out of electric strings. Think about it - I'm putting three hours of constant playing with sweat and the pure adrenaline fueled power of rock and blues on those things. They're going to pay the price!

Coated strings are a different breed. Generally, I can get about 3 months of performance out of a coated string. I'm a soft right hand player and I don't angle my pick downwards. That's important to know with coated strings because if you do, you'll chip at the plastic coating, causing the strings to be "fuzzy" by your picking hand. This immediately kills the tone. So while you're string my not rust - they sound awful and dead. Coated strings also have a tendency to sound like a two week old set of strings. Since they've got a plastic coating on them - they don't have that new string "zing". Tone is always a personal choice for every player. As for me, I do play coated strings occasionally. I prefer to keep coated strings on a guitar laying around the house (my pick up and jam randomly guitar). That way, I don't have to worry about the tone as much as I'm really just running through a song or an ideal. That being said - when I do play coated strings - I'm always playing the thinner coated strings (D'addario XS or Bouncin' Betty Flak Jackets). Both are coated by the same manufacturer and they are wrapped in a way that make them sound more natural (without the dead thud you get from a thick "sleeve" coating).

I treat classical guitar quite differently. Classical guitar strings constantly stretch and go out of tune when you first put them on. It's just the nature of nylon. So it usually takes me about two weeks of playing on the strings until I'm actually happy with their ability to stay in tune. I would NEVER change my classical strings when I was less than two weeks out of a performance in college. They simply wouldn't stay in tune during the performance if I did. So if I had a jury or a classical gig to perform, I kept the older strings that were on there until I had a minimum two week gap between performances.

This is a perfect time to talk about the genre and style that you play. If you have a heavy picking hand, you're going to wear down those strings faster. If you do a lot of bends (like in blues), your G, B, and High E String are going to get stretched beyond their ability to stay in tune.

That being said, if you are a simple "Cowboy Chord" strummer, you may get plenty of performance time out of those strings. If you're a jazz player that plays flat wounds, you may not change your strings for months. One of the bassists I play with keeps a specific bass for playing Motown and he keeps those strings on their for a SUPER long time. He's looking for that "dead thump" sound of the old Motown recordings. But remember - that is a professional who is looking for a very specific tone. It's an edge case - not the norm! As long as your strings are clean and keep their tune - you're in good shape!

Let's face it - guitar strings are pretty cheap. Roughly 10 bucks for an acoustic set and 6 bucks for an electric set.

SO CHANGE THEM OFTEN.

-Chris