Cleaning your strings

[Jim Arnold]

Do you clean your strings? And if so what is your procedure? What do you use to clean them with?
Thanks...

[Bob Hoffnar]

I wipe them down with a Blitz Cloth

[Jim Arnold]

Thank for the reply Bob. Do you use the regular blitz cloth or the stainless blitz cloth?

[Erv Niehaus]

This is what I use:

[Jim Arnold]

Erv, where do purchase that product?

[Erv Niehaus]

Jim,
I bought it off the internet.
I think if you do a search you should be able to find it, maybe Musicians Friend.
I just checked, Amazon has it.
I really like it, you rub it on your strings and then you wipe them off with the cloth.
It really cleans the strings and then it kind of leaves a protective coating on them.
Your bar glides over the strings easier.
Erv

[Jim Arnold]

Thank you Erv for your help.

[Erv Niehaus]

Jim,
You're welcome
Erv

[Lee Baucum]

viewtopic.php?p=2840586&sid=5e79a2f02e9 ... 32e4018eba

[Jim Arnold]

Very helpful Lee. I appreciate your input.

[Garry Vanderlinde]

I got this from Paul Franklin's mother

[Jim Arnold]

Thanks Gary. I wonder if the silver or copper formula would work equally as well?

[Henry Matthews]

If a person has excessive sweaty hands, that stuff is great but if you don’t, I think it’s unnecessary. Just wipe them down with clean cloth which I never do. Maybe my strings would last longer than 6 or 8 months if I did.

[Steve Mueller]

I also use Blitz cloth. Excellent. Used for 15 years.

[Bobby D. Jones]

When I used George L Stainless Steel wound strings on the S10 I played and gigged. The wound strings felt a little rough from the winding operation to me, When new.

Smoothness of parts means a lot on precision machines. I take a piece of 0000 steel wool 2 fingers wide, And pull each string 4 or 5 pulls end to end. Holding the wound strings by the bare core wire pulling toward the ball end. Plain strings hold by Ball End. This took that scratchy/funny feeling of bar sliding across the strings out. What a difference it made.

Smooth strings collect less dust and hand goo.

I use a piece of Sheep's Skin Wool pad with a little Rem. oil to clean and very light coat of oil on strings. When I quit playing my steel, I rub the strings from end to end, Before the cover goes on. The wool wraps around the strings and cleans the sides and bottom of the string too.

[Frank Freniere]

Sometimes I'll use some rubbing alcohol and and an old T-shirt to knock some of the sweat/crud off the strings.

[Cartwright Thompson]

Strings are cheap, just change them.

[Henry Matthews]

Strings are cheap, just change them.

I wish there was a like button on here

[Bob Hoffnar]

Thank for the reply Bob. Do you use the regular blitz cloth or the stainless blitz cloth?

It just says String Care on it.

https://www.blitzinc.com/products/string-care-cloth

[Jim Arnold]

Thanks Bob for the information. Much appreciated.

[Raybob Bowman]

I've been using hydrogen peroxide on a clean cloth to wipe away the crud. Works good.

[Jack Stoner]

+1 for Blitz Cloth.

Paul Franklin turned me on to them at a Jeff Newman seminar in Kansas City years ago.

[Jim Sliff]

Do you clean your strings? And if so what is your procedure? What do you use to clean them with?
Thanks...

A dry, clean, lint-free cotton cloth only.

ANY cleaning agent - Blitz, oil-based string cleaners, whatever - leave junk in the windings. Naphtha (aka Ronson lighter fluid) used to remove gunk from finished and Formica bodies is the only thing that does not add to the gunk in the windings - but it will not remove it either.

If your strings are dirty/greasy- change them. Wipe them down after playing with the dry cloth mentioned earlier. If you sweat5like mad wipe them down every few songs and change them more often.

If you disagree, get a $20 microscopic viewer on Amazon and look at the wound strings after playing, or after wiping them down with "sucker" string cleaners. ALL you can do is jam contaminants further into the windings, deadening the strings, losing harmonics and at times creating "ghost" notes.

Any time someone calls me and says they are having tuning problems or early "string tone loss" on any instrument the first question I ask is "what string cleaner do you use?" 90% of the time they mention some product of the month bought at GC, and my suggestion is "you don't need me. Change your strings and throw that stuff away".

[Dave Mudgett]

I use naptha (Ronsonol specifically) with a clean, discarded (usually ripped) cotton sock to get macroscopic corrosion off strings. I did this last night to a couple of acoustic guitars that had been sitting for a while that I wanted to use for rehearsal, and didn't have time to change the strings. The strings had enough corrosion that it was creating extra friction to inhibit movement up and down the strings. The strings squeaked pretty badly. The naptha removed enough of the corrosion that I could reasonably play the guitars - for the rehearsal. I will change the strings before I use these guitars again. There is nothing like fresh strings for me, especially on an acoustic of any kind, Spanish or Steel.

As far as making the strings sound better, I have not found anything that really works for me. Dead strings are dead strings. I think naptha can help someone with caustic sweat if applied before it gets into the string windings. One of my guitar playing friends would find the finish on his brand new guitars, where his bare skin touched the guitar, coming off within within just a few months. He sometimes wiped the strings down with naptha between sets or right after a gig to avoid having to change strings every single gig.

My worry with stuff like isopropyl alcohol or, especially, H[sub]2[/sub]O[sub]2[/sub] (hydrogen peroxide) would be interaction with wood or the guitar's finish. H[sub]2[/sub]O[sub]2[/sub] is used to bleach things.

The various commercial treatments do make the strings more slippery, which can be useful for a one-off like I had last night. I keep a small bottle of naptha in my gig bag, along with a small bottle of Tri-Flow. I use empty bottles of Tri-Flow for the naptha. Simple and cheap.

[Raybob Bowman]

My worry with stuff like isopropyl alcohol or, especially, H[sub]2[/sub]O[sub]2[/sub] (hydrogen peroxide) would be interaction with wood or the guitar's finish. H[sub]2[/sub]O[sub]2[/sub] is used to bleach things.

I buy "food grade" hydrogen peroxide at 35% dilution and dilute with distilled water to 3%. Much cheaper that way. If it's safe to ingest, it's safe for finishes. It actually makes a great, inexpensive cleaner for finished wood. True, natural food stores sell it to be used as a 'natural' alternative to chlorox but I've been using it to clean guitars, strings, etc. for many years now.