New strings

[filkerdave]

I didn't realize how flat the strings on Six Pack were 'til I put new ones on tonight.

[EDIT: 2006-08-16 09:31 NY time]: That's NOT Six Pack in the userpic, that's The Beast That Eats My Fingers. That's NEXT for the restringing.

Comments

[peteralway]

You know, every few years I replace the strings on my dulcimers because I feel guilty about not changing them, and I imagine that somehow it will miraculously make my playing sound better. But I am embarrassed to say that I have never been able to hear or feel the difference between old and new strings.

[thnidu]

Do you mean flat as in "lower pitch" or flat as in "duller timbre"? I generally check Lady Epiphany's tuning whenever I take her out. But when I change her strings I'm sometimes amazed at the difference in sound, because the old ones have lost their zing somehow. (Physically I suppose they've become stretched and lost some of their resilience.)

[tigertoy]

He means flat as in duller timbre. I don't know the details of the physics, but as guitar strings stretch and accumulate crud from the environment, the spectrum of harmonics changes. They sound different, in a way that generally sounds worse.

And it happens slowly enough that the guitar usually sounds OK as you play it, but then you put on new strings and it sounds like a whole new guitar.

Perhaps someone who knows more of the details of the process can talk about why the effect is less noticeable for a dulcimer (or, I believe, most other stringed instruments) than it is for a guitar. (Imagine if you had to restring pianos every few weeks to keep them sounding good!)

[filkerdave]

Definitely duller timbre, less alive. I use the D'Addario phosphor bronze mediums on it, which I like because they're nice and bright. And the new strings are MUCH brighter.

[gorgeousgary]

Heh...you're reminding me I'm way overdue to restring on Cordelia (the 12) and probably due to restring Christine (the 6).