How Often Should You Change Your Guitar Strings

I like to get as much life out of my strings as I can, and how often I change them really depends on the situation.

When I have fresh strings I can be reluctant to take them to a gig if it’s going to be humid or if there is a chance that someone else will play my guitar. In the summer time I will even pick one guitar and just leave terrible strings on it for the season.

If a set of guitar strings starts to physically feel bad I will always change them, even if they still sound good. Over time the strings will get bent at the frets and stop intonation properly, but that’s usually way after they start to sound dull.

.047uF Tone Cap In The Stratocaster

Tone Capacitor

I thought I’d give the .047 cap a try for the neck pickup setting in my stratocaster. It produces a fairly dark sound as you roll the tone knob back. You could almost call it a “jazzy” tone.

A .047 tone cap is a larger value than I was used to when I made this video. Basically with tone caps, the smaller you go in value, the more midrange it preserves.