New Life for Old Guitar Strings: Tips and Tricks

There are several ways to make your strings last longer, and even to get more out of old ones. Beyond regular maintenance, here are a few tricks I use to give old strings a fresh sound — and save some money.

They work on several instruments: guitars, cavaquinhos, ukuleles or basses, acoustic or electric.

If you already know some of them, you’ve probably grown tired of the sound of old strings and started trying things out — or you simply had no new set at hand. As we say in Portugal, “if you don’t have a dog, you hunt with a cat”.

Classical guitar (nylon strings)

1. Bring the brightness back to old strings

When the strings no longer sound the way they used to, this is one of the most effective tricks:

Fully loosen the three bass strings (D, A and E) and leave the guitar like that for a day or two.

Why? When the tension is released for many hours, the string recovers a good part of its original tone once you tighten it again. The thinner strings (E, B and G) are far more stable and keep their sound much longer, so they don’t need it.

After a day or two, tighten and tune them again: you’ll notice the difference in tone right away. When the strings lose their sound again, repeat the process as often as you like.

I often leave the strings loosened overnight myself, and the next day I notice an improvement. It also works with steel strings, although the difference is more noticeable on nylon.

2. Use the new string wound around the headstock

Have you ever noticed how much new string ends up wound around the tuning posts, at the headstock?

New strings are usually longer than the distance between the bridge and the headstock. If you wind the excess properly, there’s a lot of string in perfect condition sitting there that almost never gets used.

A word of warning: some brands make their strings with the minimum length, and then this trick doesn’t work. That’s why it’s worth buying a good set. The most reliable brands, with good length, are D’Addario, Savarez, Hannabach, Augustine, Jim Dunlop, La Bella, Fender and Ernie Ball. Here’s a list of the best nylon strings for classical guitar.

When, months later, the strings are worn:

Start with the 6th string: loosen it and pull the excess through little by little, so that the new part reaches the first frets. Repeat up to the 4th string (D).

In my case, the “new string” that was sitting there unused reached almost the 7th fret — and you can clearly hear the difference between the new part and the old.

Then adjust the string at the bridge: tie it again in the new position and cut off the excess.

In the end you get the feel of a new string and a much better sound. The new part never covers the whole neck, of course, but it sits over the first frets — usually the ones you play most.

You can do the same with the thinner strings (E, B and G) but, as I said, you won’t notice much difference.

Note: you can also pull the new part all the way to the soundhole area. In that case you have to take the whole string off, and it’s worth checking first whether it pays off: tying the string at the bridge uses up a few centimeters, so make sure you have enough new string.

Electric and acoustic guitar (steel strings)

3. Remove the rust and bring back the shine

With steel strings, one of the most common complaints is oxidation: after a few months a layer of rust forms around the strings. Even if you clean them regularly — which makes them last much longer — the rust eventually shows up and ruins the tone.

To remove most of the rust, use fine sandpaper (I normally use 1200 grit; the higher the number, the finer the paper). The goal is just to take off the excess rust without damaging the string’s coating: as soon as a lighter color shows, stop — so you don’t literally sand the string away. :)

Clean carefully and wipe the dirt off with a cloth as you go. After a few minutes the strings get a new shine and recover a good part of their original sound and color.

Many guitarists are wary of this method and think they’ll ruin their strings. Done carefully, exactly the opposite happens: you bring old strings back to life and, instead of throwing them away and always spending money on new ones, you reuse them. The only way to find out is to try it. It works on any instrument with steel strings that have already oxidized.

Note: the two nylon-string tricks also work on steel strings — they “come back to life” just the same — but the difference is more noticeable on nylon.

Reusing your strings is a great way to save money and get the best possible sound out of your instrument. Try it and hear the difference!

Happy playing!

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