When I was going to practice 3-4 times a week, and playing out, I'd change mine all the time. Now I figure I change em about once a month. Strings are always best feeling / sounding after theyve been on & played for a couple days. Fresh ones are too "metallic" sounding. It's rumored EVH used to boil his before installing them

I see now they have a specialty tool for stretching strings Ive done mine with me fingers for years & its worked fine.

I know a guy who didnt know you were supposed to stretch your strings when putting them on I dont know how he kept shit remotely anywhere in tune

Is there a special technique to stretching strings?

Once I put mine one, I get them somewhere close to in tune, then I just grab 'em at about the 12th fret and bend them as far as I can. Then I might grab 'em and sort of pull 'em out away from the fret board a little ways. Then, I tune it up and repeat the process until I feel like the guitar is keeping pretty good tune.

sounds about right.i pull each one up at the 12th.feel the pull but don't force it.re tune then the same again a couple times more for each string.
I give the guitar a full service each time the strings are off.polish the body,neck and headstock,clean the bridge and tail piece with a toothbrush and some WD40 and do the fretboard with some lemon oil and tissue paper.

good to go

the string pulling is more about "flexing them out" then helping your guitar stay in tune.
it kinda breaks them in, the way I do it is pull them away from the guitar (somewhere between 12th and the pick-ups, and pull away from my body)
and release them with a snap. not sure if the snap helps with anything (a habit I picked up from my old guitar teacher) but it makes me feel like a badass.

DO NOT fucking put anything besides teak-oil on your finger board. lemon is acidic, and that's no-good for anything that needs to be smooth.
use steel wool to gently clean your finger board from all the gunk that's been clogged in there. after that apply, using cotton balls, the teak oil until your shit stops absorbing it.

I need to set-up my guitar. it's been along time coming. I just don't have the energy to set up the what-you-macall-it on the bridge. I think that you call it intonation in English.
we just call it "Setting up the octaves".

I'll agree with what ressha said there. I would never let WD-40 get anywhere near a guitar. It's incredibly corrosive. Same goes for lemon anything. Or anything at all with citrus in it.

Setting your intonation isn't "hard," so to speak. All that needs to be done is that the string should be in tune at the nut and the 12th. Just adjust the bridge piece with an allen wrench until that happens. If you need the neck adjusted too, that's when it gets difficult and more complicated, of course.

Im using very light usage of WD40.light spray on the brush,wipe the brush then apply.this is when the bridge and tail piece are OFF the guitar.maybe i wasn't clear there.been using this method for 14 years on the Explorer and there is zero corrosion.

Lemon oil was recommended to me.it's sold in every guitar shop i've been into.Teak oil is for furniture surely.

A good guitar is made out of good wood, just like good furniture. And, I'm sure it's all up to personal preference. I just won't use anything even slightly corrosive.

WD-40 though, in my mind, is evil shit. It'll actually ruin a lock or hinges if you use it in them over time. I'm just not a fan of that stuff for any application, not just guitars.

THat's why I use it.
If it's perfect for good expensive furniture, why shouldn't it be for my bass, which is made of the same material? fuck guitar shops, they'll try to sell you normal stuff acting like it's "made for musicians". I just used to steal what my mom used for forniture

People that work in guitar shops are usually the lowest level of musician anyway. They're not guitar techs. They're salesman. Keep that in mind.

for sure, you can easily spot the ones that actually know what they're doing and the ones that are selling you stuff they wouldn't know how to use.

But I've always loved the fact that some of the stuff that you buy in music shops, can be bought in regular shops without the Gibson, Tama or whatever brand on it and pay it 1/3.

ok i get it.Teak Oil is allowed.

call me old fashioned but im gonna go with convenience here.get everything at the 1 stop geetar shop.my oil,my strings,my plectrums.hell even my gibson truss rod key.a freebie? thank you my good man.

'will that be everything today sir?'

'yep that's it thanks.oh wait..do you sell WD40?'

'get the fuck out'

' '

I never said it was hard, it's just a bitch to do. my guitar has a khaler in it and the screw you need to un-tighten to move that shit around is directly under the string.
which means a whole lot of re-tuning.


I bought a can with like half a kg of teak oil at least 3 years ago and I (I meaning my sister and I) use it to clean 3 electric guitars
a bass and two acoustics. it's about time to re-stock, but you get the picture.

I was going to say that using the WD-40 on the all metal hardware parts sounded like a good idea (as long as you use a thin coat and keep from getting it on the wood too much) to stop and prevent rust. I had always heard WD-40 was good for that, but I had never heard this before:



sooo, nevermind.

ressha..yeah i get the picture. good moneysaver.

i think i can manage a £3 bottle of lemon oil every year.