How to Boil Guitar Strings

Guitar strings expand and contract over time, causing the guitar to get out of tune. Boiling guitar strings expands the strings and allows them to stay in tune longer. Boiling strings makes old, dull strings sound new again. Boiling your guitar string saves you both money and time.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Guitar strings
• Stove
• Small sauce pan
• 1 cup water
• Tongs
• Towel

1. Remove the guitar strings from the guitar or pouch they came in. If the strings are new, leave them connected to each other. If you are boiling multiple strings, make sure you know what note each string is.

2. Pour the water into the pan and place it on the stove. One cup of water boils up to three strings. Add water to the pot for more strings.

3. Turn the stove top on high and wait for the water to come to a rapid boil.

4. Drop the strings in one at a time. Use the tongs to drop the strings in the water. Tongs reduce the amount of the water that splashes out of the pot.

5. Boil acoustic and electric guitar strings for 1 to 2 minutes. Boil bass guitar strings for 5 to 6 minutes. Old strings begin to lose dirt and grime as they boil. This is normal. The more grime that comes off the better the string sounds in the end.

6. Pull the strings out of the water and lay them on a towel. Rub the strings with the towel to remove water. Allow the strings to dry for 30 minutes.

7. Put the guitar strings back onto the guitar and tune it.

[robsolf]

on 7/12/2009 technically BS* but boiling strings has its advantages... I've been doing it for 25 years.

What it does is remove oil and dirt that build up on the strings from your skin. This certainly adds new life to strings, as that's mostly what ends up deadening them, if you're a gigging or often practicing musician.

*the bit about it fixing contraction IS pretty much not true. Matter of fact the risk of boiling strings is that as they age they require more tension to stay in tune, which makes breakage more likely and is harder on the neck of a guitar. But if, like most musicians, you're living on every last dollar, you can get more life from your strings by boiling them when they start going dead.

[pickypete]

on 10/8/2008 This total BS