String breakage

[Zumbilly(Murdoch)]

This is something I have never quite understood. I guess We all have our favourite brand of strings and numerous posts have previously given many reasons for using a particular brand.
When I first started playing I bought single strings from the local music shop which were usually "no name" I eventually got down to buying sets of "name brands" Without mentioning names I have had best result from three different brands, with regard to length of playing time before breakage.
If We disregard the fact that there is the likliehood of getting a rogue string in the set,I would say that reasons for breakage could be ...Scale length,wrong gauge,sharp edges or other mechanical faults.
I get a bit confused when I see other players reporting long life from the strings which I broke regularly and conversely say they break the string brands which I get good results from.
Just curious.
Billy

[Ken Byng]

Hi Billy. Never had a Cobra Coil break on me, but SIT have, Ernie Ball have, Rotosound have, Emmons have, ZB have, etc etc. That's why I stick with CC's.

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

I never suffer breakage with SIT strings and of all the many players in the UK that my Daughter supplies, none of them have ever complained of breakage. Ken you mention S.I.T. and Emmons .....? but they are one and the same..The only strings Bec supplies are the endorsed Buddy Emmons signature series....... And if they are good enough for the master... they are surely good enough for me...... What ever packets they come in....

[Ken Byng]

I never suffer breakage with SIT strings and of all the many players in the UK that my Daughter supplies, none of them have ever complained of breakage. Ken you mention S.I.T. and Emmons .....? but they are one and the same..The only strings Bec supplies are the endorsed Buddy Emmons signature series....... And if they are good enough for the master... they are surely good enough for me...... What ever packets they come in....

John
The Emmons strings I referred to were from the 70's in the Eric Snowball era. I believe they were called Emmons Stereotone. Eric said they were made for Bill Lawrence who marketed them under the Emmons banner. Therefore I am sure that they were nothing to do with SIT strings.

I used SIT's for years, and in fact you will recall that I bought some from you at one time. I am sure that your customers are more than happy with the strings that you provide, and I would agree that you are doing a good service for those folks who don't have the facility to shop around for pedal steel strings. However, strings are very important to me, and I want to be confident that if I am doing a show the last thing that I want is string breakage. While SIT strings will last a while, they don't have anywhere near the lifespan (in my humble experience and opinion) of Cobra Coils or Live Strings.

[Zumbilly(Murdoch)]

I had hoped by not naming a particular brand of string that I would get an answer to My question.
If You look on the U.S. Forum You will see that several players say they do not break Brand X whilst others say that they find brand X break too often.
Within the past couple of years I have tried a particular brand which gets rave reviews in the U.S. Forum, the third in each set broke after about four gigs,My favourites (2 different brands) last about twelve gigs and I change them without having broken one.On My "stay at home" guitar I have lost count of the hours I have strings on,I end up changing the "Just Because"
Billy

[Zebedee]

This topic has reminded me of another reason why I am so glad that I stopped gigging, in that I no longer have sleepless nights wondering if my 3rd and 5th strings will make it through an upcoming important gig.

The other reasons why I am so happy to be 'not gigging' anymore are that I find myself to be much better off, both financially and time-wise.

Back to strings; nowadays I never change them, until they break. I have had the same strings on my Marlen (a mixture of Ernie Ball and SIT) since January 2011 without any breakage, and the steel is played for about 2 hours every day

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

My take on it is, your guitar keeps braking strings ....get it serviced, in this day and age you don't very often get a bad batch as the quality control is better. When you fit new strings ( this for newbies ) always be sure you have at least 4 turns on the winder to get the load bearing part of the string away from any sharp places on the peg, but before you do that ensure the free movement of the roller nut and apply a tiny drop of oil so you know the string has the freedom to move. That is what I do and I have not had any breakage for as long as I can remember. This is fairly obvious stuff and I am sure most old Pro's do this type of thing without thinking about it, but if it helps anyone hey ho>.
The thing about the strings that Becky supplies you is they have not been sitting on a shelf for a year they come to us directly from the factory in Ohio not any other distributor and that means they are fresh and that does contribute to a nice bright tone

[Tony Russell Davis]

What am I doing different? I broke one string in the whole time I gigged out - 30 years? Admittedly, that one time was in the middle of "Tom Cattin'" at a country jamboree so it mattered plenty but like Richard I can keep strings on my "set-up-at-home" guitar for years . It's played every day and I don't think I am light handed in the picking stakes. The only time strings break on me (any instrument) is while I'm putting 'em on wrong. I'm not a slave to brand - use what's available at decent price, which means what cousin-John's got handy these days.
PS when I gigged regularly, I changed strings every two gigs, an E9 set one gig, C6 the next ...... the inland revenue can vouch!

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

Tony its obvious if you think about it, I have not changed the strings on Red for ages, it sits in front of my computer in a fairly constant temperature is not subject to sweaty panicky hands on gigs like my road guitar or the constant changes in temperature from being in the back of the car one minute and under stage lights the next.....
I had one set of strings that only did one (outside) seaside gig they were so caked in salt it knackered them ....

[SHAKEY]

I reckon if you want to save on strings, GO KEYLESS. On this thing I built I have never broke a string and I use a 12 for my 3rd and a 24 plain for my 6th. I have loads of 11's 'cause I never use them. One of the best brand of strings that I have used was back in the 70's, they were called Albion made by a one man outfit in Derby, sadly no longer..When I was gigging back then, I was using Ernie Ball strings and they were constantly breaking. My local store in Leicester got the Albion strings in stock and gave me a set to try and regretted it as he lost a lot of money as I didn't have to keep buying strings. I have one left and it's still as good as the day I bought it.

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