Quote:
Originally Posted by rmgjsps
Just an observation, not a criticism, but, I see guitar lists in signatures here listing thousands to tens-of thousands of dollars worth of instruments. I know that many members here are working musicians or just play a hell of lot more than I ever did or will. Some change strings weekly (me, maybe three, four times a year) but compared to the investment in guitars, the cost of strings is pretty nominal.
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When I was playing in Irish bars for my living I changed the strings on both my guitar and my mountain dulcimer (which is the instrument where I'm a far more advanced player, actually) not once a week but every other show.
This was before the invention of coated strings, but for me it was less about tone than it was tuning reliability. The effect that metal fatigue has on string life is routinely ignored on this forum, with most of the participants preferring to talk about corrosion or whatever. The effect of all that kinetic energy pulsing through these spindly little skeins of metal seems to barely rate a mention.
So even then, as a skinny single guy in my twenties making ends meet but not much than that, the cost of strings was
irrelevant. Whatever my out of pocket costs, they simply didn't compare to the agony of trying to get through a set in a rowdy Irish bar where the Paddies were getting restive because I was popping strings left and right. All because I'd been a dork and hadn't changed my strings like I should have.
Reliability and the "don't have to worry about it" factor completely outweighed
any worries about the cost of strings.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rmgjsps
OK, leaving out, like, Martin Titaniums. If you are a working musician, then strings must certainly be a deductable business expense, assuming that you actually report the income and operate as a business. I guess that along with GAS goes SAS -- String Acquisition Syndrome. We all have to pay for all of our addictions.
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As costly addictions go, changing your strings on a regular basis rates somewhere between:
1.) Doing the daily crossword puzzle;
and
2.) Allowing yourself four Oreo cookies with your lunch.
Wade Hampton Miller