Does string tension vary with age ?

[murrmac123]

I was watching a video tonight by "Truth Guitars" which I believe is the Youtube moniker of Folkstone Guitars in Tallahassee FL, and the presenter, who I believe is the owner Gary Hudson, said that new strings exert more tension than used strings ... after a couple of weeks a truss rod would have to be adjusted after fitting new strings, in order to compensate for decreased tension.

I can't say that this is something which I have noticed myself, but it did raise the question in my mind as to whether old strings do in fact exert less tension than new strings. and also the question of whether anybody (like maybe ace experimenter Alan Carruth) has ever done any practical testing to ascertain whether this is the case.

As I say, I have never noticed that there is sufficient difference in tension to require a truss rod adjustment, but it may be the case that there is in fact a slight difference one way or the other. My intuition would be that old strings actually exert more tension than used strings, but I am not sufficiently concerned to actually do the experiment (which would be easy enough to do).

[HikariGuitars]

Originally Posted by murrmac123

I was watching a video tonight by "Truth Guitars" which I believe is the Youtube moniker of Folkstone Guitars in Tallahassee FL, and the presenter, who I believe is the owner Gary Hudson, said that new strings exert more tension than used strings ... after a couple of weeks a truss rod would have to be adjusted after fitting new strings, in order to compensate for decreased tension.

I can't say that this is something which I have noticed myself, but it did raise the question in my mind as to whether old strings do in fact exert less tension than new strings. and also the question of whether anybody (like maybe ace experimenter Alan Carruth) has ever done any practical testing to ascertain whether this is the case.

As I say, I have never noticed that there is sufficient difference in tension to require a truss rod adjustment, but it may be the case that there is in fact a slight difference one way or the other. My intuition would be that old strings actually exert more tension than used strings, but I am not sufficiently concerned to actually do the experiment (which would be easy enough to do).

I'm also interested on this matter, as a player it feels like it actually exert more tension.

But when listening to the sound of the guitar it actually sounds like u are using a lower gauge (even though pressing becomes harder).

[charles Tauber]

Short answer, no.

For a given string length, frequency and bulk modulus (weight per unit length), string tension is a constant.

As a string ages two things could happen. The first is that the string permanently stretches, reducing its cross section and, hence modulus. The amount of change in cross section is negligible and the amount of difference in string tension would be very small, not enough to warrant a truss rod adjustment.

The second thing that could happen is that the permanent change in length and diameter causes strain hardening (work hardening) that increases the material's resistance to bending, such as when fretting a note. Again, the effect would be small.