Stupid string question of the day
 

I got my first nylon string guitar (a Cordoba crossover) about 2.5 months ago and have not changed strings since settling on Savarez Alliance trebles and Cantiga basses. The basses are getting gnarly and probably need to be changed, but how exactly do I know when I need new trebles?

Congrats on getting a nylon!

It is a good question and will vary from player to player. I restring my trebles along with the basses, though it is clear I am harder on the basses than trebles, and I am not a big mix and matcher. I typically change strings between one an three months depending on how much I am playing. I could probably get away with changing the trebles every 1.5 times I change the basses. D’Addario EJ46 is what I use. I play a lot of standard tuning classical but also a lot of Hawaiian slack key so the strings go through a variety of different tunings. So sometimes even the trebles get tired, begin to sound dull/mushy rather than hold a solid clear tone, and lose some ability to quickly jump from one tuning to the other.

Cool, thanks! Yeah, the trebles look ok, but I should probably just change everything at this point and see if the new strings sound better.

Most classical guitarists change out the basses about twice as often as they do the trebles. Nail length is a factor - longer nails will eventually nick the trebles and the strings start to feel rough. After time and repeated tuning, he trebles will stretch and lose their ability to stay in tune. Since I have short nails, I used the tuning factor as my indicator for changing trebles.

It's one of those personal preference issues, so I suspect you will get different answers. I almost always change the bass strings twice as often as the trebles. It seems to me that the trebles take longer to settle in. When I think it is time to change my bass strings, the trebles sound great and hold their tune better (I guess they are fully stretched).

As mentioned above, when they get scratchy or play out of tune, I change out
the trebles. Basically I like old strings *better* (except for the low E) as long
as they play in tune.