Not exactly my proudest moment....

So... long story short, over the last few days my Mark V has been sounding darker and darker. I found myself constantly reaching for the guitar's volume and tone controls to make sure they weren't rolled off. I lost most of my top end and found myself repeatedly reducing the amp's bass while raising the amp's volume.

So... I went to the store and bought new power tubes. I haven't changed them in about 4 years and wasn't surprised they were finally cooked. Much to my surprise my tone still sucked.

So... I started checking cables, bypassed my pedalboard, adjusted pickup heights, changed settings on my amp some more. Tone still sucked.

In the end it turned out my strings were dead. After swapping strings I put the old tubes back in the amp and there's nothing wrong with them. Like I said; not exactly my proudest moment. :lol:


What's odd (for me) is that those strings were only 12 days old. My skin doesn't react with strings so I typically leave them on until they won't hold pitch anymore. I normally get 9-12 months out of a set of strings and my last set was on for 16 months.

screamingdaisy said:

What's odd (for me) is that those strings were only 12 days old. My skin doesn't react with strings so I typically leave them on until they won't hold pitch anymore. I normally get 9-12 months out of a set of strings and my last set was on for 16 months.

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What brand strings were you using? My worst experience, by far, was with GHS Boomers...fresh from the pack, they sounded as muffled, dull and lifeless as some other strings would sound after months of use. Never made that mistake again.

Nowadays, I mainly rely on Elixirs. They stay 'fresh' a good bit longer than regular strings.

As for my "not exactly proudest" moment...a fairly recent one, I can remember a time I couldn't get my amp sound right, no matter how hard I tried. I tweaked, and tweaked, and tweaked. It still sounded off, somehow. Nasal, constricted, almost 'out-of-phase' sound. I checked my cab connections, my cables, my guitar controls, even swapped the guitar. Then tweaked some more but couldn't get the sound I wanted. My bandmates were growing impatient. I thought I had blown a tube or something...

Turned out my wah pedal had been on the whole time (the last song on our previous setlist had been a Hendrix tune).

Yeah, I guess that's what I get for having such a complex pedalboard... :lol: In my defence, though, there's no LED to indicate when the wah pedal is on.

LesPaul70 said:

What brand strings were you using? My worst experience, by far, was with GHS Boomers...fresh from the pack, they sounded as muffled, dull and lifeless as some other strings would sound after months of use. Never made that mistake again.

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Gibson Vintage. However this was the first time I've used "Gibson" strings made by D'Addario. They sounded alright at first except the low E wouldn't hold pitch and warbled. By the time I changed strings today all three wound strings wouldn't hold pitch. Truthfully, I would've been more concerned about the string warbling if I wasn't so concerned about how badly my dying amp sounded. :lol:

What sucks is I have 6 more packs of these strings left. Hopefully it was just the one pack... if not then I'm going to have to hunt for new strings.

I change mine every month. Love the sound of new strings. After I went to the USA and seen how cheap they were I stocked up big time! In Australia here you can pay up too $15 for a packet of power slinkies. When I walked into guitar centre in San Francisco and see them for $3 a packet I freaked out and bought boxes and boxes.

LesPaul70 said:

Nowadays, I mainly rely on Elixirs.

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+ 2

Usually hold out 12 month of once or twice a week playing

On all guitars except my LP-->I suppose its a LP thing with that angled exit of strings after the nut to the tuner.My PRS doesnt do that and all have 10-46

Roland

On the plus side you now have a new set of spare tubes. I've been liking the DR Pure Blues a lot lately. Good durability for me, and I don't have any nickle allergies, so I'm good there. Round core just feels better and I like the "bloom" of the notes with the nickle on my PRSi.

I also like the DR Nickel Blues, a lot!!!

Goes to show how responsive the Mark V really is...hehe...

screamingdaisy said:

What's odd (for me) is that those strings were only 12 days old. My skin doesn't react with strings so I typically leave them on until they won't hold pitch anymore. I normally get 9-12 months out of a set of strings and my last set was on for 16 months.

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So why'd you switch from the strings that sound good for almost a year?
And...what are they? I change mine around the one month mark, every
two weeks if I'm gigging and rehearsing heavily.

jb's 52 said:

So why'd you switch from the strings that sound good for almost a year?
And...what are they? I change mine around the one month mark, every
two weeks if I'm gigging and rehearsing heavily.

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My old strings were Gibson Vintage made in-house by Gibson. My new strings are Gibson Vintages made by D'Addario. I didn't know they'd changed manufacturer until after I'd bought them.

And for what it's worth, the new set of strings I installed on the 29th won't stay in tune today.

Looks like I'm switching brands...

Ugh! What a bummer!! Happened to me with running shoes. **** company changed to a more rigid rubber and it took me a few pairs to find a better alternative.

16 months on a set of strings? Seriously? Hell, the rust on the strings will eat your frets right off! ****, use a dremmel tool. You'll have more fun...

thunda1216 said:

16 months on a set of strings? Seriously? Hell, the rust on the strings will eat your frets right off! sh!t use a dremmel tool. You'll have more fun...

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No rust, provided I don't let others touch my guitar. It isn't particularily humid where I live.

Hello All!

I use Ernie Ball RPS on all my guitars. They stay in tune very good and they also sound good.

2B

-

APEMAN said:

Today I know, when the string is not straight laying on the table it is not worth putting it on the guitar.... maybe thats the cause of your problem.

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I'll have test that out. I have 6 more packs from what I assume is the same batch.


I put some DR Pure Blues on a few days ago. I didn't really like them at first. The low E doesn't punch like I'm used to and the G string was so loud I found them pretty much unusable for chords. After spending some time adjusting the individual screws in my humbuckers I got them to balance and I'm growing to really like them and their more mellow attack.

Reminds me of a recent embarrassing moment during which I'd set my rig up for a soundcheck, exactly the way I've always done it, but could get absolutely zero signal to the house. I was even getting signal on the Two Notes Torpedo Live input meter from the amp/board, so I knew I was good there.

Spent like 20min trying to figure out what the heck was wrong. That's when I noticed the TRS to XLR cable plugged into the "line in" instead of the "line out".... (But, hey - it's dark in the back of that rack, and the two jacks are pretty close to each other, so...)

Op you get a year out of your strings and they still sound decent??? No way thats true!!either your ears are. Faulty or ur playing gold strings. A year!!!! Christ! I've never heard of such a thing. Good for u though. I'm jealous for sure

Hypnotoad696 said:

Op you get a year out of your strings and they still sound decent??? No way thats true!!either your ears are. Faulty or ur playing gold strings. A year!!!! Christ! I've never heard of such a thing. Good for u though. I'm jealous for sure

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It probably helps that I like the sound of strings that've dulled a bit. If I was into the 'new string' sound I'd have to change them far more frequently.

When I was gigging 5 nights a week I changed my strings at least once a week. That translates to 40 hours of playing, then change strings. That was with the typical nickel silver strings, which degrade at what we would consider to be a "normal" rate. If you want longer lasting strings, then I +1 to the suggestion to use Elixirs. They are using a coating technology that slows string aging somewhat. Or you can use Pro Steels from D'Addario. I use these a lot now, but they do wear the frets down at a faster rate. But there is NO WAY that you should be using the same set of strings for several months. Even if you don't play the guitar at all, the strings will erode due to ambient exposure (oxidation).

LesPaul70 said:

As for my "not exactly proudest" moment...a fairly recent one, I can remember a time I couldn't get my amp sound right, no matter how hard I tried. I tweaked, and tweaked, and tweaked. It still sounded off, somehow. Nasal, constricted, almost 'out-of-phase' sound. I checked my cab connections, my cables, my guitar controls, even swapped the guitar. Then tweaked some more but couldn't get the sound I wanted. My bandmates were growing impatient. I thought I had blown a tube or something...

Turned out my wah pedal had been on the whole time (the last song on our previous setlist had been a Hendrix tune).

Yeah, I guess that's what I get for having such a complex pedalboard... :lol: In my defence, though, there's no LED to indicate when the wah pedal is on.

Click to expand...

This is part of the reason why I like the Morley Bad Horsie wah pedal. No on/off switch. When you lift your foot off it, it deactivates the wah. The only downside is that you can't do the "constant open wah" sort of an effect, but to be honest, that happens so rarely for me anyways. I love that I just start rocking it back n forth, and it just wah's... let it go, and it's back to no-wah mode.