I play the mandolin every day and tend to play the same strings as long as possible, mainly because I find changing strings boring, and would rather spend my time playing. But when should you change your strings? When is the tone affected by the age of those strings and is there any way of extending the strings life span on your mandolin? I’m going to look into string life span in this post and if there is any way people like me can reduce the amount of time spent changing strings.
You should be changing your mandolin strings dependant on the amount of time used and their condition. If you are playing daily for over 1 hour (30 – 40 hours of playing time), you should be able to get one month of optimum tone, and this will start to roll off at the end of this time frame. You can carry on playing for a few more months if you are not concerned with the brightness of the sound, or you could even carry on until they break if you so wish.
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How often should you change your mandolin strings?
The frequency you are changing your mandolin strings depends on you as a player. Are you serious about your mandolin playing? Do you prefer the bright sound of new strings? Can you afford to change your strings on a more frequent basis? These are all questions that decide the amount of time between changing your strings.
If you are a beginner, changing your strings often shouldn’t be much of a concern. You should be spending your time practising as often as possible. You can get quite a few months to a year out of your strings if needed. The strings in this state won’t be perfect; they will show signs of wear and possibly be a lot duller in sound.
If you are playing live or with other people changing your strings often might be a good idea. From my experience, not changing your strings often led to strings snapping in the most annoying moments. Changing strings under pressure is not fun. Also, the first few times you play your mandolin, your strings will tend to go in and out of tune. Until the strings have settled and have been played enough to be broken in, you will have tuning issues. So if you are planning on playing with others, preplanning when to change your strings so that you can avoid the downfalls of broken and out of tune strings is a good idea.
| How Often to change | Hours Used | Suitable for |
| Daily | <10 | Professionals and live playing |
| Weekly | <50 | Serious players |
| Monthly | <100 | Keen hobbyists |
| 3 Months | <100 | Average player |
| 6 Months | <200 | Beginner |
| Yearly | <200 | Rarely plays |
The above table is a rough guide on how often some of the mandolin players I asked, changed their mandolin strings.
Should you change you mandolin strings one at a time?
There is a myth in the guitar world that removing all of the mandolin’s strings will damage the mandolin’s neck. This is untrue. I think this may have come from that the mandolin’s neck is always under tension, and when the mandolin was made, it was made to hold this tension continually. This leads you to believe removing the source of tension will allow the mandolin’s neck to warp the opposite way. I worried about this for years until I finally checked with a luthier. After speaking to a few luthiers regarding this, they explained most guitar instruments are perfectly fine without strings left for long periods. On some occasions, many people who own vintage or famous expensive instruments will store these instruments without their strings in place for years with no warpage from lack of strings.
Each mandolin is constructed differently, and some types of mandolin have a bridge that is not fixed in place. The bridge on one of these mandolin types will fall off if all of the strings are removed, and changing each of these strings one at a time may be more manageable.
Can old strings cause fret buzz?
If you are starting to get a buzz on your strings, when before you did not, it may be time to change over your strings. Old strings are usually not the cause of the string buzz but tend to emphasise this if your action is low in parts. If your string buzz has not been a problem before it is worth remembering when you changed your strings last. As mentioned earlier, if you are playing your mandolin a fair bit three months is pretty much the threshold before you start to noticeably here a difference in brightness and tone. This can be sooner if you are a heavy player or have been playing quite a bit. It is also worth noting the temperature or weather change. With the mandolin being made mainly from wood, the neck can move and warp. If the humidity or heat of the surrounding area has changed significantly, it is worth considering.
How to make mandolin strings last longer?
Sometimes you may want to attempt to get a bit more life from you strings before changing them. This can be due to just being broke or waiting for delivery.
Firstly playing the mandolin with clean hands will make a massive difference to string life. You have oils, dead skin and muck which will find its way onto the guitar strings. This will collect up over time and start to affect the playability and sound of your strings. The best way to counteract this is to just clean your hand thoroughly before picking up that mandolin. Wiping down your strings can also help remove any debris or gunk that has collected. An old rag will work to loosen any grime stuck fast to those strings. If you wipe the neck of your mandolin down before and after use, you may be able to improve the life span of your strings.
If you leave your mandolin in the corner of a room exposed to the environment, this can shorten the lifespan of your strings. Not just can the temperature change be expanding and contracting the tension in the neck. Dust and debris will land on the neck over time and add more grime and muck to your strings. Storing your mandolin in a case will protect your mandolin not just from the elements such as heat and moisture but also from dust and debris floating around and eventually landing on your mandolin.
There are some products that you can use to extend the life of your strings:
You can use pure rubbing alcohol too. If you pour a bit onto a piece of material and give the strings a good rub, you can remove a lot of the grime that has been embedded onto your strings.
Can you refurbish old dull strings?
You can get a little more life out of your strings by boiling them. If you remove the mandolin’s strings and boil them for 15 minutes, you can get a slight improvement. Boiling the strings seems to remove much of the dirt and grime so don’t be surprised at the water’s colour after you have done this. There are a few issues when doing this. Removing the strings does tend to leave kinks and bends that might be an issue when trying to re-install the strings back onto the mandolin. For all the effort it is worth the improvement is only slight and in my opinion, a decent clean would be just as good. You will not get the playability improvements you get from new strings and also you will not see much improvements in regards to tuning, which might be starting to be an issue at the end of your strings lifespan.
If there is rust on your strings, then these strings are pretty much done, replacing them with new is your only alternative.
What are the best strings for a mandolin?
One way of improving your strings’ lifespan is to buy good quality strings in the first place. Below is a guide on a few brands of mandolin strings which I prefer and have tried.
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