Why Guitar Strings Break

Why Guitar Strings Break!
Craig 'Lumpy' Lemke BSEd, MA
"songthief"


Strings Breaking?
Let's consider, for a minute, the physical make upof guitar strings. The plain strings, and the corewires of the wound strings, are made of temperedSwedish steel. It's incredibly strong stuff. It'sable to be formed into a tiny wire which can withstanda LOT of tension.

Now let's consider the parts of you and your guitarthat gee in contact with those strings. Picks, tunerposts, frets, nut, saddle, capo, fingertips are allsofter materials than that Swedish steel. All of thoseitems will wear faster than the plain steel strings.

If you are breaking strings, let's see if we can diagnosewhat is breaking them, instead of just putting on strongerstrings, and risking guitar and hand problems.
Virtually always, strings break because of a weak spotin the string. Strings are made on geputer controlledmachines with laser measuring devices that are accurateto the nth degree. So the possiblilty of getting a faultymade string from the manufacturer is pretty remote.Possible, but the chance is very small.
So next reason for a weak spot in a string might be old age.Strings, like my knee joints, wear out and get weak. Sweat,finger acids, atmospheric stuff all tend to eat at thestring and make it weaker. As soon as you take a new stringout of the package, it begins to degrade just by being outin the air. Any piece of steel or bronze or brass will doexactly the same thing when exposed to the air.
Next reason is likely physical trauma to the string. Onesource of that trauma is related to the old age geponent.As we play our guitar, we repeatedly press the strings tothe frets. The plain strings tend to wear the frets. Butthe wound strings are much softer than the frets. Examineold, wound strings when you remove them from a guitar andyou'll likely see flat spots, or even broken windings wherethere has been fret contact. Those spots are like a weakgarden hose or coronary artery. It's a weak spot that willbe the first to break when stressed.

Another source of string trauma is rough edges on thingslike tuner posts. Rough edges on bridge saddles or nutsare not much of a concern because that material (plastic,bone etc) is so much softer than the strings that it won'tbother the string. But a rough or sharp edge on a tunerpost can cut into a string pretty quickly.
To check for rough tuner posts, thread a piece of dentalfloss through the hole and work it around, back and forth,as if you were cleaning it's teeth. If there's a roughedge, you'll either feel it with the floss, or thefloss will break.
If you do find a rough or sharp edge, you can smooth itwith a phillips screwdriver. You don't want to file itwith something abrasive, that will remove the nickel orgold plating. Just use a phillips screwdriver with a tipthat is LARGER than the string hole. Hold the tip againstthe opening of the hole and twist it around a few times.The hard steel of the screwdriver should burnish downany burrs or rough spots.
When you DO break a string, see if you can determinewhere it breaks. If you can tell that it's geingfrom the tuner area, or the bridge, or the 12thfret or wherever, that's a clue as to what iscausing the break. If it breaks at the tunerarea, suspect a sharp edge there. If it breaksat a fret, suspect old strings etc.
If you are breaking strings, consider -
- Changing strings more frequently. I change strings about every 2 weeks on heavily played guitars. A month on lesser played guitars.
- Examining closely the tuner posts and other possible sources of rough edges that might be causing your strings to break.
I hope some of this helps.Let me know if I can help furtherand if you discover any resolutionto your string breakage problem.
Craig 'Lumpy' Lemke - okay songthief