so i've had my guitar for ~ 1.5 years, playing a decent amount and i've never changed my strings.

they seem fine to me, sound okay and whatever.

my guitar always was very good at staying in tune, but recently it's been going out of tune after almost every time i play it.

is this a sign to change my strings?

also...

i'm still having a lot of trouble with bar chords (specifically things like Bm and Bm7 etc.)

anyone have any tips or excercise I could do to try and i guess increase my finger strength?

i can't seem to bar with my index finger well at all.

thanks!



This post was edited by BB_MelloYello on Oct 4 2010 11:12pm

I can't freaking believe you have played on the same strings for over a year lol. You should change the strings on your acoustic guitar approximately every 3 months for the best tone and playability, and around every month for electrics. When I was gigging heavily I change them atleast every other week.

As for trouble barring, practice makes perfect. Also try alternate chording, some peoples hands have harder times making specific chords....

or maybe the rusty year old strings are part of the problem as well lol


hope that helps man...

haha yeah same strings!

maybe cause i don't really play it THAT much, and most of the stuff I do is fingerpicking.

but yes I guess I will try changing the strings, hopefully it will help!

yeah and I have smallish hands so that might be part of the problem for me, guess I'll just have to keep working at it

thanks for the post bud!

This post was edited by BB_MelloYello on Oct 4 2010 11:22pm

Change them to lights or extra lights if you don't have a lot of finger strength. But regardless of how much you play it man strings develope corrosion and sometimes visible rust over time from the oils and sweat from your hands, or even moisture in the air. Since it has been so long and you probably do not know how to adjust the action properly on an acoustic I would take it in and make sure there is not any needed adjustments to the neck, messing with the truss rod can be bad if you do not know what you are doing. Over time ALL necks bend from the string tension, especially on steel string guitars, it is always good to counteract that with a little tweaking to the truss.

This post was edited by Fallout on Oct 5 2010 10:10am

k ill take it to a guitar store then

so you think lighter strings would be better for me? how does that influence the sound?

i have a set of elixir light strings that i was going to get put on my guitar

This post was edited by BB_MelloYello on Oct 5 2010 03:01pm

It depends on your playstyle, but it shouldn't really effect it. I like lights on most guitars because they are easy on the neck, you really only need higher gauge strings if you intend on downtuning below d standard