Is Boiling Your Bass Strings Worth It?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- We take a look into one of the most debated Bass Myths of all time - is Boiling Your Bass Strings Worth It? Let's find out!
In this episode, Jimi boils the old strings on the Squier Classic Vibe 70's Precision Bass.
How do you brighten up old strings? Leave a comment below!
Cheers Reviews is the heartland of all things Bass.
I think the real benefit is the playability. It takes out most of that grease from the old strings
Good, brief vid. I'm a huge proponent of boiling.
And dude I LOVE the wine finish on your Squire!
Another great let-listener-hear-the-difference video. Nice clear difference on my headphones.
Any tips on ageing strings? I like a dull round wound sound but not as dull as flats..
I think my biggest tip would be to keep playing them often. Naturally ageing the strings is the way to go. Thanks for watching!
You can always affix some kind of damper at the bridge. I've seen somebody stuff a little bit of foam between the saddle and string to get the effect without killing the string for good
It works, but they get dull quicker than fresh strings in my experience.
Good call! Thanks again for watching!
I always thought this was fake, but now I think it's worth giving it a try, thanks for doing it!
Thanks Marco! It’s a good trick to brighten up the strings
How does the boiled string sound a week after?
Way less bright and it weakens the string doing this so it’s only worth doing during a recording session or for live work imo.
How long does the difference last after you cleaned the strings? I'm concerned that they would just go dull very quickly.
When steel is heat treated, it is heated orange hot and suddenly quenched in oil. This causes the steel to form crystals surrounding the iron atoms in the steel.
But the crystallization is generally too much which requires heat treating. Thus requires an hour in a 550 Farenheight oven.
People saying the strings get duller after a boiling. Doesn't make sense to me. My guess is that heating up the strings makes the windings re seat on the core resulting on better resonance.
I'd like to see what happens with strings heated much higher than just 200F.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge! And thank you for watching the video
Thanks....I'm going to give it a try.
It’s worth a shot! Thanks for watching
tell us about the bass guitar squier jazz bass vintage modified 77 .
I’ll be doing a review of the Squier Classic Vibe 70’s Jazz Bass in the coming months. It’s just landed!
interesting to see exactly about Squier jazz bass vintage modified 77 ')))Thank you))
The 77 Vintage Modified Jazz Bass is well made, and sounds good. If you can find one second hand, they are good value for money. If I can find one, I’ll definitely do a video, but the Vintage Modified series is hard to find now days! Hope that helps
Woweee. So bright I’ll need sunglasses 😎. No more dullness
Cheers for watching
You know when a bass has sat in its case for a couple years and the strings take on a sort of old feel about them? Not sticky but…not that slinky smooth feel on the right fingers that pluck. That’s what I’m experiencing. Will boiling them bring back that “new” feel?
Nah boiling them is good for adding brightness back into it but it loses strength and they don’t last as long after doing so… not really worth doing unless there really old.
Ok thank u.
Wow,you look like JD Vance
It does work but the brightness is short lived. There are many ways to bring back the brightness of old strings.
For instance... ? I'll be thankful...
@@Djole_NS246
Stainless steel cleaner.
Dunlop ultra glide 65 string cleaner and conditioner.
@@scottmatthews172 It is good to know. Thank you.
Some people boil new strings. Is there a benefit to that ?
I haven’t heard of that before. New strings are bright enough for my own tastes! Thanks for watching
Maybe to artificially *deaden* them? If that's what they're going for? Otherwise there is absolutely no need.
Ooh that makes me cringe just the thought of it… you are purposely ruining the structure of the string for no real gain… just find a old set of strings if you REALLY need that sound otherwise you don’t need to waste a perfectly good set of strings.
Who even came up with such an idea.
Are those new tuners?
Great eye for detail! Yep I put some gotoh tuners on the headstock. I didn’t get a chance to film it, as it was the first time doing it. Thanks for watching!
@@cheers-jimi no probs man, loving the content! I may have to invest in some of those
If you add a large table spoon of laundry detergent that doesn’t sud up too easily (such as Gain) you’ll get a lot more bang for your buck. It does a much better job of cleaning the strings which makes them sound fresh much longer.
My low budget string chage before recording
id say boil them only when you need to, as boiling them damages the strings, thats why you could have a 10 year old string set and boil them and would get a noticable improvement in sound, but as soon as you start boiling them a few times you cant do it anymore. plus boiling only makes them sound good for a few days, which is good for recording or playing live but if your boiling them "just cause" you are kinda "wasting a boil" so to speak...
god im just realizing how frugal this sounds, we will do anything to save a few bucks wont we...
I prefer broiling.
I did it two times, and my strings broke after play some slap:(. You don't do it more than once
Oh no! Thank you for sharing your experience, and thank you for watching the video.
Yeah, I'd not ever do it more than once. Too much structural compromise for me to feel safe lol.
As you say, all you are doing is cleaning the gunk off and out of the strings. Heating metal, even to only 100 degrees, changes it's properties. They will sound great for a few days. That is all.
Thank you for your thoughts and thanks for watching!
I read in a comment that soaking in denature alcohol is better than boiling? Have you tried that?
I haven’t tried it! Thanks for watching
Eh. It works in a pinch if you're broke and you need to record.
They'll die very fast, sending you back to square one. Plus you have also messed with the structural integrity of the string. Not only do you have a limited window of "freshness", but you just upped your breakage chances 40-50%. It doesn't sound THAT good. Just get a new pack.
It works for specific situations, personally I like recording stuff that doesn’t need to be insanely well recorded so having the option between old and boiled strings il go for the boiled strings… but I’m just trying to make demos and test out ideas so I don’t wanna spend money I could save…
@@sirspongadoodle It's us heavy music guys who will tend to go for it more, I find. We need the growl and grind