CList: 3 sets of Bass strings - used once & boiled (?)

[tedmich]

"3 sets of Bass strings - used once & boiled - $10"
WTF?
3 sets of Bass strings - used once & boiled
Does this make them "new" again?
Or just sterilizes them?

[g1]

"used once", yeah sure, a guy who can afford to change his strings after one use needs to sell the used ones. Maybe used once since purchased used . Or maybe since reclaimed from the dumpster behind the local music shop.

[Chuck H]

He's a good seller. I just picked up some boiled underwear!

[big_teee]

He's one of those crazy Canuck's, what do you expect?

[tedmich]

We have a Vancouver in the USA! Its Vancouver WA, (AKA "The Couve") right across the bridge parasitizing Portland OR; you can pretty much hear the banjos starting up as you go north over the Columbia river...

[Chuck H]

I remember reading about boiling old strings about twenty five years ago. The brilliance of new strings doesn't diminish nearly so much from loss of resilience in the steel as the accumulation of oils and grime. Boiling can bring them back somewhat by relieving some stress thermally and melting away the waxy buildup from use. I've never even tried it myself because my guitar strings are usually visibly worn when I replace them. Not to mention acute fatigue points from post winding and bridge, nut and string tree angles. The idea of selling boiled strings seems crazy to me. Perhaps there was an article written in a popular publication that implied boiled bass strings are even better than new and this guy is trying to capitalize. That wouldn't surprise me.

[J M Fahey]

Forget it on guitar strings ... which these are not anyway, or on flatwound bass strings, which keep their dullness forever from the very first day , but it´s a very useful tip on roundwound bass strings.
And yes, the main culprit is the deadening putty made out of dead skin cells and skin oil.
I not only boil them, but also add an orange seed sized piece of caustic soda (Lye?) which disintegrates any organic matter in a couple minutes.
Then you have to boil them again for a couple minutes in clean water to remove any residue.
As good as new, except the wear where it touches metal which is what eventually makes them unusable.
But ... *selling* them?
This guy is as cheap as they come.
They must be thoroughly dried, wiping them with a rag barely soaked in WD40 keeps them better, roughly re-coiled and kept as "spare ties".

[Tom Phillips]

It's even stranger that the offer includes "...Actually the Slinky set is missing one string, but not sure which one...Will meet in Vancouver mall parking lot or Jantzen Beach to make it easy."

[Chuck H]

Will meet in Vancouver mall parking lot or Jantzen Beach to make it easy

Which could probably be followed by any number of suffixes like:

for me to mug you.

OR

because I have no fixed address.

[J M Fahey]

^^^^^ Or both

Although he´s a piss poor mugger: anybody interested in his offer probably has *just* 10 bucks , period, even walked 5 miles to the rendezvous point because ha does not even have $$ for the bus fare.

I *have* seen mugging ads before: a customer of mine once went over excited to buy a "used Vox electrical guitar speaker ampilfier, with two blue painted speakers and a lot of little lamps inside, which used to belong to my deceased Grandpa" for a mere $400 .
They gave a real address, in a carefully chosen neighbourhood of crisscrossing streets where it´s real easy to get lost, so "to guide him" they waited for him at an easy to reach intersection of 2 Avenues, some 6 to 8 blocks away from the real address.
After turning right and left a few times so he was thoroughly lost, the mugger pulled a .38 revolver out.
The rest is history

[Chuck H]

Good post. I'm not sure a "like" would be appropriate. Clist certainly had it's run of criminal activity. Most shoppers are getting better at avoiding these meetings. Who knows? Maybe that missing bass string in one set was used to "garrote" someone!

[eschertron]

My hunch is that posts like that are cleverly-coded offers for something else that's usually bought and sold in mall parking lots or popular teen beaches.

[David Schwab]

Back in the day, when I put a fresh set of Rotosounds on my basses every month, I sometimes would boil a set to freshen them up if I didn't have the money for new strings (being teenager and all). It works pretty well, but they don't sound exactly like new strings. So they are a little deader, but brighter. lol

Some people boiled them with vinegar mixed into the water. I tried that a few times.

I'm amazed that people buy used strings at all, but they do.

[big_teee]

So where is the best and cheapest place to buy bass strings.
From my searches, juststrings, seem to be the cheapest.
Where do other USA players buy bass strings, that buy them all the time?
Strings, Instrument Strings, Music Strings for Guitar, Bass, Mandolin, Fiddle and More
T

[potatofarmer]

So where is the best and cheapest place to buy bass strings.

Cheapest I've found are Webstrings: Webstrings Home - Guitar Strings - Electric Guitar Strings - Acoustic Guitar Strings -Bass Strings - Mandolin Strings - Banjo Strings
and Naked Strings: Naked Strings | Custom String Sets

No fancy packaging, sure, but fresh no-name strings sound better than old fancy ones.