Guitar string rust .. brand new

GBX

Weird one ... Decided to change my strings on my electric. Les Paul copy that I rarely play.. by play I mess about at home.
Anyway clearing out stuff I found an unopened set of Ernie Ball super slinkeys. Probably bought them about 5-6 years ago. The E and A strings have rust / oxidisation on them. Thought it strange considering the other 4 strings are fine. Maybe if they were on the guitar and became rusted it'd be normal but the outer pack was sealed. This common for older sets or strings ??
Will just get a new set either way

feylya

I've seen it happen. It's possible that the pack wasn't completely seal, and might have had some oxygen ingress. Ernie Ball have great customer service, so it would be no harm dropping them an email, and asking them about it.

GBX

feylya wrote: »

I've seen it happen. It's possible that the pack wasn't completely seal, and might have had some oxygen ingress. Ernie Ball have great customer service, so it would be no harm dropping them an email, and asking them about it.

Yeah I've contacted them. Will see what they say.

Gobethewall

All the packs of Slinkys I've opened (About 6 packs) in the last year or so had this problem also got it with Fender. Haven't been able to figure out why it's happening, where I store them is pretty dry (I hope) but I feel they are coming from the shop that way. However, strings still play ok and no breakages

GBX

Got a reply from Ernie Ball:

"Under normal conditions in the new foil packaging, strings will start to degrade after 9 – 12 months."


Given the set I had were a few years old id say thats fair enough they've started to degrade. But the 9-12 months is fairly short time. Doesn't inspire confidence in bulk buying if you weren't gonna use them regularly.

Gobethewall

Interesting. As you say doesn't give you very long. Plus, how long could they be in stock in shop??

feylya

Didn't realise string had a use-by date. That doesn't bode well for the 5 year old string packs I have so

GBX

Definitely not good. The reply I got mentioned "foil pack" might be the terminology they use but its more a plastic these strings were in. Are newer packs in foil packs? I'll send them the requested photos later and see what they come back with.

dazberry

I've unopened packs lying around for probably up to 10 years at this stage. Only a few months ago I opened one - while not rusty - the wound strings very quickly started to fray, and while they didn't break they looked like they'd been on the guitar for decades - all within a couple of days. I then bought a brand new set just to see and they were fine.

Gobethewall

Just checked my stock. I changed to 10s and have none left, but, I have 2 packs of 9s that would be pretty old. They are in FOIL packs. It'll be interesting to see what condition they are in.

KeithTS

I've had this with strings I've gotten from Amazon over the last 12 month. All packs have had this issue.

GBX

Sent on the pics and they got back saying same - 9-12 months is standard before degradation. Worth keeping in mind if somebody was buying a few packs to last a long while.

Flinty997

Not really seen it. I've only even kept one or two packs spare they would be years old.
They would generally be stored in the house, in box within a box kinda thing.
So while not airtight, they would be in a very dry location and not really exposed to air.

I've only seen in shops, or guitars that have been played a bit and left unused for a long time.
years ago, some of the older shops in Dublin their display guitars were often unplayable.

If you are getting with new strings, I would say stored poorly or faulty batch.
Maybe they don't last as long as they used to, maybe they are made differently these day, with lesser quality materials.

dazberry

Had a quick look on YT, this is also what happened to mine (wasn't the wound strings as I previously said - was the bottom 3 - same as in the video)

https://youtu.be/RqfQoW1wD2I?t=102