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These strings are pretty well regarded around here it seems. I would agree that TI Swings sound pleasant and feel nice to play. However, I want to know how much you folks actually play these strings and how much life you get out of them. I've read people claim a year! How is this possible?
Today is May 5. I put new TI Swings on April 9. I play the same guitar about 1-2 hours per day, at least 5 days a week. My strings no longer hold pitch.
This is had been my experience with this brand on multiple sets. And $35 a pop.Last edited by 58flame; 05-05-2026 at 12:09 PM.
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05-05-2026 11:27 AM
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Yeah, one month seems very short life for those strings! Have you used other strings that last much longer?
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I use them on my archtop. It's hard for me to say how long they last because I don't keep close track of when I change strings and I play other guitars a fair amount, but I'd guess about six months.
Originally Posted by 58flame
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I keep my flat gauge TI swing strings on my guitars for 6 months to a year, but change the treble strings regularly.
But, I have a lot of different guitars I play regularly.
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I agree with John. My playing is waayy too inconsistent to have a more sure answer, but 3-6 months at 1-2 hours a day seems right
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I've been using the TI's JS for many years on my 1990 Benedetto Cremona. I practice on it daily and gig out with it. Depending on my gig schedule, I usually get 6-8 months out of a set. No tuning or pitch problems ever. The way I decide to change them is if it's getting more difficult to get my best out of the guitar-I could probably get another couple months.
So is it a tuning issue of are they going dead?
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do they make fake ones? I got fake classical strings before even from Amazon. Intonation was so bad it was unplayable, I almost took it to a luthier
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On a guitar that I play for 3 plus hours a day, I can get 6 months easily out of either TI Swing Series or D'Addario Chromes. I'm probably an extreme outlier because I play with such a light touch but generally these strings should be good at least a few months for typical use. Strings not holding pitch is very different than strings that have gone dead tonally. When I hear that strings don't hold pitch, I usually think that there is a problem other than the strings, usually either with the nut (most likely), the bridge (less likely) or the way the strings have been wrapped on the tuner. Assuming that the strings are genuine, the only other answer that comes to mind is that you play extremely hard with either one or more likely both hand which can shorten the life span of any strings.
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These are TI Jazz Swing 13s on a Guild/Benedetto JSA. The nut and bridge are fine. I have no intonation problems until the 4th week. The strings don't stay in tune and they also sound pretty dead. Time for a change. It's not fun tuning every 40 seconds.
The only other strings I've used on this guitar are chromes. I don't remember how long they lasted.
I maintain 50%RH in my house.
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You might give the Pyramid Gold flats a shot. I've been using them on my Eastman Piano 880 and get about 6 months out of them. However, I don't play that guitar nearly as much as the Benedetto.
They have a different feel than the TI's but in a good way.
Still a mystery to me why the TI JS are going bad so quickly though..
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My experience is just the opposite with Chromes lasting only a couple of months and Thomastik lasting a year.When stringing the guitar,do you tune up first and then cut the excess string? Originally Posted by 58flame
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Originally Posted by nyc chaz
I string all my guitars the same way. One string at a time. Take it to pitch. Stretch it. To pitch again. One more stretch. Pitch. Snip it. Next string. Takes me less than 10 minutes.
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Based on those reports I suspect it is a physiological issue, which is not uncommon. Chromes at 3-4 hours per day will last me 4 months easily. TIs will last about a year, longer if I clean them.
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I use TI JS on my Johnny Smith, playing fingerstyle at jazz jam sessions and a few gigs, and it’s been at least a year since I put on a new set. I also use their Plectrum set on my flattop and it’s also been at least a year.
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I wonder the same thing! I can't get much more than any other set if I play them steady. That is with regular cleaning with alcohol. They still hold pitch but they just don't have the ring that I look for. For me chromes last forever, but I don't like stainless as much as nickel. Been using Pyramid golds in a medium special gauge. I get rid of the 11 change it to a 13 and find these are a nice compromise. They don't last any longer really but a little more reasonably priced. I suspect that the folks that claim a year or more have several guitars that they play and just don't put the hours on the set as they think. Then again I suppose body chemistry can have something to do with it. Originally Posted by 58flame
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Odd. Does this happen with other brands of strings? Also, tuning and intonation are different things- which do you mean? Originally Posted by 58flame
I am puzzled and trying to understand your experience. I have never had any month old strings- or even six month old strings- develop an inability to hold tune, TI or otherwise. If that was a mechanical problem happening with the string, they would quickly fail and break. Inability to hold tuning is usually because the string has not yet bedded in at the tuning capstan, which can be managed with proper installation technique; even without proper installation technique, that should be well settled within a few hours let alone four weeks. My archtop has a Benedetto-style tailpiece with a Sacconi loop; if I take all the strings off at once and reinstall, it takes a couple hours to settle back in to hold tuning; if I replace the strings one at a time, no problem. This doesn't happen on my archtops with metal tailpieces nor my solidbodies.
Guitar strings do not stretch past elastic limits, which are very small in the tiny cross-sections we use; if they do, that's called plastic deformation and the string is going to break. This is related to Young's modulus of elasticity which is well known for all metals. A stretched string has failed because the load on the string exceeded the elastic limit of the string and it will break. Steel doesn't "age" and become stretchier; again, it would just fail and break rather than failing to hold tension and going out of tune.
In my experience, difficulties with intonation (not tuning) can occur when gunk on the string affects the vibration of the string (skin oils and dead cells, dirt, etc., accumulating in the wrappings or on the side of the string facing the fretboard, which sometimes one can feel running a finger up the back of the string). Soft metals on wound strings can show fretting wear (appropriately named), but plain steel strings don't- they'd fail there if they wore because it would become a weak spot, but plain strings almost always break at the bridge in my experience- usually from a metal saddle piece causing a notch in the string. On wound strings fret wear does not create a weak spot because the windings don't carry the string tension, the core wire does. I think (but don't know for sure) that such wear on wound strings can affect intonation. I find this more visible on classical wound strings than electric, I assume because the wrapping wire is a softer material.
As for flatwounds and sounding dead, that's part of the flatwound deal. The structure of the wrapping wire being a ribbon causes that. Harder materials like stainless steel will sound less dead than the nickel alloy that TI uses, which is softer than stainless or carbon steels, but still more dead than roundwounds.
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My experience is nothing like yours. I never break strings. They are always dead before that happens. When I have to tune every 30 seconds, that means the strings no longer hold pitch. They are dead. They hold their pitch fine for a month. They also sound shot. All the brilliance is gone, and that big low E that TIs make, isn't so big anymore. Originally Posted by Cunamara
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I restrung my Gibson JS with pyramid flats today. It actually doesn't sound that bad. The last set of pyramids I used went very very dull in a few weeks. Still held pitch, but I no longer wanted to hear them. Originally Posted by skiboyny
I agree chromes seem to last longer for me.
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This sounds like a guitar problem, not a string problem… Are they going sharp or flat? Is the room cold? Originally Posted by 58flame
I’ve found cold strings brought to pitch will flatten as they warm from my fingers. Or is it sharpen? I dunno, I just know I play some scales without the volume on before I tune at a gig.
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Others have already posted most of the facts in this thread. I've been using TI flats regularly since 2021. I now have them on 4 archtops, 2 solid bodies, and a flat top - and I've never had a problem.
When all of a set are a problem, it's usually something other than the strings. There are many potential causes for this, and most are from something that's loose, incorrectly done, or broken. The metal tailpiece on one of my archtops turned out to be separating from the end plate when I found the guitar to be a full tone flat after 28 years of stability. Parts break, tops sink, fixed bridge studs get loose and tilt, etc etc. You have to check the entire guitar to look for a systematic cause of failure of an entire set of strings. Even something as simple as failure to wrap the post so the string locks itself against the shaft can cause slippage.
TIs have a silk wrap around the ends that can cause them to hang up in bridge slots that are not quite wide enough. The silk can only hold on against a metal edge for so long before it starts to fray and thin. When this happens, the strings slip slowly into the slot until they're fully seated - and they keep going flat during this process. The wrap on TI wound strings can start to loosen if you cut them wrong above the tuning posts. You can break the core, the wrap, or both if you have locking tuners and overighten the locks.
You left out a few important facts. Is it only the wound strings, or is it all of them? What kind of guitar is it? What kind of bridge and tailpiece does it have? What kind of tuners does it have and are they locking? It's so unlikely as to be highly improbable that 4 (or 6, if the plains are also doing this) strings have the exact same defect.
I gig about twice a week with the same guitar, and I practice on at least one other for 1 to 2 hours most days. I used my main solid body on a weekly blues gig that was 3+ hours of heavy bending. I got at least a year from the wound strings on each and every guitar. The ones I use less often got fresh strings every 2+ years. I change the plain steels every 2 or 3 months (basically whenever I think of it).
After years of laughing at strings that cost 3 times what my Chromes cost, I came across a great sale on JS112s in January of 2021 and was really curious as to how good they were. So I put them on my Ibanez AF207 and absolutely loved them. They felt great, sounded great, and lasted much longer than Chromes. But on April 19, 2022, I started to worry that they might have been slowly deteriorating in tone and thought that maybe I didn't notice it because it was such a slow process. So I put on a new set of JS113s. My preferred strings have always been 13-53 or heavier for the top 6 (I use a 75 thou Chrome for the 7th), but even the JS112s sounded warmer and fatter than the heavier Chormes.
Just to see if there was an audible difference, I recorded the same tune with the old JS112s, then replaced them with new JS113s, and recorded the same thing again. I posted this in a thread to see if others heard a difference and could identiy the old from the new. This is the thread, and about 50% of respondents guessed correctly as to which was the old and which was the new. Clip 1 was the 15 month old JS112s and clip 2 was the brand new JS113s. Typical comments included
"They don't sound the same to me but I have no idea whether the difference [sic] are form [sic] the strings aging or the 13's versus 12's. if I was pressed I'd guess that 2 was the 12's."
"#1 has more sparkle. I'd guess new. I don't necessarily like it better".
Unfortunately, I was using the free Soundcloud tier at that time and had to remove that track to stay under my usage limit. But the thread makes it clear that the call was basically a guess, since 50% accuracy is no better than flipping a coin. Most of us get remarkable lie from TIs compared to any other string we've used. There are exceptions, but AFAIK, I'm the only one to pesent audible recorded evidence of 12+ months of useful life. In retrospect. I didn't need to change that first set. I could have used them for at least another few months.
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Flat. It's not a guitar problem. I'm going to string up with chromes now. Let's see how long they last. Originally Posted by AllanAllen
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Where did you buy the strings? Is there a possibility that they are counterfeit? Because there is no way they should be dead in that length of time with that level of use. Originally Posted by 58flame
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I think I got them on Amazon. I have one more set. They sound great and play great, just not for that long. I'm pretty sure they are legit as I've used them in the past. They feel exactly the same. Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
I think it might be my chemistry.
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And you are tuning up to pitch right? Flatten the string and then go up? Never try to take a sharp string down to pitch. Originally Posted by 58flame
Sorry if this is obvious to you. Sometimes it’s best to start with basic things when troubleshooting.
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If you're literally having to tune every 30 seconds there is something very wrong, to be sure. One other possibility: if this is happening on the wound strings but not the plain strings, then you've maybe got an installation problem. TI Swings have a round rather than hex core and the wrapping wire needs to be "locked" onto the core when installed, otherwise the core wire can slip inside the wrappings resulting in detuning and deadened tone. I've learned this the hard way... Originally Posted by 58flame
I didn't think of it because in my experience the problem was immediately evident rather than a few weeks later (I was installing Pyramid Golds into Fender style tuners, so I cut the string to length first and it basically unraveled. Oops!).
How To Install Round Core Guitar Strings
Proper String Installation | DR Strings
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