lately i've been breaking strings like crazy, and not just on my guitar so i don't think it's a problem with my bridge. And breaking frends strings makes me feel like a dick. And breaking strings mid show is getting really annoying.

any thoughts on why this is happening to me all of a sudden?

on my own guitar i use Martin Mediums and go between strumming and flat picking.

try a new brand of strings. Maybe a heavier gauge?
If that doesn't work, take the geetar in to your guy and see if he sees anything. Maybe the bridge needs a little sork?

Where are the strings breaking? Near the bridge? Where you're picking? At the nut?

Might be as simple as changing your pick.
Or it could even be the weather.

guitars are weird that way.

i just bought 10 packs of my strings, haha. And they are the heaviest guage that my guitar suggests using (martin d17)

they break by the bridge AND nut, there is no real rhyme or reason that i can figure out.

maybe i just rock too hard.

1) use lighter picks - this cannot be emphasized enough
2) get the guitar set up (usually costs about $25)
3) check to see if there are any slight imperfections on the saddles or bridges

This is the number one culprit, barring a bridge or nut issue (and you've ruled those out). Hundred bucks says it's not suddenly that brand of strings, either - you're fine on those. In my experience, our old response to this issue way back when was "maybe I should use thinner picks," which then makes you pick even harder, which still breaks strings.

So try going up a guage in picks, to a heavy, and start looking at how you use your pick hand. Too much arm and too little wrist is usually what gets people breaking strings a lot. You start Pete Townsending it because you want to be heard better (or because you're "feeling it, man") and *toink*.

Sometimes a thicker pick gives you better control.

i recently had the guitar set up.

also, i think i'm playing my guitar at least twice as much as i used to. So maybe i just need to change my strings more frequently than i used to.

but the pick thing and strumming style sounds like something to explore. But one of you said go soft, one said go hard . . . My most comfortable pick i guess would be medium.

I think its your guitar, you should destroy it on stage next time that happens.

but i love her so.


also, as i said i keep breaking my friends strings too.

well then you're just a dick!

i've stopped borrowing guitars at open mics.

Someone post a You Tube of Fishstick windmilling his acoustic guitar. I'm thinking this has got to be a must-see!

If this is indeed an accoustic guitar, then yeah, frequent string changes are a must if you play a lot. Especially if your hands sweat a lot. We used to get two nights, maybe three tops out of a set of strings when we played every thursday for 3 hours.

As for the pick guage, the thinner guys will certainly take the attack out of your windmilling, but it's been my observation that it doesn't fool your ear, which wanted to hear something more forceful, so you just windmill harder. Shit, try both.

Maybe this will help:

http://www.graphtech.com/prodtusq.htm

I used their string saddles on my cheap electric and I only broke a string once in the two years I've used them.

Good luck.

Just do this and everything will work itself out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_TUMkDuQ1M

Thicker pick, looser wrist, less arm.

Also, do you clip your strings on the shorter side before you you string it up? I like getting each string to wrap down the whole post to from top to bottom with the very first wrap over, and all the rest under to lock the string and get a sharper angle on the break from the nut to the post, but that's me.

maybe you're just no good.

Boo-yah. My man.