Professional guitar players: How often do you change your guitar strings?

When I was gigging full-time, about once a month, then part-time, about every two months. These days, just noodling around for my own fun, about twice a year. I don't "practice" anymore, but have been fooling around with alternative tunings, which are hard on strings, so that will likely change.

For many years, the "when" bit has been when stable tuning and sustain suffer at all. Another bit is to loosen a wound string or two, then run a fingernail along the fret side of those strings, feeling for tiny notches worn by fretting. Obviously, breaking one can be a sign it's time, but for me that was more often from my constant bending and occasional whammy use.

To this day, my case kit includes two full sets, another two-each 1sts and 2nds, a little pair of side-cutters, and a tuner. For gigs, I also used a snug string winder, and (for my Strat clone), about a 4" dowel small enough to bump out a stuck string knob from the top side of the bridge. I could change a broken string on stage in about three minutes. Upgrading to a set of Graphtech bridge blocks proved to be most excellent in reducing string breaks, best thirty buck upgrade I ever did....

Change them every time you drop a few hundred for a day in the studio, other than break it then replace it🤘🏻

Not pro but i just change them when they break, i trust the older strings they play well, newer strings have a different sound, they need to be a little worn before they sound right

Usually before every gig but no more often than once a month. I don't play professionally anymore so I let my strings get embarrassingly old.

dreik

Well I broke them so often I had to replace them almost nightly. The top strings at least.

i love old strings, i don't change it until it breaks