Strings Breaking?

Let's consider, for a minute, the physical make up
of guitar strings. The plain strings, and the core
wires of the wound strings, are made of tempered
Swedish steel. It's incredibly strong stuff. It's
able to be formed into a tiny wire which can withstand
a LOT of tension.

Now let's consider the parts of you and your guitar
that come in contact with those strings. Picks, tuner
posts, frets, nut, saddle, capo, fingertips are all
softer materials than that Swedish steel. All of those
items will wear faster than the plain steel strings.

If you are breaking strings, let's see if we can diagnose
what is breaking them, instead of just putting on stronger
strings, and risking guitar and hand problems.

Virtually always, strings break because of a weak spot
in the string. Strings are made on computer controlled
machines with laser measuring devices that are accurate
to the nth degree. So the possiblilty of getting a faulty
made string from the manufacturer is pretty remote.
Possible, but the chance is very small.

So next reason for a weak spot in a string might be old age.
Strings, like my knee joints, wear out and get weak. Sweat,
finger acids, atmospheric stuff all tend to eat at the
string and make it weaker. As soon as you take a new string
out of the package, it begins to degrade just by being out
in the air. Any piece of steel or bronze or brass will do
exactly the same thing when exposed to the air.

Next reason is likely physical trauma to the string. One
source of that trauma is related to the old age component.
As we play our guitar, we repeatedly press the strings to
the frets. The plain strings tend to wear the frets. But
the wound strings are much softer than the frets. Examine
old, wound strings when you remove them from a guitar and
you'll likely see flat spots, or even broken windings where
there has been fret contact. Those spots are like a weak
garden hose or coronary artery. It's a weak spot that will
be the first to break when stressed.

Another source of string trauma is rough edges on things
like tuner posts. Rough edges on bridge saddles or nuts
are not much of a concern because that material (plastic,
bone etc) is so much softer than the strings that it won't
bother the string. But a rough or sharp edge on a tuner
post can cut into a string pretty quickly.

To check for rough tuner posts, thread a piece of dental
floss through the hole and work it around, back and forth,
as if you were cleaning it's teeth. If there's a rough
edge, you'll either feel it with the floss, or the
floss will break.

If you do find a rough or sharp edge, you can smooth it
with a phillips screwdriver. You don't want to file it
with something abrasive, that will remove the nickel or
gold plating. Just use a phillips screwdriver with a tip
that is LARGER than the string hole. Hold the tip against
the opening of the hole and twist it around a few times.
The hard steel of the screwdriver should burnish down
any burrs or rough spots.

When you DO break a string, see if you can determine
where it breaks. If you can tell that it's coming
from the tuner area, or the bridge, or the 12th
fret or wherever, that's a clue as to what is
causing the break. If it breaks at the tuner
area, suspect a sharp edge there. If it breaks
at a fret, suspect old strings etc.

If you are breaking strings, consider -

- Changing strings more frequently. I change
  strings about every 2 weeks on heavily played
  guitars. A month on lesser played guitars.

- Examining closely the tuner posts and other
  possible sources of rough edges that might
  be causing your strings to break.

I hope some of this helps.
Let me know if I can help further
and if you discover any resolution
to your string breakage problem.