Wizard wrote
The chap at Bothners showed me how to manually stretch the strings while initially attached to the bridge and tuning machines, to try and accelerate the stretching process.
It was during this manual "pull" that I overdid it and the string came loose at the bridge.
I felt as if the sound quality was worse straight after changing the strings.
I had to retune daily for about 4 days, after which I felt as if the sound quality had returned.
Am I insane, or do the strings really sound best once they've "settled" to their final position?
You're not insane, but wether they sound best or not is a subjective judgement. Certainly strings always sound brightest when you've just put them on, and will not stay in tune initially.
Some working musos like to change strings for every gig. Either they like the bright sound, or they work the strings really hard and take everything out of them in one show. Richard Thompson is an elixir endorsee and says that before he started using elixirs he might have got through one show on a set of whatever he was using, now he can get through three. He aims to do 100 minute shows when plays solo. Let's give him 20 minutes for the sound check. He gets 6 hours out of a set of elixirs - then they're caput (or caput by his standards). Must cost him a bit. *
So yeah.... strings do change. They may change differently according to the person as well. I have one friend who, because of something in his sweat, goes through strings very rapidly. Hugh Cummings is always happy to see said friend and will always trot out some lovely guitars for him to play. But when he's gone Hugh puts all those guitars aside and restrings them because the strings will be knackered. He doesn't play like an animal, he just has something in his body chemistry that doesn't go well with strings.
The strings I like best as regards tone and feel (now call ME insane, I am convinced that some strings feel different from others) are DRs, but I go through those pretty quickly for some reason. Put them on, they sound great, I love the way they feel under my fingers, but 2, 3 days later... yecch! D'addarios do way better for me, though I don't like them quite as much, and the nano-web elixirs sound pretty good and feel nearly as good as DRs and go on for ever.
But coming back to the original point, I usually change my strings in an evening. Wait the wife is taking a long bath or engrossed in some knitting, pour myself a knertsie, take over the coffee table with cutters and winders and a towel under the guitar.... put on a new set of elixirs and stretch them a bit. And the guitar sounds way too bright. Next evening it needs a tuning again and then it sounds just lovely.
* I think that top players, guys who play a lot and have done so for many years, have a lot of strength in their hands and put huge energy into their strings. Especially if they bend a lot, or if they changer their tunings a lot (Thompson usually tours with just one guitar and has - that I can figure out - 4 different tunings he uses on stage) then the strings might lose elasticity pretty quickly. A guy like Jerry Donahue whose style makes use of a lot of bending and who needs to be able to bend very accurately probably has to have his strings in a certain range as far as elasticity goes.
