Like everything else guitar strings eventually wear out, lose their
brilliance, and begin to sound dull. The luster and sparkle in the
strings begins to fade and they need to be changed. Sometimes they
are only sticky or greasy and it's possible to give them a little
more life with a good cleaning. It's always a good idea to wash your
hands before you play the guitar to avoid this sort of nuisance.
If your strings are merely sticky you can clean them quite nicely
with Denatured Alcohol; and you can find Denatured Alcohol at any
hardware store. All you have to do is pour a little alcohol in a
clean rag, grab the string with the rag and run it up and down the
string a few times. Make sure you clean the string where it touches
the fret board. You'll be surprised at the crud that can be removed
from guitar strings this way. If your strings are merely soiled this
trick works great and will buy you some more time with a set of
strings. A word of caution here and this is very important; never
allow the Denatured Alcohol to come in contact with your guitar.
Denatured Alcohol is a powerful solvent and could harm the finish on
your instrument. Please be careful when using Denatured Alcohol to
clean your strings or you may damage the finish of your guitar. Also
this cleaning method should be used on steel or metal strings only,
alcohol should never be used to clean the Nylon or gut strings of a
classical guitar....

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