Here are ten reasons why you may need to change your guitar strings.

• Guitar sounds dull.
• Guitar won't stay in tune.
• Intonation — the guitar's ability to produce the correct pitch at various points on the neck — is off, even though the neck is correctly aligned.
• Strings are hard to play.
• Strings break.
• Strings show fraying around the winding. This can lead to breakage, which always occurs at the climax of your show-stopping solo.
• Strings are mismatched: Maybe you had to use a heavier E string than your string set calls for — that's okay for one gig, but now that you're home, it's time to change the lot of 'em.
• You can't remember the last time you changed your strings.
• Strings have become dirty or rusted.
• Your strings are older than your lead singer.