I've broken a string while playing exactly once. I usually play fairly gently; even when I'm flatpick strumming I use a very light pick. But I do have a couple of pieces that I get pretty energetic on, and at any given time my strings are probably so old they're about to break just from being used up.
YMMV, but the way my strumming works, I think I would break more strings strumming a 6 energetically than I do on the 12. My theory is that strings break not just from strumming hard, but from strumming imprecisely -- dig a little too hard into the strings and you stress them way more than you mean to, and sometimes enough to go *poing*. I find that playing the 12 actually keeps me more precise.
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Date: 2006-08-22 04:45 am (UTC)YMMV, but the way my strumming works, I think I would break more strings strumming a 6 energetically than I do on the 12. My theory is that strings break not just from strumming hard, but from strumming imprecisely -- dig a little too hard into the strings and you stress them way more than you mean to, and sometimes enough to go *poing*. I find that playing the 12 actually keeps me more precise.