What's the longest you've gone without restringing?

I feel like with my dolls, Elastic longevity is usually more about which doll I've handled the most. I don't think some of my SDs have had their elastic changed in over a decade. Stella, my tiny 1/6 sized Littlefee Pipi doll, on the other hand has been in pieces more times than I can count because she and a few of the tinies get the most handling out of any of my dolls.

Edit
You're not making that a point of choosing which doll to buy, by any chance, are you? Because I'd advise you not to, if you were. All elastic strung dolls will need restringing, but if it bothers or scares you, you can always send it to someone else to do. I promise we have tutorials to walk you through it and resin is a lot tougher than it looks! If you do end up doing it yourself it's really no big deal once you've tried it, and the fear goes away. Everybody starts somewhere!

 

Uh, ten+ years here
I never like super tight dolls so if you do I have no idea how that goes. I have seldom replaced any elastic in my 1/3 collection. I think any time I have needed to completely replace it was probably at least ten years past manufacture. Most of my dolls are getting to be over ten years old second hand and I haven't replaced elastic yet. I will make a minor adjustment of just moving the knot to tighten it to my preference and usually get several more years out of it before it actually needs replacing.

 

I bought a doll in 2008 and hasn’t been restrung yet, she is more for display so I haven’t needed to.

 

Last week, I restrung 2 of my boys that have definitely not gotten new elastic since they were made in 2009. They definitely needed it, but it's not like this is a yearly chore!

 

I had a doll for 9 years that I sold and the body was still nicely strung.

It's worth noting that if you stand your BJDs instead of sitting them down, the elasticity lasts longer. Sitting them puts stress on the elastic, so it wears out faster.

 

I just restrung my Breakaway, but prior to that, he had gone on with the same elastics I received him with back in 2006? So 17 years

 

My 4th ever BJD Thaddeus has not yet needed to be restrung and I have had him since Oct 31 of 2008, he's an Elfdoll btw.

That aside I've had dolls I've had to restring as soon as I've gotten them, as either were too tight or too loose. Hell I've had dolls from the same company in the same order where one was perfectly strung one needed to have it's strings tightened. It's not so much about what company use best elastic strings or strings their dolls the best way, but more based on a lot of factors like tension, playtime, storage, elastic quality, does the doll have a part that has a sharp edge in it, so forth so on.

 

My SoulDoll Lappy 1/6 from 2010 has never been restrung and still has pretty good tension in her elastic. Another bjd from the same year (small artist) has had to be restrung every 3 years.

Dream Valley Vine had to be restrung as soon as he arrived because he was too tight.

Most of my Elfdoll Hanas (I have seven) from 2005-2007 have not been restrung, some of them need to be restrung, others do not.

My Volks 2001 and 2003 girls needed to be restrung when I purchased them a year or so ago, not sure if they had been restrung before that but I wager the 2001 was not because she is all original. She was so floppy the elastic barely had any tension at all.

My Iplehouse nYID from 2018 needed to be restrung when I got her this year second hand.

My Maskcats from 2017-ish are still very tight.

Lol, so in my experience it all kind of depends. I do think elastic quality plays into it, but is not like there is "brand" elastic, at least not that I have noticed. The thickness of the elastic definately plays into it I think. Like mentioned before, how the doll fits together also plays a part in whether a doll that is a little loose needs to be restrung.

 

I don’t have many of my old dolls left, but id say 10yrs. I hate restringing….so unless they won’t pose at all,I don’t do it

 

I agree with what Rosslyn said, if this is a case of newbie fear of restringing...don't worry.
Restringing is in most cases not that scary actually, and on top of that it is nothing one would call "needed regular maintenance". As it is, our dolls are pretty easy going in that regard. At most you gotta dust them off once in a while.

To answer the actual question...I am in the never/as soon as needed boat as well. I have dolls that I never had the desire or need to restring. I had dolls I swapped out the strings or changed the tension out of the box due to personal preferences. Some like their dolls very tightly strung, others loose.
However, it should not and cannot keep you from buying a specific doll. You have no clue what you like until you have a couple dolls at home, and there is no guarantee how your doll will arrive strung and how it will change with time.

 

This.
All this.

When I was new to the doll-thing, I had the same fear. I was just petrified of taking my Shiwoo twins apart to suede their joints... When I mentioned that at one of our local group's meetings, Leeda laughed and told me "A year from now, you'll be taking those guys apart and popping heads off like it's nothing". I didn't believe her at the time. Nope, I thought. No way. Never gonna happen.

She was right. After I'd done it once or twice, taking my dolls apart and putting them back together... for adding pliver to joints, for wiring, for tightening or replacing elastics, or for swapping heads or whatever else... honestly did get to be no big deal, and so not the least bit intimidating anymore. Even though it can seem Very Scary at first, once you've got it? You've got it. No more OMGSCARY. I swear.

Our little resin minions are made of pretty stern stuff. Be mindful of keeping everything in the right order as you take them apart and put them back together the first few times. Buy a stringing tool from one of the doll companies if you're worried about your grip strength. (They're relatively inexpensive, and in my opinion at least, worth every penny. 'Much easier on your hands than just using ribbon, unless your doll is Tiny or Micro scale-) And, most of all, don't sweat it too much. Just think of it as a regular part of taking care of a doll.

 

I have a Doll Chateau Hugh that has gone over a decade without restringing, and I do handle him quite a bit. I also have a Volks SD Mark from 2008, and his old B-04 body has never needed new strings-- and he is yet another doll I have handled extensively. The only thing I've had to do with him is tighten the strings a little to help his ankles. I have also had to do the same for my Dollshe Pure body. In fact, I did that a few days ago, and he is over a decade old as well.

Of the dolls I currently have, I think the Dollshe is the one that's going to need a whole new set of strings first-- his strings are at their limit, and I think it's due to the weight and size of him. The only thing helping him right now are the wires I've run through him, as the elastic is in the process of coughing up its ghost.

I do like for my dolls to be a bit on the medium tension side of things. I rarely tighten strings, and the only time I have ever replaced strings completely was when I was restoring a Resinsoul Ming and an Asleep Eidolon MSD body. Their strings were rotten, and for the Asleep Eidolon I knew it was likely a result of water damage and possibly heat (the doll's box and everything had signs of VERY extensive water damage), but I can't say for sure what happened to the Ming to cause his strings to decay.

For the most part you're not going to need to worry about restringing. If you're looking to get some complex poses, you'll aim for medium-tight to tight alongside sueding and wiring. Do not let water get to the strings if you can help it, and chances are if your doll is too loose for what you want...just try tightening them. Be conservative and incremental in tightening; it might involve taking the doll apart a few times as you test the strings, but it's worth the work. I also suggest getting comfortable with taking your dolls apart and putting them back together-- both for the fact that it helps you to familiar with that doll and grow your confidence, but I also think it helps with bonding! It's how I bond with all of my dolls the moment I get my hands on them.

PS: Learn from my mistakes, do not try to tighten strings on an assembled doll. It will only frustrate you and you'll have to take 'em apart anyway and watch as your ego disintegrates away into nothing.

 

I'm guilty of never restrung my FL pukipuki sugar and I got her at launch, Dec 2007. I've played with her a lot but she has been idle for periods of time too. Honestly I don't want to restring her until I have no choice because I see her being very fiddly to do.

 

My first doll, Angel of Dream Chen, just turned 16 and still has his original string! I have taken him apart to clean before, then used same string to put him back together. He is a pain in the ass to string too because he was made before headcap magnets were very popular, so his string hooks to a piece in his headcap. Not fun, at all.

I'll agree with others, don't buy a doll just because they come strung nicely. I've had wonderfully engineered dolls with bad stringing that made posing very difficult. I've bought multiple dolls from the same company and had one strung much better than another. And even if your doll is strung right, you will likely still need to take them apart for cleaning--if you handle your doll often or have them in dark clothes, they're going to get pretty gross between the joints after awhile. Nothing a little dish soap and water won't fix, but you will need to take the doll apart for a full cleaning. Strings usually do get loose over time and may need to be tightened. A string can come untied or break, you will need to know how to fix that (though I can say in nearly 16 years in the hobby, that has never happened to me. But I know people it has happened to). In general, it's just a really nice thing to know how to do.

Stringing sounds really intimidating, and it took about 2 years in the hobby before a friend sat me down and told me she was tired of dealing with my floppy dolls that couldn't stand and I had to learn to string right now. She helped me the first couple of times, and now I can string a basic doll in about 5 minutes. If you have just a basic human doll, it's really not as scary as it seems at first. It's just two loops of elastic, one goes from one hand, through the chest, to the other hand. The other goes from one foot, up the leg, through the body to the neck, catches the head s-hook, then goes back down to the other foot. If you have fantasy or pet dolls, those depend on the individual doll, but in those cases, the best thing to do is pull a piece out and look inside to get an idea of where those strings go. Or find a stringing video for them.