How To Change Your Guitar StringsChanging your guitar strings might make you feel a little uneasy at first, especially if you have never done it before! But it's really quite simple and should become a regular part of your guitar maintenance routine. Before you do anything though, take time to make some personal observations, such as:
Taking mental notes will probably save you some frustration and make the job much easier in the long run.
I like to remove all of the guitar strings during this process in order to give my guitar a thorough cleaning, but you can remove them one at a time if you prefer. Below you will find some helpful step-by-step instructions to follow. Once you've done it a couple of times your confidence will begin to grow and you shouldn't need to refer to these steps any longer.
Guitar Care and Maintenance Tools: - Needle-nose Plyers (to cut string ends) Acoustic Guitar 1. Using the string winder, begin slowly loosening the guitar string(s) until completely slack.
2. With the needle-nose plyers, carefully grab the string from the capstan (the part it winds around) and pull through the hole until it is free.
3. Taking the string winder again, use the cut-out at the end of it to grab the pin at the bridge. Gently pull the pin until it comes out of the hole.
4. Clean guitar surface thoroughly. Classic Guitar Follow steps one and two above. When you come to step three, take your needle-nose
plyers and carefully loosen the figure eight knot at the bridge. Pull the string free.
Electric Guitar Follow the same procedure as described for an acoustic guitar. However, if you have an electric guitar with a movable bridge you may want to take it to your local music store and have them show you how to do it safely. If the bridge is moved from it's correct position you will not be able to tune your guitar when you're through.
Acoustic Guitar (Get Acoustic Strings Here) 1. Bend the ball end of the string slightly and place it inside the hole below the bridge. Some acoustic guitars do not have pins. When this is the case, just pull it through the hole.
2. Line up the string with any grooves in the pin. Insert the pin into the hole, making sure it is secure.
3. Take the other end and insert into the hole on the capstan. 4. Pull it through leaving a fair amount of slack between the capstan and the bridge. 5. Bend the string at the point it comes through the capstan to keep it secure. 6. Watching out for your eyes, begin turning the key with your left hand. 7. As you are winding, apply some tension to the string with your right hand to help keep it taught. Make sure you are winding in the right direction! On the bass strings you will be winding counter-clockwise (away from you). On the treble strings you will go the opposite direction.
8. Continue to wind each string until all the slack is taken up. Do not worry about tuning yet. 9. Cut off all excess length. Classic Guitar (Get Classical Strings Here) 1. Put the string through the top of the hole found just below the bridge. 2. Pull about 3 inches through. 3. Bringing it up over the tie block, pass the string underneath itself at the original point of entry. 4. Come down over the tie block again and wrap the end around itself in a figure eight type pattern. 5. Insert the other end down through the hole on the capstan. 6. Wrap the string around the back and then underneath itself in order to secure it in place. 7. As described above, begin turning the key with your left hand while maintaining some tension with the other until all the slack is taken up. With a classical guitar you will wind clockwise on the bass strings and the treble strings.
8. Always keep the guitar strings as straight as possible as they continue from the capstan through the nut and down onto the neck.
9. You should not have any excess string length, but if you do, cut it off. Electric Guitar (Get Electric Strings Here) Follow the same procedure as described for the acoustic guitar. *Note - with some electric guitars, such as Fender, the strings are fed through the back of the guitar. Well, that's about all there is to changing your guitar strings. I hope you found this information to be helpful. If you need help re-tuning your guitar please see my free Guitar Lesson which covers this subject.
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Kathy Unruh is a singer/songwriter and webmaster of ABC Learn Guitar. She has been writing songs and providing guitar lessons to students of all ages for over 20 years. For free guitar lessons, plus tips and resources on songwriting, recording and creating a music career, please visit: http://www.abclearnguitar.com
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