Changing your strings on both an electric guitar and an acoustic guitar is simple once you’ve learnt how to do it correctly. FOr the purposes of this lesson, I have shown you how to do it on an acoustic guitar.
The main steps are:
- Old strings off
- New strings on
- Winding them on
- Stretching them in
- Tuning
Firstly, take off your old strings. The best way is to slacken the strings first and then cut them in half using a good quality set of string cutters. Using the peg removal tool, prise out the pegs from the bridge and take the other half of the strings off the machine heads.
Now is a good time to clean your guitar. When the strings are off, it gives you access to clean it thoroughly. I use Dunlop cleaner and a micro fibre cloth. A good tip here is to use a toothbrush to remove all the dirt and grime off of the fretboard.
Now to put each new string on. Take the thickest string. Firstly, you will notice that on one end of the string there is a ball. This is the end that you need to poke through the hole in the bridge. Place a string peg into the hole, as this creates a wedge with the ball of the string to keep it in place. Lightly pull on the string as you are replacing the peg to make sure this wedge effect takes places and it doesn’t pop out. Now, repeat the process for the rest of the strings.
Now, at the headstok end of the guitar, slide the 6th string through the little eyelet in the machine head. Pull it through but leave a little bit of slack (about an inch of slack). Now, for novices at this, start winding the pegand let the the string coil around the peg, with each coil going underneath the previous one. Bring it almost up to pitch. Now cut off the excess string as close as you can to the machine head.
(THIS METHOD IS FOR THOSE THAT DO NOT HAVE MUCH EXPERINCE IN DOING THIS AND THERFORE IS SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT TO THE WAY I DO IT)
Now, lightly strech the string but tugging on it a little. A new string needs to be stretched in to maintain good tuning.
Repeat for the remaining strings.
I will be adding images to this tutorial very soon.
