How to Change Guitar Strings
Friday, May 28, 2010 12:34 AM , 0 comments
Labels: Guitars , instruments
Changing guitar strings is a very important process that every guitar player must get used to. You must change them when your old ones start becoming corroded, lose their tone, or lose their intonation.
The first step in changing your guitar strings is selecting your new ones. To do this, you need to know the sound that you want to be produced as well as what thicknesses your guitar can handle without bowing the neck or raising the bridge too much (if you have some sort of floating bridge). For me personally, my electric and acoustic guitars can both handle heavier strings. I personally use Elixir Nanoweb strings, which keep their tone much longer than other brands. The Nanoweb coating has a bit brighter tone color than the Polyweb coating does. I use Medium.011 gauge strings for my electric and the Light-Medium.012 gauge for my acoustic.
To change the guitar strings, take off one string of your guitar. I usually start with the low E-string, and simply loosen the string and then cut it with wire cutters. Thread the new low E-string through the bridge and through the hole in the tuning peg. Leave a few inches of slack in the string before I start winding the string up, enough for the string to wind around the tuning peg 2 to 3 times by the time the string has been tuned up to its correct pitch. Once the string is tuned, pull the string firmly up off the fret board. This pre-stretches the string so it doesn't stretch as much while playing it. Re-tune the string and stretch again, just to make sure. Then cut the excess string off the tuning peg, unless you want to leave it on there for an effect.
Repeat this step for each string, but only do one string at a time to keep the neck tension balanced. You will want to play the guitar for awhile before any major performances so the string gets completely stretched out and will not go flat immediately.
The first step in changing your guitar strings is selecting your new ones. To do this, you need to know the sound that you want to be produced as well as what thicknesses your guitar can handle without bowing the neck or raising the bridge too much (if you have some sort of floating bridge). For me personally, my electric and acoustic guitars can both handle heavier strings. I personally use Elixir Nanoweb strings, which keep their tone much longer than other brands. The Nanoweb coating has a bit brighter tone color than the Polyweb coating does. I use Medium.011 gauge strings for my electric and the Light-Medium.012 gauge for my acoustic.
To change the guitar strings, take off one string of your guitar. I usually start with the low E-string, and simply loosen the string and then cut it with wire cutters. Thread the new low E-string through the bridge and through the hole in the tuning peg. Leave a few inches of slack in the string before I start winding the string up, enough for the string to wind around the tuning peg 2 to 3 times by the time the string has been tuned up to its correct pitch. Once the string is tuned, pull the string firmly up off the fret board. This pre-stretches the string so it doesn't stretch as much while playing it. Re-tune the string and stretch again, just to make sure. Then cut the excess string off the tuning peg, unless you want to leave it on there for an effect.
Repeat this step for each string, but only do one string at a time to keep the neck tension balanced. You will want to play the guitar for awhile before any major performances so the string gets completely stretched out and will not go flat immediately.
Source: www.ezinearticles.com
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