If you have just gotten your first guitar than sooner or later you are going to need to change the strings. Sometimes the beginner guitar player will take their guitar in to have the strings changed because they are not sure how to do it themselves. Here’s the deal…if you want to play guitar than you have to know how to change your strings. Save yourself some money and learn how to do it yourself. It is not that hard.
Here are the main things you will need to change the strings on your guitar:
- string winder
- pliers to remove the pins if you don’t have a string winder.
- some furniture oil
- wire cutter tool
- rag or cloth
- new strings
Now that you have all the materials you will need to do the job you are ready to begin. It is recommended that you only change one string and a time and do not remove all the strings at the same time so you keep the neck of the guitar under tension. Here are the steps to change your strings:
- unwind the first string
- use pliers or notch on the end of the string winder to pop the pin in the bridge that holds in the other end of the string
- take your cloth and wipe any finger grime off the fret board.
- depending on what type of wood your finger board is made of you can take some furniture polish, put it on your cloth and apply it to the exposed fingerboard. It is important to make sure you have the right type of wood to do this so check first.
- take the end of the string that goes in the bridge and insert it into the whole with the pin. Use a mallet to tap in the pin so it doesn’t pop out when you tighten the string.
- insert the other end of the string into the tuner and pull up the slack and then use the string winder to tighten the string.
- cut off the excess string with your wire cutter.
- repeat steps 1 to 7 for all the remaining strings
- tune the guitar
That is it! You are now ready to play with a new set of strings and your guitar should sound like new again!
Now Get a Guitar!
