Many guitar players, especially beginners, are hesitant to restring their guitar. They mistakenly think that it’s a complicated, difficult procedure. In reality, restringing a guitar is a simple, straight forward process.
Before restringing your guitar, be sure to prepare a suitable work area. You’ll need enough space to accommodate your guitar, such as a large table top. You might want to cover the surface of your work area with a soft blanket or cloth to prevent damaging the finish of your guitar. It’s better to prevent nicks and scratches rather than to repair them.
When restringing your guitar, it’s helpful to have some simple tools, such as a string winder, wire cutters and a bridge pin remover. The string winder and bridge pin puller are optional, but they do make the restring task easier.
Step 1 Removing the old strings. Loosen the tuning peg enough so that the string slides out of the hole. At the opposite end of the guitar, use a bridge pin puller to remove the tapered pin holding the string. If you don’t have a bridge pin puller, you can still remove the pins, but you’ll have to be careful so you’ll avoid damaging the bridge. Just push down lightly on the string with upward tension on the pin – wiggle to loosen the pin and remove the string.
Hey, here’s an idea for you – while you have all the strings off, why not clean and polish your guitar? It’s the perfect time to get all those hard to reach places that are inaccessible with the strings in place.
Step 2 Installing the new strings. You’ll notice that one end of the new string has a little ball attached, this is the end you start with. Put the ball end of the string into the bridge hole, then press in the pin to hold it snugly in place. As the pin bottoms out, pull up slightly on the string to make sure it’s locked in place.
On the opposite end of the guitar is the ‘headstock’, where the adjustable tuning pegs are mounted. Insert the loose end of the new string into the hole of the tuning peg. There’s a little ‘wrap-around’ trick to fastening the string and you’ll see it in the video mentioned below.
Next, tighten the string enough to take out the slack. Don’t worry too much about tuning right now, just get it tight enough so you don’t hear a buzz when you pluck the string.
That’s it, you’re finished! Restringing a guitar isn’t the big project many people expect. It’s quick and easy, once you know how it’s done.