NOTE: This is for beginners -as in people wanting to learn more about restringing techniques.
You know, this is my favorite but most dangerous part of guitar maintenance that I or you will ever do. Watch you fingers when working with the strings at the head of the the guitar. Look at some previous posts for medical advise.
(1) Take the strings out of the package. You either have strings that are colour coated, with a chart on the box or you can figure them out by looking closely at them. The thickest string is at the top and the thinest at the bottom.
(2) Put the string through the tail piece (on the body of the guitar).
(3) Place the body of the guitar on a table, with blanket on it so you don’t scratch the bottom of guitar. It also helps you move the guitar fast and smoothly when working. Make sure that you can have access to a chair so you can work at a good eye level to watch closely at what your doing.
Part (4) is background info that you need to understand before proceeding to part (5) & (6)
(4) Follow these visual steps. The last picture shows a little gap from where the bottom of the string is to the remaining part of the shaft of the tuning peg. I leave enough string or slack allows me to keep turning the tuning knob until the bottom of the string completely fills that space. I do not like to see any part of that shaft exposed. The more string that is attached means, a tighter wind and less room for the string to stretch. A change in the tension of the string = a change in tuning.
NOTE: This is the tricky part that you will have to determine by yourself because every guitar dimensions are different. After doing a couple of strings, you will get the hang of it. IF YOU DO THIS WRONG, YOUR GUITAR WILL NOT BLOW UP, ok? Just relax. Do not attempt while intoxicated.
(5) Move the guitar on the table so you can sit in a position that will allow you have the guitar head over and away from the table to let you start winding the strings.
(6) At this point we actually can start the winding process. Now with your right hand, grab the string that your working on by having fingers (index to pinkie), pulling up on the string while using your thumb pushing down on the string.
NOTE: Have your thumb push the string down on the fret board, right near the nut, where the string is suppose to be on the neck of the guitar. This will provide a small amount of the tension you will need to start winding the tuning peg.
(7) SLOWLY turn the tuning peg in the direction that you want. For guitars with 3 strings on each side of the head of the guitar, turn the head counter clock wise; for all others go clock wise. Pay close attention to the string that it follows going down the tuning head that will cover the gap that I talked about in part (4). The more you reach the bottom of this tuning peg, let the tension that you thumb is exerting on the string off little by little until you have covered that area of the shaft of the tuning peg.
(8) Place any finger you want to use (I use my index) directly on the nut (the white piece between the top of the neck and head of the guitar) of the guitar that corresponds to which string you are replacing. I want you to put pressure on that direct spot that holds your new string in place. This will stop the string from moving anywhere while you are doing the next part.
(9) With your right hand, grab the string that you are working on and pull the string in a upward and downward direction. Remember to keep your finger down tightly on the nut. What this is doing is, by pulling upwards and downwards on the strings, it tightens or pulls the strings coils on the tuning head closer thus making them less likely to move or slip.
Note: A change in tension = a change in the note or key of the string. When they slip or loosen up, the guitar string goes out of tune. The exact tension of the strings determines how they vibrate. The vibration is the note you want. Think about how a sign wave works, if your not sure or want to know more look up the details. Remember, knowledge is power.
Keep on Jammin’
Another thing to note about re-stringing your guitars is that you should not unstring all the strings just all at once… It is bad for the guitar neck as the tension will eventually wrap the neck..learnt it from past experience..
My guitar neck is warped now because of that habit over the past few years.
So do take note of that too!
Before tuning up to pitch. Stretch the strings with your hand and pushing down on the neck with the other. Otherwise on the first bend or big hit, they will keep going out of tune…..unless you buy pre-stretched strings.
Hey John, Thanx for reminding me and our little community about not taking all the strings off at once when we are re-stringing the old guitar! That is something that was one of those, “ah, I was thinking about it but I forgot to say it” kind of moments that happens to me more times then I would like to admit!
Thanx for the heads up sir and
Keep on Jammin’
Hey Dave, interesting post!
That is what I was trying to say but it just came out wrong, ask my wife about that. She says that I speak in incomplete sentences or I leave out … See, it just happened again! My whole family is like that, but we talk to each other … fine.
I never knew that someone made pre-stretched strings? How well do they work and which ones do you recommend?
Thanx for that one, it’s really a neat idea!
Keep on Jammin’
Good one Ken! I really like that one.
Keep on Jammin’
The not taking off all strings holds especially true for a floyd rose bridge. I did that when i used to have a guitar with a floyd rose and i could not get the strings back on right. i ended up warping the neck b/c the tesnion was all messed up!!
also, in RE to stretching strings, it’s funny that you mention b/c i just put up a blogpost on that 5 minutes ago then i saw this. lol!
Welcome Mr. Ross!
Thanx for the advice about your Floyd Rose bridge! It’s great to have experienced players pass on their unfortunate experience to others.
Back to the Floyd Rose bridge. Now that is a term that I have not heard of in years, at least the mid/late 80’s.
So what did you do after your really unfortunate experience to rectify the oversight? I think that I would have either lost my mind or sat down and cried! Was it part of your favorite axe? If it was, oohhh, sorry brother, that sucks!
As for the posts sent out just about simultaneously, great minds do think a like!
Keep on Jammin’ (Ross’s neck, RIP)
Has anyone ever do body work on their axe before? I’ve got my 1959 Fender Duo-Sonic and it was painted by some acid freak way before my mom, yes my ma, bought it for me (for $150.00 Can. from a farmer).
It had to go a many years after and i just sanded it right down to the original wood.
My question to you all is, how do I take off ALL the strings without damaging/warping the neck?
Keep on Jammin’
Yeah, i had an Ibanez with a floyd rose. I was into satriani/vai stuff at the time, so the ibanez was a good fit. But after i couldn’t figure out how to restring it once i took all the strings off, i just let it sit around with poor stringing. That’s when the neck warping occured.
It ended up sitting in the corner of my room for over a year (i was REALLY lazy about it) and that’s when the neck got all warped. But i had a friend who wanted to buy it off me and try in fix it up. I sold it for $75 and he paid about a hundred to have it fixed. It was better, but not how it was when i bought it.
I had 2 other guitars i was playing when the ibanez was out of comission: a godin (it’s from cannada!) and a Tacoma Acoustic. So i just played those.
Moral of the story: Don’t play floyd rose!!! JK. but if you do, be carfule never to take all the strings off at once…
I was never into Satriani or Vai but I did love to hear them solo like mad men! I was never into soloing that much but when I did, I liked to nail it right.
I was into classic rock, jazz and a bit of blues. I just loved back ground playing mostly and everyone wonder what the hell I was doing. I was and am, a perfectionist. When I play in front of friends at home or parties I am am forever stopping and saying ” Damn” half way through tunes. This drives people crazy but they are use to it now. Nobody could notice the mistakes but I did and that really pissed me off.
Maybe I should be a studio musician instead. I have a buddy of mine who has a FABULOUS studio and I have done some stuff for some of his clients in the past. When we get together I try out some stuff that he has always wanted to do but nobody was into it. He’s a great young guy and a very good keyboardist!
I too am happy to have a Canadian guitar as well. A Larivee L-03 and it is a “flat pickers” guitar. I mean that the neck is wider and it has a beautiful bright and crisp warm sound to it. I has into classical and own a wide necked Gibson RD-Artist. The pick up system in the Larivee is great but I am trying to save up for a I-Mix.
The install will be straight forward and I will put the original on in the Larivee into my Aspen to use as a back-up when I am playing live.
The only problem with the new system is that I will have an opening where the control panel, on the side of the body facing me. The guitar god technician at the 12th Fret gave me a great idea for my conundrum.
He will turn that hole into another sound hole. Now a days they are rounding out these new sound holes and the look is great! It designed to give the top face/wood more pressure, somehow, to resonate. He makes guitars himself and showed me an example and boy was it cool.
It will probably cost me $1,000.00 can. to do all of the above. I know that it is worth the price and so does my wife, yes there is a God, but we are not there financially YET! When it is all said and done I’ll do something on youtube to show the sound and visual difference and you will see what I mean!
Thanx for the replies and …
Keep on Jammin’
This was my first time ever re-stringing my guitar and I managed to do it without popping a string. Thanks for helping me out.
I’m glad I could help you out in anyway I can the Mr. Mattman!
Keep on Jammin’/re-stringing
Hey,
I just decided a few days ago I wanted to learn to play guitar, so I just bought an f-335 yamaha guitar off a friend today and two of the strings were broken. I figured I’d just cut the rest off and go pick up some new ones once I could figure out what kind I need. Well, as I cut off the three and one that was sort of “frayed” broke on its own, I realized that losing tension was probably bad for the guitar. Looks like from the comments here, I was right! By the time I managed to get around to things, all of the stores around that had strings were closed. How bad do you think it’ll be for it to not have strings for maybe half a day? I mean…they do make them without strings, so it can’t be THAT bad to leave them off for like 15 hours only one time……right? Please email me back and let me know!
Well if you can, just go to a local guitar shop and have them put on the strings and ask them to look at the intonation of your axe as well. What most of the chatter on this post was about a guitar with a particular bridge on it.
The axe that you have is an acoustic, I just googled it and everything should be just fine!
Keep on Jammin’