Changing Guitar Strings

Hello everyone, my name is Jesse Pinkert. I’ve been playing electric guitar now for about 5 years and I’m going to show everyone how to change the strings on your guitar. This is going to show step by step how to do this in a fast and simple way. I will teach the three easy steps on how to remove, clean, and restring your guitar. Since most beginners do not know how to.

Supplies Needed

Guitar, Strings, Wire Cutters, Tuner, and Cloth

The first step in restringing a guitar is to remove the old strings. First, loosen the strings by unwinding them a little bit. This will release the tension on the strings. Second, use the wire cutters and snip the strings down the middle of the strum. Lastly, remove the strings from the posts at the top of the guitar and the tailpiece at the bottom.

Between taking the strings off and putting on new ones, it might be a good idea to wipe down your guitar with a cloth. Your guitar builds up dust very quickly and could be difficult to remove the dust of your instrument with the strings on. But with strings removed, it is way easier to reach those tough places.

After all the strings are removed, open your pack of strings. The strings are in individual envelopes and each have their own number. Start with the highest number and then work down from largest to smallest. The largest number represents the thickest string, while the lowest represents the thinnest.

After the appropriate string cut, thread it through the tailpiece and the corresponding saddle on the bridge. After that, insert the end of the string through the hole of the first peg. Repeat this step for each string accordingly. When inserting the string through the peg, the string is able to sit straight with no bends in it. Each string should line up with the appropriate peg if threaded correctly.

Before winding the string, make sure that there isn’t  too much or too little to wind on the peg. To make sure of that, pull the string to be completely straight and measure up to 2 pegs away from the peg that the string is currently in. When tightening the strings, it's important to make sure that the first three strings wind counterclockwise, and the last three strings wind clockwise. Starting with the lowest string, after having the right amount of slack then begin winding. Wind the string until tension is felt on the string; before the string gets too tight, make sure the string is still in all the right spots such as the saddles on the bridge.

Once the string begins to tighten up, throw on your guitar tuner. Wind the string until the tuner says "E" with the measurer in the middle. This ensures a correctly tuned string. Repeat this step with all other appropriate strings until the guitar is completely re-strung and tuned. Starting with the thickest string to the thinnest, the tuning should be E A D G B E as shown in the pictures above. Once the strings are tuned, use the wire cutters to snip off the excess of the string close to the peg.

Here's a video to help if the pictures aren't enough.

After that, you're all finished! Go enjoy those fresh strings and rock on!