Re- Stringing a Taylor Electro Acoustic Guitar and Locking the Strings

In this Instructable, I would like to share with you how I remove and install a new set of strings on my Taylor Electro-Acoustic Guitar.

I will be removing the old strings, cleaning the neck and also polishing the frets, and generally a good all round clean and polish, making for a better playing experience, it's been something I've been meaning to do for a while now(Best part of a Year:(), so time to get things into gear and get it sorted.

Set of 12 Gauge Electro Acoustic strings.

Guitar polish

Masking tape

Metal polish

Micro polishing cloths

Lemon oil

Nut Sauce

The first we need to do is to support the neck, If you don't have a neck support, use a cushion or something, the last thing you want is the guitar moving during this process, I place a towel on the work surface to avoid getting any scratches on the guitar.

The first process is to remove the old strings, the way I do this is to slacken off the tuning pegs/Machine heads and when you are satisfied all 6 strings are loose, I just grab all 6 strings and cut them with electricians side cutters, over the sound hole area is good.

Remove the bridge pins, its best to get the proper tool for this as using pliers etc can damage the pins, I also place my hand over the top of the pins during this process, just in case they fly out, this has happened to me on a couple of occasions and still haven't found one of them to this day, which at the time was really annoying as I didn't have any spares, at this stage the strings can be removed at the tuning peg end, just be careful when removing the strings, the smaller diameter strings are like needles and can easily pierce the skin making for a very unpleasant experience, once again I tell you this from experience.

With the strings removed, we can now move onto cleaning the guitar.

The first process for me is getting the grime off the neck, usually this can be done with a cloth and suitable polish, but on occasion there are some stubborn areas, and using an old but clean toothbrush gets into all the nooks and crannies, you don't need to work it too hard to achieve results, this is just a basic clean at this stage.

The next stage for me is to polish the frets, to protect the fretboard I use masking tape to mask off between the frets, this is a bit of a laborious task but very worthwhile and makes for less clean up after the frets are polished, another tip, which I forgot to do this time, is to run a length of masking tape down each side of the fretboard, then when it comes to removing the tape it makes it easier to peel it off.

During this process do check for excessive fret wear, on acoustic guitars this mainly occurs at the nut end of the fretboard and very dependant on how hard a player you are, if fret wear is excessive then it would be a good idea to get all the frets either crowned or last resort replaced by a professional Luthier, I have re fretted a Fender Stratocaster I was restoring for a friend, the professionals make it look easy, I got away with it just!

If the frets are good, we can now clean and polish them, even though we have the fretboard protected with masking tape, I still use fret polishing guards, these are rectangular pieces of metal with a slot to encompass the frets, they come in 2 different sizes, the narrower one for the frets at the sound hole end of the fretboard.

To polish the frets I use a mild metal polish, we don't need to be too aggressive here, it's just a mild polish, and using the fret guards eliminates the polish from getting down the sides of the frets but some will get down there all dependent on how good you were with the masking tape, that's if you are like me I tend to rush everything, when cleaning your guitar patience is a virtue.

We can now remove the masking tape and with a cloth remove any of the metal polish which may have got through the masking tape, metal polish has abrasive qualities so best to remove any traces at this stage.

Now using a suitable guitar polish, I use a premium cleaner which I use for the fretboard, use sparingly and clean the areas between the frets, then polish off, the final stage with the fretboard is to apply a little lemon oil, apply to all of the fretboard and wipe off any excess.

Rosewood can become very dry so the Lemon oil will nourish the fretboard, it looks so much better with a lustre.

I use a premium cleaner initially when cleaning my guitars, using micro fibre cloths for both the initial clean and a fresh one for the final polish, try and stay away from furniture polishes when cleaning your guitar, with electric and electro acoustic guitars using this can sometimes cause static, which we definitely don't want!

With the guitar nicely cleaned, we can now think about installing some new strings, I never stray from what the manufacturer recommends, and in this case its 12-53 Gauge strings.

Before the new strings are fitted, just check the slots in the nut are clear of any debris, I just use one of the old thinnest E strings to clean out the grooves using some tissue paper, Nut sauce can be applied at this stage or with the strings installed, just pull the string to one side before fully tensioning, apply the sauce then tension the strings to pitch, place a finger on each string on the twelfth fret and pull the string at the sound hole to bed strings in.

When Installing new strings I always use the locking string method, it traps the open end of the string and stops the guitar going out of tune, if you look at the photos you should be able to grasp the idea, there are separate tutorials on this method online.

I would always recommend using a nut sauce, there is nothing worse when trying to tune your guitar than a sticking string, you want a smooth operation with fine increments when tuning a guitar, applying nut sauce every now and then is a must for fine tuning, once again use sparingly, as an alternative, you can use the graphite from a pencil, or use both like I did.

If I was using the guitar in a live situation, I would change the battery, I'm not so the battery was removed some time ago, having a battery installed if not needed is a definite No No, they sometimes leak and corrode the contacts, making for an expensive repair.

Well with the new strings installed and the guitar all polished up, Its different again, I don't know why I left it so long really, the difference is amazing, so much brighter and fretting made easier just with a quick polish.

I have a couple of Fender Stratocasters and will be stripping and cleaning one of those next time, they both have the Fishman Piezo Power bridges Installed, they make for some very interesting sounds, and used with a Y cable, the Piezo signal goes through front of house speakers and the metallic sounds through the amp, then front of house, makes my Statocaster sound like a full on electro acoustic with the flick of a switch, but without the feedback often found with an acoustic on a busy stage, plus it eliminates guitar changes, happy days!

I hope you enjoyed this Instructable and it's given you some good pointers with a guitar re-string, and thanks for looking.