September 12, 201114 yr Welcome to the forums kylee! Google google google. Actually some of the tutorials out there are a bit useless. so since i cant sleep i'll quickly type one up. But PLEASE watch a video BEFORE reading my instructions, just in case ive said something wrong! 1. remove all previous strings. 2. clean surface of guitar, fretboard. 3. remove bridge pin for the low e string. insert string's end with the little ring on it for a little way. insert the pin over it. it should feel like its not gonna come out again without a hefty tug. 4. stretch the string out to the neck. thread it through the (peg? i forget the term, the thing with the hole where the string goes in). With a comfortable (about 10cm) amount of slack above the fretboard, about enough to put your fist through, twist the string out the end of the peg into a right angle turn. leaving a bit of room, chop off the excess. 5. now tighten the peg so that the string will end up winding around it from the inside of the head outward (so, for me, this means turn it counterclockwise). try and make the first turn go over the string, and then the rest of them go under. this is a tricky art to master. watch tutorials! 6. once it's starting to get tight, fit the string into its groove in the nut and tighten it until it's making a note. doesn't matter which note, just don't make it too tight! 7. do the same for all the other strings. the high strings, B and E, don't require as much slack as the others. 8. now use a tuner to tune them all up to concert pitch. i prefer to use standard tuning on fresh strings just to wear them in a bit, and then you can retune to alternates later. 9. once it's all in an tuned up, do weird things with it! the best trick is to bend the strings up and down quite ridiculously at about the 12th fret. this will make it go out of tune. keep retuning it until it stops going out. then move on to the next one. 10. Here's a neat trick a guy taught me once. The excess on the gold threaded strings will snap off easily if you just twist it around a bit. this is why you leave enough excess to grab onto (and also in case you do something wrong, you can just undo it, smooth it out and try again!) 11. snip off and neaten up the high strings with pliars or weapon of choice. 12. you're done! i claim no liability if you try this tutorial without consulting any others (or a professional) first!
September 12, 201114 yr Author Sorry splintercell but your not supposed to take off all strings at once its bad and can warp the guitar. your supposed too do one by one but thank you for the rest of the tips i will remember them! the low e string is hard to do it wont wind correctly and then its hard for me too tune but again im not trying to be mean thank you for the tips!
September 12, 201114 yr Author Sorry splintercell but your not supposed to take off all strings at once its bad and can warp the guitar. your supposed too do one by one but thank you for the rest of the tips i will remember them! the low e string is hard to do it wont wind correctly and then its hard for me too tune but again im not trying to be mean thank you for the tips!
September 13, 201114 yr I've heard that many times, but I've seen a professional remove them all at once and it didn't damage the guitar in the long run so I'm not sure how viable that advice is. Personally though, I unwind the string until it's loose enough to remove rather than snip them, that way the guitar can adjust. :)
September 13, 201114 yr Author I remove them that way too but i got it finished i realized the deep sounding e string was the hardest for me the rest got easier as i moved along it took me 2 and half hours to do but i like the sound of it. i didnt realize till afterwards i bought electric strings. it never said on the box that it was electrics so im a little upset. but im happy i can play my baby again :) thanks again for your advice.
September 14, 201114 yr I used to remove all, now I do 3/3. None of my guitars ever got damaged, I guess this is just an advice you should follow if you want to make sure that nothing happens.
September 14, 201114 yr Author I made a rookie mistake and accidentally got electric strings and the highest gauge is 46 and im worried that it might damage the guitar for being so light : / should i change them soon???
September 14, 201114 yr Sorry splintercell but your not supposed to take off all strings at once its bad and can warp the guitar. your supposed too do one by one but thank you for the rest of the tips i will remember them! the low e string is hard to do it wont wind correctly and then its hard for me too tune but again im not trying to be mean thank you for the tips! This. It's best to do them one by one to maintain the same tension in the neck otherwise the fluctuations can warp it and ruin it's sound in the long run.
September 17, 201114 yr The stuff about taking all your strings off at once isn't relevant if you're guitar has an adjustable truss rod (or even non adjustable?), which it almost certainly will. As for light strings, they shouldn't damage it, they just won't play very nice.
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