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By: David Taylor
At some point, all guitarists need to learn how to change the
strings on their guitar. Sometimes you'll be forced to change
one when a string snaps. But usually, you'll simply want to
change them, as strings lose their brightness and wear out. The amount of time you leave between change strings varies
depending on several factors. If you play your guitar regularly,
then you might like to change your strings once a week or once a
month. Most Professional guitarists tend to change their strings before
each gig. But in the end, it all comes down to a matter of
personal preference. Something to bear in mind if you're using
your guitar for a gig, is that your strings need a few hours of
play to break in properly. During this time, your strings will
go out of tune as they stretch so you'll have to retune. Anyway, here's what you do: Remove the old strings by detuning
the machine heads until the tension becomes loose enough to
allow you to pull each string away from the headstock. Another quick way to remove the old strings is to snip them
using a pair of wire cutters. Be very careful if you do it this
way, and make sure they are loose, since the bare ends of the
strings can be sharp and easily flap around. Bare guitar strings
are amongst the many things you DO NOT want to catch in your eye. How you go about installing your new strings will usually depend
on the type of guitar you have, as many guitars have slightly
different methods. However, the strings are usually held in
place at one end by fixtures behind or on the bridge, and at the
other by turning the machine head on the headstock. Here's a small insider tip guitarists have been using for years
to get more life from your steel strings once you've removed
them: Boil them. Dropping a set of strings into a pan of boiling water for 10 to
15 minutes will remove a lot of the grimy build up and bring a
new life back to what would otherwise be lifeless strings. It won't last for very long, and you can't get away with doing
it too many times, but it can be an effective temporary measure. I wouldn't suggest you rely on this technique too much, strings
aren't too expensive - and using new strings saves you a lot of
hassle. Regardless of what kind of guitar you have, your strings need to
be stretched after you've put them on. When you first tune your
guitar, put your hand under each string around the pickup area,
pull the string a few centimeters away from the fretboard, then
release it. If the pitch has dropped, retune and repeat the
process. Keep doing this until all the strings stay in tune. On most electric guitars the strings are either secured at the
bridge end by an independent tailpiece (like most Gibson
guitars), or passed through the body of the instrument from the
back into an all-in-one bridge unit (like most fender style
guitars). At one end of every steel string, you will find a tiny disc of
metal around which one end of the string is wrapped. This is
called the ball end. Take the opposite end of the string and thread it through the
fixture at the bridge. Pull the string through until the ball end stops you from
pulling the string any further. Most electric and steel-string guitars use a similar system for
securing strings at the machine head. The capstan to which the
string is attached stands out vertically from the headstock.
Strings can be passed through a hole in the side of the capstan. The end is then passed around and under, trapping it in place
when the machine head is tightened. Some capstans have vertical
slots instead of holes. To use these, cut the string to length,
and insert into the tip of the capstan. Then bend the string to
one side and wind it around. This leaves the string endings neat and tidy. Here's what you do
next: Slowly turn the machine head for each string, increasing
the tension until the string becomes suitably tight. To save yourself time and energy, you can use a cheap plastic
string winder, which simply fits over the machine head allowing
you to crank it along more quickly. About the author:
Learn guitar here: guitar lesson
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