How to Easily Restring a Guitar

Ever hear of an athlete who doesn’t know how to replace his shoelaces? To keep the sound of your guitar sharp and clean, you should change the strings at least once every three months. If you have the right tools and the right string, the following steps will have you restringing your instrument like a pro.

Whether you’re restringing an electric or acoustic guitar, do one string at a time. If you take all the strings off at once, the neck of the guitar will have no supporting tension and may need an adjustment once the strings are all on.

Acoustic Guitars use two plain steel strings and strings with bronze windings around the cord. The first step is to lay the guitar flat in front of you. Take off the string by loosening it enough for the string to slip over the peg head.

Now use a pair of pliers to gently wiggle the bridge pin, or peg, loose then pull it straight out, releasing the ball end of the string. Discard the old string..

Get your new string and put the ball end of the string into the peg hole on the bridge. Put the peg back in the hole. The peg is not supposed to show the string inside the hole. You want it to brace the ball end against the guitar underneath the bridge. You may need to spin or manipulate the peg a little to get the ball properly positioned.

Hold the string between your thumb and forefinger and with the other hand loop the string around the turning peg in a clockwise direction. After several loops, thread the wire through the peg head then pull it straight out at a 90 degree angle from the guitar head. Rotate the peg to tighten. Stretch out the string once more before tightening to pitch.  When finished, cut off the excess string with wire cutters. (TIP: The strings wound in bronze grip better so do not need to be looped on the peg head as many times as the steel strings.)

Electric guitars use copper windings. If you have an electric guitar where the string goes through the back of the guitar underneath the bridge, you just need to loosen the string on the peg head, cut off the curled par, grab hold of the ball end and pull the string through the back end

Get your new string and thread the pointed end through from underneath so the ball end is resting against the underneath of the guitar. Make sure your string goes through the slot on the bridge piece, through the nut and sits under the correct tree. Loop the string in a counter clockwise direction on the peg head, thread it through and pull tight at a 90 degree angle away from the guitar. Tighten to near pitch, stretch the string a little and snip off the excess string.