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How to Restring Your Guitar to Improve Your Sound
1. Restringing your guitar is probably one of the easiest ways
to make your guitar sound and look better. Changing your
strings is so easy to do that you don't have to take your
guitar to the guitar repair shop. New strings give your
guitar sound bounce and even make your playing sound
better. I know it is kind of hard to believe, but it's true.
The fresh sound isn't the only reason to change your guitar
strings though. New strings also keep your guitar healthy.
Think about it. Old corroded strings will do nothing but
tarnish your frets and dirty your fretboard. Neither of
these things is good.
2. You might ask, "Well, how often do I have to change my
strings?" The answer is, it depends. How much do you
play? If you play often like I do, you may want to change
your strings once a week. Zakk Wydle once boasted that
he has the strings changed on his touring guitars after
every song. Okay yes, that is a little ridiculous, but you get
the point. Changing your strings is important. It is also one
of the easiest guitar repairs that you can do.
3. Changing strings on your guitar can be tricky if you have
never done it before, but I will walk you through the steps
of this simple guitar repair.
4. First, you will need to detune your guitar. I like to lowered
the tension about half way on every string. Then I go back
and loosen each string until they are floppy and ready to
take off. This two-step process gives the guitar a little
chance to get used to the lowered tension.
5. Second, you can remove the strings from the tuners and
the bridge. There are many different styles of bridges on
guitars. On acoustic guitars, you will need to pop the
bridge pins out with a string winder to remove the strings.
Electric guitars' strings usually come right out of the bridge
after the string tension is gone.
6. Third, you can replace the strings. Now you will need to
put the new string back into the bridge in the exact way
you removed the old strings. For acoustic guitars, you can
put the string all the way in the hole and fit the bridge pin
in place. Then you can just pull the string. The pin will
keep it in the hole. Electric strings are usually held in the
bridge by tension.
7. Lastly, put the strings through the tuners, wind them up,
and clip the string ends with some wire cutters. You may
have to retune your guitar a few times before the strings
are fully stretched and hold their tune before you start
playing. Just tune it, play it, and tune it again.
8. That's all there is to it. See, what did I tell you? Changing
strings is one of the easiest guitar repairs that you can do.
Now sit back and play your newly strung guitar!