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Changing Strings
Acoustic Steel String Guitar
On guitars that have low action
and where the neck relief (forward bow) is carefully monitored, it's best
to remove and replace one string at a time - bringing each string to proper pitch
before going to the next one. This keeps the truss rod under
tension and no setup adjustment should be necessary after restringing.
With my Taylor, I do one at a time. Here we go with my method.
Remove Old Strings:
- Loosen the string with the
tuning key until completely slack. Push the string into the
bridge about 1cm to take the pressure off on the bridge pin.
- Remove bridge pin that holds
the ball end in. Sometimes these can be stubborn to pull out
by hand. Some string winding tools have bridge pin
pullers built in, but I carry a piece of twine in my case - just wrap it
around the bridge pin and pull. Don't lose these pins!
- Remove the string from the
tuning posts at the head stock. Now - coil the string up and
throw it away before you put someone's eye out. Cats love to
play with old guitar strings so if you don't want a blind kitty,
throw away old strings immediately.
Install New Strings:
- Insert the ball end of the
string into the
bridge hole and secure with bridge pin. This is the most
tricky part for some people. Look at the drawing below to see
exactly what happens under the top when the bridge pin is securing
the string properly.
What I do is gently bend the string so that it will have a slight curve
underneath and insert it so that the holes of the ball go to the sides and the
rounded part faces the front. After inserting the string into the hole,
line the groove (if it has one) of the bridge pin up with the string and push the
pin completely into the hole. Don't jam it hard...
that's not how bridge pins hold the string in. Now, pull up on the string and it
should wedge between the ceiling and the pin as shown below.
If the pin comes out, this means the ball has caught on the end of the
pin - try again, attempting to get the end of the bridge pin to go past
the ball end of the string rather than have the ball catch and hang on
the end of the pin.
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Next, attach
the string to the tuning post. On steel string guitars, I like
to wind the string from the bottom 2 or 3 times, insert it into the
post hole, pull the string through the hole tight enough to pull the slack out
of the string and the winds and then bend 90º in the opposite
direction of the 1st bend. This method
eliminates the stresses that cause the dreaded "G-string break" that
can happen when you go between alternate tunings using the "tie
& lock" method.
Start with the string lying to the inside of the tuning post.
Wrap clockwise for the treble side, counter-clockwise for the bass
side. With each wrap, hold the string in place against the
post with the thumb
on your other hand. Go around a couple of times (2 times for
wound, 3 times for plain strings), being careful not to cross over
the previous wrap.
-
After the
wraps, insert the string into the post hole, pull tight from the
other side and immediately make a 90º bend in the opposite
direction of the wrap (shown in the above right inset picture).
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Tune to pitch
while making sure the wraps don't cross over each other. The
wraps should coil neatly like a Slinky®
(see photo below). After getting the string
to pitch, do several whole step bends to stretch the string and then
retune.
-
Repeat this
stretching & tuning procedure until stretching no longer causes the
string to go flat.
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Now you can
snip the string ends off taking care not to straighten that last 90º
bend. Throw these pieces away! Blind kitty... blind kitty!
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