Restringing an Electric Guitar

While restringing an electric guitar can be difficult, especially the first time your learn to do it, restringing is a crucial part of guitar maintenance for any player. Changing the strings of a guitar on your own not only gives you greater knowledge of your instrument, but it also helps you realize when your guitar needs some professional attention.

Many beginning players will wait until they have "popped" a string on their electric guitar before contemplating changing their strings. More seasoned players may enjoy testing out different types of strings and gauges. Whatever your personal preference for changing strings, it is always best to be prepared since the process can take a significant amount of time and you'll have to be careful to avoid harming the guitar.

A common misnomer with electric guitars is that you should remove all of the strings at once. This can often cause damage to the neck of the guitar since it is used to holding a certain amount of tension. Your instrument amay require a professional neck readjustment unless you decide to restring it one string at a time.

In order to learn how to restring an electric guitar, you'll need the following:

• Time - Plan to spend at least half an hour changing your strings. When changing strings for the first time, it may take even longer.
• New strings for the guitar
• Wire cutters
• The guitar itself

A string winder, guitar tuner and a pair of pliers can also be helpful, but they aren't absolutely necessary.

1. The first thing to do when restringing an electric guitar is to use the string winders at the side of the head of the guitar (at the very top of the neck) to loosen the string as much as possible. The aim is to loosen the string enough so that it can be pulled over the peghead. When that is possible, unwind the string from the peghead as best as possible. If the string has popped and is broken, this step can still be done with whatever portion of the string that is attached to the peghead.
2. Using the wire cutters, cut off the portion of the string that is curled and wrapped around the peghead. With most electric guitars, the other end of the string goes through the body of the guitar. In order to get the string out with little damage to the guitar, the curled up portion that may have trouble making it through the guitar needs be removed.
3. The next step is the initial installation of the new string. Slide the weighted end of the string through the back of the guitar. Make sure that the string makes it to the front side of the guitar. Once this happens, lead the string up the guitar. Lead the string through the indentation in the bridge piece. The final step before loading the string in tp make sure that the string is under the tree-like pieces on the head if it needs to be. These pieces control a certain part of the guitar's sound, and if the string does not fall correctly under them, the sound will be affected.
4. Run the end of the string through the peghead. Wrap it around the peghead, and then cut off any excess with pliers or wire cutters. At this point, you can tune the string or wait until all your strings are strung to before tuning. Be sure to properly discard of any strings that have been removed from the guitar, as well as any parts cut from any guitar strings.
5. Before playing the guitar, make sure you stretch the strings a little by picking notes at them and adjusting your tuning as needed. Practice a few chords to make sure the guitar is in tune.

While it may seem difficult at first, learning to restring an electric guitar is necessary for any guitar player. Once you learn how, you won't need to depend on anyone else to do it for you.

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