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How To Change Electric Guitar Strings

Replacing electric guitar strings

Tools Needed to for Changing Electric Guitar Strings

1. Small needle nose pliers to cut and bend the strings
2. A string winder to help wind the strings quickly

Procedure to Use for Changing Electric Guitar Strings

To replace your electric guitar strings, you’ll need to know how to remove your existing guitar strings, and then know how to fit your new strings. Finally, you’ll also have to discover how to tighten, tune and condition your new guitar strings. Here’s how to do all of that:

Removing Electric Guitar Strings

The first step is to remove the old strings on your electric guitar. You will need to change each guitar string one at a time to avoid warping the guitar neck, and you should always remove the 6th string first.

Remove the strings by using the string winder and the tuning peg. Turn the tuning peg until the string becomes very slack, and then cut off the twisted end of the old string so that it slips easily out of the electric guitar. Then wind the top section of your string out of the tuning peg, and remove the old string. Pay close attention to the way the old string comes off because you will be reversing the procedure when installing the new strings on your guitar.

Replacing Electric Guitar Strings

To replacing your electric guitar strings with new strings, feed the new guitar string through a hole in the body of the electric guitar, or the tail piece, and seat the ball end of the string.

Next, pull the string over the guitar’s bridge, over the nut of the guitar neck, and past the tuning peg. Ensure there is no slack. The new guitar string is longer than required, so you will have to cut some of the excess string off. However, do leave enough guitar string to wind around the tuning peg 2-3 times - about 2 inches above the peg should be enough.

Winding/Tightening Electric Guitar Strings

Now you will have to pull the string through the hole of the tuning peg and begin winding the guitar string. The string should have no slack, so place your fingers under the string to keep tension on it. With the guitar facing you, wind the tuning pegs on the left side of the guitar. You should turn them in a clockwise direction. Wind the tuning pegs on the right side of the guitar counterclockwise. To speed up the winding process, place your string winder over the tuning peg and wind until the string becomes tight. Then take off the string winder and use the tuning peg to tune the string.

And that’s all there is to replace an electric guitar string! Now that you’ve changed and tuned your 6th string, you can just repeat the process for all the other strings.

Conditioning Electric Guitar Strings

You’ll need some time to condition the newly installed guitar strings because the strings will stretch and go out of tune easily over time. However, you can accelerate the conditioning process by stretching the string yourself by giving each of the guitar strings a few gentle pulls and do some spirited strumming. Expect to retune the guitar several times after you have replaced the strings. After one or two days, the guitar strings should start to stay in tune, and changing electric guitar strings will have been well worth the effort.