How to Restring the Guitar

It may be more practical to take your guitar to the local music shop and have it restrung. Here is info on how to restring if you want to do it yourself.

Steel String Guitars:

At the bridge end, slide the ball part of the string in the proper hole and push the bridge pin end. Don't press too hard on the pin as it makes the hole bigger and you'll have to push even harder the next time (see diagram #1). Grab the string and pull on it to lock the ball of the string in place.

Now slide the other end of the string through the proper tuning machine head. The slack on the string should be enough so that it winds around the tuning post one to three times. You can lift up on the string at the 12th fret and use the length of your finger for a gauge.

There's a trick to keeping your guitar in tune longer. Grab the loose string that went through the tuning peg and wrap it around the post underneath the string and then bend it over the string (see diagram #2). As the string is being tuned to the post it will lock in place where it has been wound around and bent so that it will not slip. Do this with all six strings

Diagram #3 shows you how the strings are wound around from the inside of the head. Make sure that the strings don't end up being on the outside part of the post because you'll have to turn the machine heads the opposite way to tune and it doesn't look professional.

Electric Guitars:

At the head of the guitar the strings are wrapped around in the same way as the steel strings are. The only difference is that most electric guitars have the machine heads in a line of six, instead of three on each side. The bridges on electrics vary a great deal but are quite simple to figure out.

Classical Guitars:

Put the string through the hole at the bridge end, wrap it around itself, and then wrap two or more times around the circled part of the string. Pull the string tightly to cinch it (see diagram #4).

At the head end, thread the string through the appropriate tuning peg and then lock the string by wrapping it around itself so that when the peg is turned it locks the string against the post. If you slide the string through the hole and start winding, it will keep slipping and be hard to keep in tune. The fourth string is the weakest and the shortest so be extra cautious when stringing it. You should also make sure that the winds go over the peg and not under it.

All guitar strings must be stretched once they're put on and tuned. Stretch them by pulling on them firmly but not hard enough to break them. This will cinch them up and make the initial stretching time go by faster. Not stretching new guitar strings is the biggest reason why they go out of tune so fast.