Wednesday, August 12, 2009

How To String A Guitar - Read These 5 Things Before You Start

By Jon J Tan

Every budding guitarist should maintain his or her own guitar and changing the strings on the guitar is an important part of that. It is fairly easy to change your guitar strings and it is unlikely that you will damage it. Because of this, there is no reason why you should pay someone else to do it for you. Below are 5 tips to ensure that you do it the correct way:

1. Use the correct guitar string. Stringing your guitar with the wrong kind of string will result in irreversible damage to your guitar. Different materials are used to make strings for different kinds of guitars. For example, acoustic and electric guitars are strung with metal based strings while classical guitars are strung with nylon based strings.

2. Use the correct tension guitar string. For beginners, you would want to start with a lower tension or "gauge" string. You will find that there are several string tensions available at any guitar shop. The higher the "gauge", the higher then tension. Beginners will find that using lower tension strings is more comfortable on the fingers.

3. Do not change all the guitar strings at once. Rather than removing all the strings from the guitar before restringing, it is recommended to change the strings one at a time. This helps reduce the chance that the guitar will be damaged by preserving the tension of the guitar neck and body during the process.

4. Buy a string winder. A string winder will significantly cut down the time to string a guitar and is a valuable tool for any budding guitarist. If you want to get back to playing as soon as possible, it is best to use a string winder.

5. When to cut your strings. You should first tune the guitar up to the correct tension and pitch before proceeding to cut the strings to the right length. This is because the strings tend to slip slightly and if you cut before tuning, the strings might just run off the guitar during the tuning process.

About the Author:

No comments:

Post a Comment