How to change the guitar's strings? step by step

Each how much to change the strings

There's no date: lt's up to how much you play, how much sweat and how much climate you have. On the coast or hot ground, moisture and salt purify metal ropes faster than in Bogotá.

Signs that she's already playing

• They sound opaque, with no glow or sustained, especially serious ones.
• They do not get tuned or, with air tunes, they sound out of tune at 12.
• They look dark with an oxide point or feel rough as their fingers slide.
• In nylon, the fringes of the embroidery are spent or open at the most useful jobs.

Retirement and tightness

In metal, the calibre is name by the thickness of the first and the sixth string, in hundreds of inches. The thinner ones are easier to step on and the thicker ones give more volume and body but require more to the fingers.

If you leap several calibres, change the tension onto the mast and you may have to title the soul, height of the ropes or ebes of the cebula. Consult them earlier with your teacher or your luthier.

What you need and how to get ready

• The new game, right for your guitar.
• A cold pint or a big pint for the leftovers.
• A lever handle: optional but saving time and many bring pines for acoustic.
• A tuner, you can use the [guitar tuner online]](/herramientas/afinador/guitarra).
• A cloth, and what's necessary if you're gonna clear the diapason.

All at once or once?

One by one keeps the tension on the mast and let you see how the earlier one was going. It's more comfortable if you're starting and it's required in electric with floating bridge. To remove all of them allows you to completely clear up the diapason and a fixed bridge guitar doesn't matter if you don't leave them with no strings. We tell you how to clear them up with how to clear and care for an acoustic guitar..

A safety rule: always loosen the string before cutting. A metal strap cut with tension leapes with force and can damage your face or eyes.

Step by step: acoustic and electrical (metal)

1. Loosen the string with the stick till it's loose and clear from the pole.
2. Remove it from the bridge. In acoustic with pines, remove them with pines and not with pines, so as to avoid scattering the bridge. In electrical terms, the rope goes out through the bridge or from the back of the body.
3. Pass the new string. To be acoustic, put the ball (the end with a ring) into the hole, put the pin with its slot and look at the string and, while you push it, pull a little of the string up so that the ball sits onto the internal wood and does not get mounted at the end of the pin.
4. Take the string to his stick, pass it through the pole hole and tighten up till it's straight. Then put back about 5 to 7 cm of loot for the thick, something more for the thin.
5. Fold the tip and turn the lever so that the turns will spiral down the pole. The string should reach straight from the cebula, without scattering other poles. In three and three clawks, passing through the inner side, between the two rows of clawks.
6. Fits close to the note, check that the string is in its beecuela and bridge slot and cut the leftovers with half an centimeter.

Two or three turns in the tighten and four or five in the priors are enough. with very few scattering and with far too many they are mounted onto each other and tuning moves.

If your electric has a floating bridge

He changes a string at once and refines every few times, because as a bridge clears and puts the rest down. If it's a Floyd Rose system with screws that strap the ropes into his cebula, ask that first time your teacher or a luthier show you the process.

Step by step: classical guitar (nylon)

1. Loosen and remove the old string. Undo the knot from the bridge rather than cut it onto the wood.
2. The new string passes through the bridge hole from the face of his mouth back, leaving about 6 to 8 cm of spare.
3. Redirect that end above the bridge, put it under its own rope and put it once or twice more under itself, glued to the back edge of the bridge. At the priors (1, 2 and 3), they are smooth and slip, give 3 passes or make a small knot at the end.
4. Pull the long string so that the knot will be adjusted against the border of the bridge, without the end touching the cover.
5. At the clamp, pass the string through the roller hole, turn around about to drill and roll up so that the string goes up above the roller and the turns step onto the framed end.
6. That's fine. Check his slot and cut his leftovers and leave an inch.

The cover of the classic is thin: prevents the end of the knot from hitting the wood by tensile and never let a loose string pounding the cover.

How to stretch and tuning new strings

The new ropes are stretching up during the first few hours and that's why they get out of tune again and again.

1. Fits them all to his note, always up to her: if you pass, come down a little and get back up. Thus the gears of the stick are firm.
2. Take every string about half with his thumb and his index and gently seast his diapason about a few centimetres and walk his length. No pull and no sign by his bridge.
3. Reapine: you'll see how she's been down.
4. Repeat two or three times, till you barely move.

With metal, tuning stabilizes at one or two sessions. With nylon, with several days of re-tuning often and with the most stretching priors. If standard tuning still costs you, we explain string by string at [how to tuning guitar].](/blog/como-afinar-la-guitarra).

Common errors

• To misestimate the leavage: with very little scattering and with a great deal, the pole is filled with tipple.
• Filling upside down: the string goes cross and that stick turns opposite the others.
• Do not check that the string entered his cebula slot.
• Filling with force a new string to "quickly stretch": the bridge is broken or moved.

The first time, your [acoustic guitar] teacher](/clases/guitarra-acustica) or [electrical guitar]](/clases/guitarra-electrica) He can come with you in class and after two or three changes, you'll be with him in a quarter hour.

Frequently asked questions