1. INTRODUCTION TO GUITARS Changing Your Strings Created By: Daniel WIeben

2. Welcome, lets get started! The purpose of this tutorial is to demonstrate and teach you how to change the strings on your guitar. We will go over the different strings and their names, the process of removing them, and finally putting your new strings on. The goals of this tutorial are for you to be able to: Demonstrate the ability to properly remove and replace the old strings. Name the different strings/ know the order they go in. Explain the use/reason behind different gauge strings. 3. Learning your guitar. Before doing anything to your instrument, it is very important to know the anatomy and layout of it, that way you will know what you are doing to what. Here are some images to help you with that! 4. Knowing your strings. Since the main purpose of this tutorial is to demonstrate and teach you how to properly replace your guitars strings, it is very important that you know which string is which. To help you out with that, here is a brief video which will show you the different strings. (Hover over and click play!) 5. A little bit of help If you are having trouble remember the order and names of the different strings, I have an acronym that you may find useful! E-eat A-a D-dead G-gator B-before e-easter Also remember: When holding the guitar in the playing position, the string at the top of the guitar (E, thickest gauge string) is technically the bottom string, and the bottom string (e, thinnest gauge string) is the top string. Bottom String Top String 6. Removing the old strings. Before you start removing your strings it is very important to know which direction to turn the tuning pegs to loosen and tighten the strings, if you over tighten them they can break on you (which can be an unpleasant experience) . You can tell which direction will loosen and tighten the strings by which way the string coils up. For example, for the guitar to the right, I would turn the tuning peg to the left to loosen and to the right to tighten the string. 7. Removing the old strings, cont. Removing your strings is actually a very simple process, to do so, follow these simple steps: 1. Turn the tuning peg the direction to loosen the string. 2. Once youve turned it enough, the string will become very loose, at this point you should be able to unwind the end and slip it out of the hole on the tuning peg; by hand. 3. After you have the string free from the tuning peg, the string should then come out through the back of the body (***if you are using an acoustic guitar***, it will come out inside the sound hole, you will be required to pull the pegs holding them into the bridge too). 8. Pop Quiz! What is the correct order for the strings on your guitar? eADGBE DGEBAe EADBGe EADGBe 9. INCORRECT! Retry! 10. Good Job! Continue Tutorial 11. Putting the new strings on. This is also a pretty simple task to do, you just follow the removing process, just backwards. 1. Feed the appropriate string into the correct hole on the back of the guitar (shown in the image to the right) and pull it all way through. 2. Next feed the tip of the string through the hole in the tuning peg, then start turning the tuning peg the correct direction to tighten the string (be sure NOT put the string on going the same way you loosened it, it can cause it to not wind correctly/fall out of tune easier). *Before tightening the string, be sure to leave a little bit of slack, allowing the string to wrap around the tuning peg at least 2-3 times. 3. Repeat those steps for the remaining strings, then tune the guitar. 12. Finishing up Congratulations on putting your new guitar strings on! The hard part is now over, and you have have a couple simple, optional, steps left. *Recommended* After putting a fresh set of strings on, your guitar may fall out of tune the first couple times you tune it (due to the strings stretching). You may need to end up tuning your guitar 2-4 times (with at least 30 minutes between each) for the guitar to be tuned correctly. After putting your new strings on, you will have long, sharp ends left on the strings. To get rid of this annoyance, you can get wire cutters and trim them up to about - from the tuning peg. 13. Thanks for using this tutorial, I hope you enjoyed it! Shred on Restart Tutorial Exit Tutorial