How do you re-string an acoustic guitar?

Answer 1

I'm a repair guy in a music store. This is what I do. The first thing that will make this 10 times easier is a string winder. This lets you crank and uncrank the strings extremely fast, and you can even get some that have specially designed string cutters built in (best things I've ever used, don't use scissors, use wirecutters) for when you need to clip off the remains, and "shovels" to help remove the bridge pins. Next, take off the strings. There's no special technique. Just unwind the pegs, take out the bridge pins, and throw out the string. Next, you want to take care of the fretboard. While the strings are off, this is the only opportunity you have to cure the fretboard. You can use lemon oil or valve oil (available at your music store) among other things to wipe down the frets and restore moister to it. Put the oil on the cloth, NOT the wood itself. If you don't take care of it, over time the fretboard can dryout and crack. Next, take a string (in no particular order) and put the end of it, usually a ball shape, in the corresponding pinhole at the bridge. Then put the bridge pin back in with the cutout groove facing to the soundhole so the string does not go on backwards. Before putting another string in another pinhole, take that string and pull it to the headstock with considerable tension. You want to wrap the string around the post a few times before putting it through the hole, this keeps tune better (You have to wrap with the string going to the outside, this is how the tuning machines are built). These are rough estimations I've made for the amount of wraps for each string before putting it through the post-hole: Low E-string-1 time, A-string-1.5 times, D-string- 2 times, B-string- 3 times, High E-string- 4 times. Remember to keep tension while wrapping them around. Now you can put the string through the post-hole, but after you put it through make sure the string comes out on top of the wraps, then pull it as hard as you can to reduce excess slack (maybe even use needlenose plyers). Then, keep tension with a finger pressed down on the string at the first fret and wind the string to pitch, hopefully with a string winder, and this keeps it looking nice and clean. Then what you can do, which not many people are aware of, is hold the string at the 7th fret, then jerk and pull it up. Pull hard, don't be shy. Continue to do this on the 5th and 3rd fret, then tune it back to pitch. You'll find it go down quite a bit in pitch. This breaks in the string, because usually with new strings you have to tune every 5 minutes until they wear in. Repeat that process for all the strings, then when you're done, clip the strings as close to the post-hole as you can. Optional: Some people like to get a string polish and use it right after the new strings are on. I recommend Dunlop '65

Answer 2

Here's the best / easiest way to do this.

1. Remove all the old strings. Forget about the urban legend nonsense that says "don't remove all the strings at one time, it will damage the neck." That's nonsense on good Guitars and the way I am describing the process is suggested by others such as Bob Taylor of Taylor guitars. You first loosen the machine heads so that the strings are quite lose (a string winder is a good investment, they cost around five bucks and will save a bunch of time.)

2. Once all the strings are loose, remove the bridge pins, which hold the strings in at the bridge end (behind the sound-hole). If they are difficult to remove, you can use that little string winder which always has a small notch in the end made to grab and pop the bridge pins out.

3. Remove the strings from the tuning posts. I generally cut the old strings with a pair of good wire cutters as this makes them easier to remove from the tuning peg holes, since the peg end of the strings are pretty kinked up due to being wound onto the peg. Throw all the pieces away before they get lost and come back later and stick someone.

4. Insert the 6th string (the largest) ball end into the bridge hole (this is normally the top hole, but "top" is relative to whether your guitar is right-handed or left-handed. Most are set up where you pick/strum with the right hand and fret with the left. Holding it like that, the top string is the one we are working on. Insert the string about 1" or so into the hole and then insert the bridge pin making sure that if your pins have grooves, the groove is facing toward the sound hole and the string passes thru this groove. Press the pin in with your thumb, excessive force is not needed. While holding the pin in with your thumb, pull the string to seat the ball end against the underside bridge plate and the pin you inserted.

5. Repeat this for the other five strings, working your way down to the smallest.

6. Take the biggest string again, and line it up on the saddle and nut and pull the string past the machine peg it attaches to. Use your wire cutters to snip it just behind the _next_ (5th string) peg head, which leaves you with about 1 1/2 inches of slack. Take the 5th string, and clip it just past the 4th string peg. For the fourth string, pull it even with it's peg, then grab the string at the 4th head, and pull it back to the 5th. Now snip it past the 4th peg. Each of the strings you have done now have about 1.5" of slack when they are inserted into their correct tuning peg.

7. Repeat this for the other side, except this time you want to increase the slack by about 50 percent. You do this by pulling the bottom string past it's tuning peg, past the 2nd string's peg, and cut the string about 1/2 way between the 2nd and 3rd pegs on the bottom. Do this for the other two strings.

8. You should now have 6 strings cut to a length where the top 3 will be about 1.5" too long, and the bottom three will be about 2.25" too long. You are almost done.

9. Turn all the tuning keys so that the holes are at a 45 degree angle with the hole angled toward the center of the tuning head end of the guitar. The three top pegs will have their holes pointing at a 45 degree angle toward the top center of the guitar head, the three bottom pegs will have their holes pointing at a 45 degree angle toward the top center of the head. The two sets of peg holes will be pointing toward each other but at that 45 degree angle.

10. Insert the largest string into the tuning peg closest to the nut on the top of the guitar. Insert it by pulling it up, and inserting it from the center of the tuning head and pointing toward the corresponding tuning key. You want it to stick out a small amount, say 2mm or so. Now Sharply bend the string down toward the bridge to create a sharp corner. Hold the string and use your key winding tool to wind the string around the tuning head. Note that the string should wrap in a clockwise direction around the peg, which means you want to turn the tuning peg itself counter-clockwise so the string leaves the peg on the inside, not on the outside.

11. Repeat this for the other two top strings.

12. Now move to the bottom strings. Do the same thing except now you will be winding in the opposite direction so that the strings leave the tuning pegs toward the inside of the tuning pegs. These strings have more slack and we want to have 5-6 wraps around the tuning pegs because at least the bottom two strings (and sometimes all 3) are not wound and are therefore easier to slip.

All that is left is to tune the thing and enjoy. This produces the nicest looking tuning peg wraps, no knotty-looking stuff. Make sure that as you wind the strings on the pegs, that each wrap goes _below_ the previous wrap so that each successive wrap is against the tuning peg and getting closer to the guitar head piece.

These strings will not slip, and are less likely to break at the peg head with this approach than with any other. You can go to the Taylor guitar site to see a video of this procedure (Taylor is one of the best guitar luthiers around and has recommended this simpler approach for several years.)