How to Replace Strings on an Acoustic Guitar

Video Transcript

Hi, my name is Tim Ambrosius. I'm a professional guitar tech. And what I'm going to show you today is how to replace a string on an acoustic guitar. What you'll need is just one of these peg winders and a tuner. First, just loosen the string. Then take the peg winder, it's got a little slot on it to take the peg out. Slide it in, pull the peg out, and just pull the string off the post. Next, with your string, you'll see that it has one ball end on the string. What you want to do is take that end and put that end in the hole and push the pin below it, or next to it. Now it's not when you, when it gets in there, it's not going to sit like that, it's not going to sit with the ball end like that, it's going to sit like that jammed between the body and the pin. So, it's kind of tricky. You put that in there, and you'll sort of see it slide past the ball end. And, so pull the string tight, push down, and pull the string itself tight. They're gonna give you a lot of extra string. You don't need all that string. All you need is about a post of extra string. So, since I'm changing the "e" string, I'll measure it off the "a" post. Bring the string back, run it through the tuning machine, bring it up to where I marked it. Bend it, so just in case you know you lose your spot, something happens, you can just bring it right back. Take your peg winder, so just spin it. Make sure that the wraps go inside, follow the same like pattern on the same side. So, all these are facing on the inside. So, you want to follow that pattern. Pull the string tight. The other thing you want to make sure is that the strings, the wraps go down the post. They go underneath each other as you wrap it. That will help the string break over the nut so that it won't rattle through the nut. When it's all said and done, you'll have about two or three wraps down the post. And you just want to tune it up to pitch. If you bend the string it sort of helps tighten the wraps. Tune it up to pitch. Now, what you want to do is run your fingers below the string and stretch it out. This will help tighten the wraps around the post, help it hold it in tune better. Do that twice. Get your wire clippers. Clip of the end of the string, and there you have it.

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