How to Clip Excess Off of Your Guitar Strings

Video Transcript

MATT GRAHAM: Okay. So we've stretched out the strings. We've retuned the strings multiple times, and our new strings sound bright and warm and they're staying in tune. So the next thing we have to turn our attention to, how could we not, are these crazy ends of the strings that are left on the guitar. Now again, I said, you really don't need any tools to change the strings on your guitar and I'll stand by that. What you can do to get these out of your way because they're obviously going to jingle around, possibly even get in the way of your left hand like this, you can just take them one at a time and twist them or loop them, I should say, into a loose coil like this. And once you do that to all of them, it's a quick fix, you know, if you don't have wire cutters. If you do, which I do, I recommend cutting them. And when you cut these, you want to be careful not to cut at an angle like a diagonal angle like this because you're basically creating a sharp point on the string and that can be really dangerous especially when it's time to remove these when they get old. So I'm going to put my cutters at a right angle to the string and cut. And that way, it creates a nice, flat end and it's a little bit less hazardous. And you're going to leave about--between a quarter and a half inch, an eighth inch if you really want to get it out of the way. But again, the reason you would leave any slack at all or any excess at all on these is so that when you are using your pliers to pull the string off of the tuning post when you remove the strings, you'll have something to get in there with your wires and grip. So I always like to lay them down flat just so they don't poke anybody or snag on clothing or anything like that.

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