Last Updated on October 2, 2022 by Guitarist Authority
Whether you have never changed your strings, or are looking for some tips to make it easier. This guide will cover everything you need to know about how to string a guitar.
In this guide, I’ll talk about the basics of how to change guitar strings. I’ll include instructions both for how to change acoustic guitar strings and how to change electric guitar strings. I’ll also share some tips and tricks to help things go smoothly.
Here is a helpful video from Fender that shows the steps to restring an acoustic guitar:
This video will show you the steps to restring an electric guitar:
What are Guitar Strings Made of?
Most guitars, whether acoustic or electric, have six strings. Four of them are wound strings with a heavier bass tone, and two are plain with a brighter treble tone.
The strings that hit the lowest notes are thicker so they can create rich bass. They’re usually made from a carbon steel hex core wire with another wire wrapped around it. The treble strings are generally a single strand of steel, sometimes with a nickel plating.
On acoustic strings, the wrap wire is generally either phosphor bronze or 80/20 bronze. On electric guitar strings, the wrap wire is usually nickel, nickel-plated steel, or stainless steel.
Classical guitars use strings made from pure nylon.
What String Thickness Should I Use?
Guitar strings come in full sets. These are usually categorized by the diameter of the thinnest and thickest strings measured in fractions of inches. You may see something like “.009 – .042” on the package. Sets of strings commonly get referred to by the first thickness listed, which is the thinnest string (the high E string). Eg. a set of 9’s.
Jazz guitarists tend to use thicker strings measuring somewhere around 11’s to 13’s. These produce louder, richer tones with more sustain. They’re also harder to hold down on the fretboard and more difficult to bend.
Similarly, metal guitarists commonly use 10’s to 12’s. These are thicker so you don’t have to worry about breaking them from playing hard and fast but still allow for easy bends.
If you’re a beginner guitarist, I recommend a light set with the thinnest string around .008 to .0011 in diameter. These will be easier to hold down and allow you to play for longer with less finger pain.
What is the Correct Guitar String Order?
Standard Tuning: E A D G B E
Guitar strings go on the guitar in order of their thickness and are numbered one to six. The thickest string goes on top and the thinnest on the bottom.
Known as the sixth string, this is the thickest string and is tuned to a low E note. Next, the fifth string is the A string, the fourth string is the D string, the third string plays G and the second string is B. Finally, the first string, the thinnest string, closest to the floor, plays a high E note.
How Often to Change Guitar Strings
How often to change the strings on a guitar depends on things like your playing style, how often you play, and the humidity and temperature of where you live. If you start to notice wear or dented spots on the strings, it’s probably time for a change.
You’ll notice as your strings age they lose that bright new sound and begin to sound duller. If you continue to play dull, worn strings, you are at risk of having a string break.
How to Remove Guitar Strings
1. Loosen the strings one by one until they have enough slack to rest gently on the frets. Start from the thinnest string, and work your way to the thickest.
2. Use string cutters, wire cutters or even toenail clippers to snip the strings, one at a time. Remove the remnants from both ends of your guitar.
3. If you have an acoustic guitar, you’ll need to take out the bridge pins that hold the ball end of the strings in place. Use a fork or a small flat-head screwdriver to lift the pins straight up, one at a time. Don’t pull at an angle, or the bridge pins might snap.
4. Take advantage of your empty guitar surface to clean some hard-to-reach places. Wipe the headstock, fretboard and around the bridge with a rag or sponge.
How to Restring a Guitar
If you learn how to restring a guitar using a simple S-bend, you’ll spend less time and have fewer accidents than with any other method. Stringing a guitar with an S-bend like a pro makes it easy to remove the strings from the tuning posts. If a string breaks near a tuning post, the end should just slip smoothly out of the opening without any struggle or specialized tools.
1. Let’s start with the thickest string. If your guitar is electric, just push the open end of the low E string through the bridge entry nearest to the top of your guitar. Pull it through until the ball end sits against its bridge entry.
2. If your guitar is acoustic, insert the ball end of the low E string into the bridge hole nearest to the top of the guitar. You can kink the string a little where it touches the bridge plate to make it easier to handle. Insert the bridge pin into its hole to keep the string in place. Don’t be afraid to press it in nice and hard to make sure the string doesn’t come loose.
3. Repeat the above steps for the rest of the strings, continuing with the thick fifth string and ending with the thinnest first string.
4. Now, let’s move to the other end of the guitar, where the head is. Make sure the holes in each tuning post point the same direction as the neck.
5. Starting with the thickest string, align it over its bridge saddle slot at one of the end of the guitar and its nut slot at the other end. Poke the end of the string through the hole in the closest tuning post and pull it tight.
6. Create some slack in the string between the bridge and the nut by placing four fingers between the string and the fretboard.
7. It’s time for the S-bend trick. Make a kink in the string in opposite directions above and below the tuning post. It works best if you bend both sides of the string at the same time. It should look like an S with the tuning post in the middle.
8. Rotate the tuning post to wind up the remaining slack. The tuning post should wind away from the middle of the headstock with the side of the string that goes down the neck coming off the inside of the tuning post.
9. Wrap the first coil around the open end of the string to hold it firmly in place. Each wrap should coil directly below the previous wrap so that the final coil is nice and snug against the headstock.
10. If you calculated the slack right, the thickest strings should get two or three full wraps, and the thinner ones should get around four or five. You don’t want too many wraps or they might pile unevenly on top of each other and make it harder to tune the guitar. If you use too few wraps, the string might slip out.
11. Snip the tail end of the string close to where it passes under the first coil. You don’t want to cut it too close or it could slip out. Don’t leave too much sticking out either, or it could snag on your clothes or skin.
12. Hook the string with your finger around the 12th fret, and bend it a little to stretch it out. This will help it stay in tune.
Repeat steps six through 12 for the rest of the strings, again working from thickest to thinnest.
Once you’ve secured both sides of all the strings, it’s time to tune your guitar. Keep the tension even by moving between strings, tightening each one a little at a time.
Useful Tips and Tricks
- When you’re learning how to string a guitar, it’s easy to lose pieces. The most common guitar parts that go missing include the bridge pins, the nut, the saddle and the tuner bushings. To prevent this, make sure to change your guitar strings on an empty tabletop.
- If it seems like you’re breaking more strings than normal, check your guitar for sharp edges. Common culprits include the edges on the tuning post, the saddle and the bridge.
- You can use the graphite from a soft pencil to lubricate the slots in the nut. This lets each string slide smoothly over the nut when you tune the guitar and helps keep it from getting out of tune.
What to do Next?
After you have changed to a brand new pair of strings you’ll want to tune them. Check out our guide “How to Tune a Guitar – Easy Guide for Beginners“.
The only thing I would add to that guide is to make sure to give your new strings a good couple of stretches as they will go out of tune much sooner when new.
