Tips and Guides

How to Clean a Guitar – Steps, Household Products and More

by

Is your guitar in need of some tlc?  Are you wondering how to clean a guitar?

I’ll walk you through everything you need to know to clean your guitar like a pro.

You can use basic household items to get the job done, no need to buy expensive cleaners.

Let’s dive in and I’ll show you how to clean a guitar.

Why You Need to Clean Your Guitar

Your guitar’s surfaces can become dirty, stained, rust and even have the finishing break down over time due to contaminants from you and the environment where you keep your guitar.  

Oils and sweat from your skin can affect the finish.  This would happen slowly, however. But it can be completely avoided with regular cleaning.  Sweat can cause rust on your guitar’s screws, strings, bridge and pickup pole pieces.

If you store your guitar out in the open, whether on a stand, hanger, leaning, etc… This can allow dust, pet hair, pollen and other airborne debris to settle on your guitar.

If you clean your guitar regularly, you’ll improve its playability, increase the lifespan of the finish and it just looks and feels better when it’s clean.

How Often Should I Clean a Guitar?

The best way to keep your guitar from getting excessive dirt and grime build-up is to wipe it down after every practice session or gig.  Use a soft cloth to wipe away all dirt and sweat so it doesn’t have the chance to settle onto the strings. hardware and body.  If you don’t wipe it down every time, try to at least do it once per week. 

Your fretboard should be cleaned at least once every few months. Or, you can simply clean your fretboard each time you’re changing the strings. You should change the strings every two to four months (unless gigging/recording daily).

Household Items to Clean Your Guitar

Let’s review the basic household cleaners you can use when cleaning your guitar:

  • Lemon oil
  • Naphtha (Lighter Fluid)
  • Mineral spirits
  • Distilled vinegar
  • Vegetable oil soap
  • Water

Lemon is a popular choice to clean fretboards. It also works to restore oils into the wood while cleaning. Use it sparingly to coat the wood, let it sit for a minute and buff it with a soft, dry cloth.

Naphtha (lighter fluid) works and is safe to use on your guitar.  As it is highly flammable make sure to only use it in an open space with fresh air.  Follow safety directions on the product label.  You can use it on wood, fretboards, finishes, bridges and pickguards.  It is safe for nitro and poly finishes.  It can leave a flat, dry haze but can easily be buffed out to a nice shine.  Note: Make sure to only use a lighter fluid that has no additives.

Mineral spirits work well to remove sticky items from the fretboard. This product shouldn’t be your “go-to” cleaner, however. You can harm the fretboard by aggressively rubbing with mineral spirits.

Never use full-strength vinegar on your guitar. However, dabbing a little distilled vinegar onto a moist Q-tip or cloth works well. Don’t ever pour it (or any other cleaner) directly onto any part of the guitar.  The biggest downfall here is the smell.

You can use vegetable oil soap to clean your guitar. It’s a soap made from coconut, vegetable oil, and water.  This can also be diluted or, just make sure to wipe it off completely.  A word of warning: Don’t use actual vegetable oil that you would use for cooking, what we’re talking about is soap.

Water works well in the absence of any of the above cleaners. Use a lightly dampened cloth when applying water. Never pour it on the wood directly. Water won’t help much when cleaning a filthy guitar but it works well for light cleaning. 

How to Clean a Guitar Fretboard with Household Items

Place your guitar on a safe surface, such as a table with a soft cloth or bed sheet on it. 

Remove all the strings when doing a deep cleaning. Many guitarists vehemently argue that you can’t remove a guitar’s strings all at once.  However, temporarily removing them to clean your guitar isn’t going to harm the instrument. Most luthiers would agree that no setup will be required if you remove all the strings.  The only exception to this, where you may not want to remove all the strings at once would be Floyd Rose or Ibanez Edge style tremolos.  It can make it difficult to restring and may need adjustments after being restrung.

Using a cotton ball or micro-fiber cloth, use your chosen household item to clean the fretboard.  No matter your chosen cleaner, don’t put too much on. Dab a little on your cloth, and then wipe away dirt and grime one fret at a time. Wipe away any excess cleaner with a dry cloth or cotton ball. 

If you’ve purchased a conditioner, then apply it to the fretboard after using the cleaner. Use it sparingly and use a cloth to wipe away any excess. 

Applying too much cleaner or conditioner is a common mistake made by many players. Once you’re done, let your guitar sit for a good 10-15 minutes before playing it again. 

How To Clean Guitar Strings

You should clean your strings after each playing session since it helps avoid changing them as often due to breakdown from sweat as we talked about earlier.  Wipe down the strings with a microfiber cloth. Focus on removing any moisture and buildup.

How to Clean a Guitar Neck

Naphtha (lighter fluid) comes in handy for the neck. Apply a little naphtha to a microfiber cloth and use it to wipe down your guitar’s neck. Go easy as you lift off any soil from the wood. Rubbing too hard only serves to polish the neck. Work the cloth while avoiding any removed soil from getting back onto the wood. 

How to Clean a Guitar’s Bridge and Hardware

For regular cleaning just wipe down with a microfiber cloth.

When you need to deep clean the bridge, remove it and use a toothbrush and conditioner to remove dirt and grime. You can use cotton balls to get into the saddle slot. 

You can use WD-40 or 3-in-One oil on the metal hardware. Remove it, however, because these cleaners can’t come in contact with your guitar’s wood.

How to Clean a Guitar Body

Water works the best on your guitar’s finish. Dampen a microfiber cloth and wipe away all grime and dirt. Rinse the cloth periodically to ensure that you’re removing all dust and grime. 

Avoid using lemon oil, alcohol, or other solvent-based cleaners on the finish. They can cause damage if used too often or too much is used. 

What Products Shouldn’t You Use When Cleaning a Guitar?

Let’s review products that you shouldn’t ever use on your guitar. 

Avoid anything with bleach in it. The only thing bleach will help you achieve is to change the color of your fretboard. That’s not typically something any guitar player wants to do!

Furniture polish shouldn’t get applied to a guitar’s finish or fretboard. It can stain some finishes and even dry out the wood. 

It’s a good idea to stay away from acetone. You might find some guitar players talking positively about it on a forum here and there. Acetone is potent, however. It might work if you dilute it properly with water. For most guitar players, it’s simply something to stay away from. Too many other safer cleaners exist. 

Some players use toothpaste when cleaning the frets. The best recommendation is to refrain from using toothpaste anywhere near your guitar. It can have adverse effects on the instrument’s wood. It’s not a good idea to apply toothpaste to the frets unless you’re 100% certain you have the fretboard protected. 

Conclusion

You now know how to clean a guitar! 

You might find that it takes a while to get used to the process. You’ll get faster over time once you discover your preferred cleaners and get more comfortable with the cleaning process.

Your next action item is to take out the guitar and give it a thorough cleaning for the first time. Then, watch how much better it feels when you pick it up to play again.

If you enjoyed this article, please check out our most recent posts:

How to Hold a Guitar – Posture, Position & Comfort

by
How to hold a guitar

Have you ever wondered how to hold a guitar? Holding a guitar may seem simple and obvious, and although it is definitely not difficult there are some helpful tips that can make it easier and have long-lasting, positive results.

Playing guitar involves a certain amount of dexterity, so you need to get your position right to play comfortably and effortlessly, especially for longer periods of time.  

The type of guitar you like to play will dictate your posture, so a classical guitarist will set up very differently from someone playing electric guitar.

Below you’ll find a breakdown of how to hold different guitars, how to hold a pick, as well as some other helpful info.

How to Hold an Acoustic Guitar

A lot of people who decide to learn guitar do so on an acoustic.  This type of guitar is probably the bulkiest that you will come across, so you’ll have to position it slightly differently from how you would hold other guitars.  

As a beginner, it is better to learn to play them sitting down if you can.  The thickness of the body can make it difficult to play standing up until you get comfortable with the size and how to position the guitar.

If you are right-handed, place the guitar on your right thigh with the neck slightly higher than horizontal. You need to make sure that you’re not holding the guitar too tightly. It should support itself with minimal interference, if any, from you.  Your strumming arm should sit comfortably against the body of the guitar, while the fretting arm should bend at 90 degrees to easily navigate the fretboard.

To play standing, make sure to secure your strap. Find a comfortable strap height where your strumming/picking arm is resting gently over the side and top of the body. Adjust your posture to a relaxed position and make sure you can easily access the entire fretboard without straining.

How to Hold a Classical Guitar

The positioning for a classical guitar is slightly different from an acoustic.  This ensures good posture and makes it easier to navigate the fretboard.  

Classical guitars sit on the same side leg as the fretting hand and you commonly raise your thigh using a small footstool.  The bridge end of the guitar should sit nicely on the inside of the thigh, causing the neck to point up in the air around 45 degrees. 

Can you hold a classical guitar just like you would an acoustic?  The answer is of course YES.  A classical guitar is still a guitar and you can hold/play it just like an acoustic.

How to Hold an Electric Guitar

If you want to sit down when you’re playing electric guitar, then you should hold it in the same way as you would an acoustic. However, make sure that the model that you’ve got sits nicely on your lap. 

While the standard Stratocaster or Les Paul shape fits perfectly on your thigh, something like a Flying V or an Explorer is far from perfect for playing while sitting down.  It’s not impossible however,  you can rest the inverted point of the V on your right thigh and play similarly as you would with a classical guitar. 

In general, with an electric guitar, it’s common to stand while playing.  To achieve this you need to make sure you have a guitar strap.  Attach the strap to the strap pegs and make sure it is secured.  The last thing you want is a dented guitar!

The guitar body should sit a little higher than waist height with the neck pointing slightly upwards from horizontal. You’ve probably seen many guitarists performing with low-slung guitars. It does look pretty cool, but it’s also really hard for a beginner to get their fingers in the right place as you are now having to reach farther.

Try different strap lengths, find what’s comfortable and what allows you the best range of motion for playing.

How to Hold a Bass guitar

A bass guitar has a longer neck than a standard guitar and is usually a lot heavier so that the low notes reverberate more.  Like an electric guitar, you can play a bass sitting down if that is what suits you best.  

However, if you choose to play standing, shortening the strap can help you reach the frets easier.  Because the neck is longer, it can be challenging to reach the lowest notes if the bass is too close to the ground. 

You rarely strum a bass guitar, so having it sat that bit higher helps your hand stay free and speeds up your movement around the guitar.

Once again, try different strap lengths, go with what’s comfortable. 

How to Hold a Guitar Pick Properly

Hold the pick, in your strumming hand, between your thumb and index finger. 

Grip is important but make sure not to hold the pick too tightly.  This shouldn’t feel like a struggle, hold it firm and comfortably.

Whether you choke up or down on the pick depends on your comfort level, the type of music you are playing, whether you are strumming or picking, etc…

Try a bunch of different pick brands and thicknesses.  Your picks are an important tool that you will use a lot and you’ll want to spend the time finding which you like the best.

Final Thoughts

If you are sitting while playing, make sure you choose the right chair.  It needs to be comfortable, but it also needs to have the correct structure.  For example, a chair with two armrests makes playing sitting down a lot more difficult and uncomfortable.  A chair you sink into may elevate the body of the guitar enough that it’s also in an uncomfortable position.

No matter what type of guitar, chair, strap, jam space, practice room, etc.. you have.  It benefits you to make sure your posture and positioning are just right.  Getting into a bad habit now is something that is going to follow you throughout your life.  

Being comfortable is essential to putting in long, repetitive practice sessions.  Take a bit of time to get your posture right now, and you will reap the benefits moving forward.

If you enjoyed this article, please check out our most recent posts:

Parts of a Guitar – Electric and Acoustic (with pictures)

by

Guitars come in an array of styles, shapes, and colors. However, despite this amazing variety, all guitars share a common basic build. You may think to yourself that a guitar has three parts: a body, a neck, and strings, right? 

Well, yes, that’s true in the most basic sense. But each of those components is made up of a number of parts that all come together to create what we know as a guitar. What are the parts of a guitar, and what are their functions? We include ‘parts of a guitar’ diagrams for both electric and acoustic guitars. This information will surely come in handy for you on your journey to rock stardom! 

Guitar Body

The body of the guitar is the largest area of the instrument and is where the guitar captures and projects the sound. The parts of a guitar body include the following:

Guitar Top

Parts of a Guitar

Sometimes known as the soundboard, the guitar top is the front-facing side of the guitar. It is where the strings are struck, and it holds most of the sound-making components of the guitar. Guitar tops can be flat or what is known as an arch-top.

Sound Hole

All acoustic and most non-solid-body electric guitars have sound holes. For acoustics, the most common type is a round hole near the center but slightly toward the neck of the guitar. Arch-top acoustics and semi-hollow and hollow-body electric guitars often have f-hole sound holes that are on either side of the guitar top.

The decorative area around the sound hole is known as the Rosette.

Pickguard 

A pickguard, also known as a scratchplate, is a piece of plastic or resin that helps prevent scratch marks on the guitar top. Not all guitars have pickguards.

Pickups 

Found on all electric guitars as well as on some acoustics. Pickups are magnets that pick up the vibrations of the strings and send them to an amplifier to produce sound. On acoustic guitars, some pickups will grab sound from the body’s chamber as well.

Volume and Tone Controls

All guitars with pickups will have some form of these controls. They include volume and tone potentiometers, or “pots.” If the guitar has multiple pickups, then the guitar will usually have a pickup selector switch as well.

Bridge

The bridge anchors the strings to the guitar and raises them above the body so that they can ring out. The bridge consists of the bridge piece, the string anchor, and the string saddle. Some bridges are attached to the body while others are floating. Floating bridges use a tailpiece to anchor the strings.

Sides

The sides are sometimes referred to as the ribs and are the pieces between the top, or front, and the back of the guitar.

Back

This is the piece of the body that faces the player. For acoustic guitars, it is also where the bracing can be found.

Binding

The binding is a strip of material that joins the parts of a guitar’s body together. It can be made of wood, plastic, nitro-cellulose, or other materials. Binding can be ornamental or can blend in with the rest of the body.

Some guitar necks also use binding between the neck back and fretboard or on the edges of the headstock.

Bracings

Acoustic guitars have bracings inside the body of the guitar. Bracing is a series of wood pieces that reinforce the body and help shape the sound of the guitar. Common bracing styles include ladder bracing and cross bracing.

Strap Pegs

Strap pegs are where you attach your strap to your guitar. The rear peg is on the rear end of the guitar body’s side. The other peg is usually on the front of the upper side of the body, although sometimes it can be found on the heel of the neck. 

Guitar Neck 

While the guitar body is the main piece of the guitar, the neck is the other major piece. It’s where a player changes notes and creates chords. What we call the neck is actually made of many different parts, all working together to complete the guitar. The parts of a guitar that make up the neck are:

Backside

This is the largest single piece of the neck. It is usually made of hardwood, like Maple or Mahogany, but can also be made of other materials like graphite or metal. It is usually c-shaped, and it is what you grip with your hand.

Some guitar neck backs include a heel that connects the neck to the body of the guitar. Other guitars use a bolt-on system, and still, others have a neck-thru-body style of build, where the neck and the body are made from the same piece of wood.

A guitar neck heel is more common on acoustic guitars, while a bolt-on or neck-thru-body style is more common for electric guitars.

Truss Rod 

A truss rod is a threaded metal rod that sits in a channel of the guitar neck and below the fretboard. It helps keep the neck straight and keeps it from bowing too much. 

The truss rod runs the length of the neck and can be adjusted to alleviate or increase tension. This ensures that all the notes are in tune and that the strings don’t sit on the frets, causing a buzz.

Fretboard/Fingerboard

The guitar’s fretboard is where you form notes and chords with the strings. Although some fretboards are made of synthetic material, the vast majority are made with hardwoods, mostly Maple or Rosewood varieties.

The fretboard is a major component of the guitar’s tone, feel, and playability.

Frets 

Frets are the metal rails on the fretboard of the guitar neck. The frets are what delineate the notes that the guitarist plays. Frets come in a number of sizes and will have a different feel for the player and different interactions with the strings.

Some bass guitars are fretless basses, meaning that the fretboard is smooth with no frets. These are commonly seen in jazz music, although players in other genres use them as well. Fretless guitars are also made, although they are extremely uncommon.

Position Markers

Most fretboards will have inlays that help a guitarist know where they are on the neck. Inlays can be made from a variety of materials and in a variety of shapes. The most common shape for a position marker is a dot or a rectangle.

Nut

The nut is the guitar neck’s counterpart to the bridge saddle. It supports the strings above the fretboard and also sets the spacing of the strings along with the saddle. The nut can be made from many types of material, including plastic, bone, resin, or metal.

The type of nut you have on your guitar will have an effect on how the string sounds and plays.

Headstock​

The headstock is at the top of the neck and is where the strings are attached on the other side of the guitar from the saddle. The headstock houses the tuning pegs and is usually where the guitar maker will put their logo.

Headstocks can be any number of shapes and sizes. They can be very plain or incredibly ornate and tend to be some of the more interesting parts of a guitar visually. The parts of a guitar that make up the headstock, include:

Tuning Pegs

Also known as machine heads, tuning keys, or tuners. The tuning pegs hold the ends of the strings and allow the guitar player to increase or decrease tension on the strings to tune them to the right note.

Check out our guide on How to Tune a Guitar for more info.

String Post / Capstan

The post is what the string is wound on. They are connected to the machine head.

Guitar Strings

Guitar strings are what you pick, pluck or strum to create sound through vibrations. Guitar strings come in different varieties made with different materials. Electric guitar strings are made of different kinds of metal and are made by winding thin wire around a thicker core wire. They can be either round-wound or flat-wound, and each produces a different sound.

While standard acoustic guitar strings are also made of metal, classical guitar strings are made of nylon or other synthetic material.

Check out our beginners guide on How to String a Guitar for step by step instructions and tips that will help you swap your strings like a pro.

How Guitars Are Made

Now that you’re familiar with all the different parts of a guitar. We figured it’d be relevant and informational to share videos on how both acoustic and electric guitars are made.

How Acoustic Guitars Are Made

How Electric Guitars Are Made

Final Thought

If you put all these pieces together, you have a fully functioning guitar. The variations, designs, colors, woods, electronics, etc… are endless. There are custom guitars or you can build your own. You can repaint them and swap parts to make them your own unique one-of-a-kind guitar.

Guitars are fantastic instruments and pieces of art. I hope you have enjoyed this article and have learned a bit about the parts of a guitar. Enjoy being a guitarist and thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed this article, please check out our most recent posts:

How to Play Guitar Chords – Guide and Tips for Beginners

by
How to play guitar chords

We’re going to show you twenty-eight different chord variations that you can use to learn how to play guitar chords.  Also, we will also provide you some tougher chords to work towards.  For every note, we will include major chord, minor chord, major 7th and 7th chord.

Before We Get Started

It’s worth noting that learning new chords and learning to play guitar can be frustrating.  Your fingers are not used to doing what you are now asking of them.  Learning chords does not happen overnight.  You will have to put in the time to see results.  

However, once you begin to make progress, the time involved will seem completely worth it.  You are making an inanimate object sing and that’s pretty cool.

Also, make sure you tune your guitar before playing. It’s hard to know if you’re playing the chord correctly if it’s not in tune.

How To Read Chord Diagrams

String Names and Frets

Note how the string names are across the top: E A D G B E

The frets are labeled on the side, one through six in this example.

Finger Positions

Each dot with a number represents which finger commonly goes where. These are not absolute, you can use whichever finger(s) feel the most comfortable. However, these are written in the way that most guitar players play them.

Beginner Guitar Chords

From the chords listed below, we recommend a beginner focus on chords with open strings.  For example, C D E Em A Am

These are easier to learn and will provide a solid foundation to be able to learn harder guitar chords.  As you become more proficient in playing these chords, you’ll gain finger strength and dexterity that will enable you to start advancing the difficulty of the chords you play.

How to Learn Guitar Chords?

Repetition until your fingers hurt… not kidding.  You need to teach your hands and fingers to cooperate and it takes patience, time and practice.

Hold each chord, pluck each string individually and make sure it rings out with no interference from your hand/fingers. Some chords will be much harder to do this than others. C Major 7, for example, will be much easier to pluck and let ring than F Major.

You’ll also want to spend time chord changing. The process is simple in theory, play a chord, change to another chord. This is ultimately what you’re striving for while learning to play. It’s not easy but don’t get discouraged.

Chords and Variations:

A Chords:

  • A Major
  • A Minor
  • A Major7
  • A7

B Chords:

  • B Major
  • B Minor
  • B Major7
  • B7

C Chords:

  • C Major
  • C Minor
  • C Major7
  • C7

D Chords:

  • D Major
  • D Minor
  • D Major7
  • D7

E Chords:

  • E Major
  • E Minor
  • E Major7
  • E7

F Chords:

  • F Major
  • F Minor
  • F Major7
  • F7

G Chords:

  • G Major
  • G Minor
  • G Major7
  • G7

Are There More Guitar Chords?

In addition to the chords above, which are just a few of the many, there are also augmented chords, diminished chords and suspended chords.

Augmented chords are just major chords with the fifth raised one semitone.  For example, a C chord would consist of the notes C E G.  The augmented C would include the notes C E G#.  Notice the fifth is raised one semitone from G to G#.

Diminished chords are chords consisting of the root, a minor third and a diminished fifth.  Taking the same C E G from above.  The diminished version would be C Eb Gb.

Suspended chords replace the third with another note.  For example, Csus2 would C D G.  Csus4 would be C F G

How Many Guitar Chords are There?

Researching this I found a multitude of answers:

338

2210

2341

4017

4625

And more…

The correct answer?  A chord can be defined as a three, four, five, or six note chord.  Each of these chords can have multiple variations (Maj, min, 7th, dim, aug, sus, etc..).  

Guitars have a twelve note scale.  If you were to multiply all the possibilities, you would get a number in the thousands.  But there are too many variables, as you see from the numbers above, to completely settle on a definitive number.

How to Play Bass Guitar Chords

To play chords on a bass guitar you’ll mostly focus on triad chords (chords with three notes) although there are four note chords with the root on the E string. This is just a very basic overview of bass chords. You can go really in-depth here, we’ll cover this in another article.

Helpful Tips

  • Make sure to stretch your fingers and hands before, during and after playing.
  • Tune your guitar! Make this a priority every time you play. You’l begin to develop an ear for in-tune versus out of tune.
  • Try to hold your chord and pluck each string individually to make sure each note rings out without being impeded, muted or silenced in any way by your own hand/fingers.
  • Practice, practice, practice.  A regular practice routine will ensure you keep progressing.  The better you get, the more you’ll want to play. The more you play, the better you’ll get

If you enjoyed this article, please check out our most recent posts:

How to String a Guitar – Beginners Guide

by
how to string a guitar

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.

If you enjoyed this article, please check out our most recent posts:

How to Tune a Guitar – Easy Guide for Beginners

by
how to tune a guitar

An out-of-tune guitar is no fun to play, it makes practice difficult, and let’s be honest… It also sounds terrible.

Tuning a guitar, whether acoustic, electric, bass, 12 string, etc.. is as simple as matching the note you are playing with an in-tune reference. This reference could be a physical tuner, computer software, smartphone app, tuning fork, or another instrument. If you happen to know a pitch-perfect singer, that would work too!

Luckily, tuning a guitar is very easy and can be done quickly. I have included information below that will not only help you tune your guitar but understand more about the process and answer some questions along the way.

How to Tune a Guitar

Before we get started, the directions in this first section assume you have an electronic tuner. There are different types available, including the clip-on style (pictured right). If you do not have an electronic tuner, you can scroll past this first section and apply one of the other methods.

If you have an electric guitar, plug in your guitar’s cable to the guitar as well as the input of your tuner. If you have an acoustic guitar your tuner must have a microphone to be able to identify your note.

Turn your tuner on, wait for the visual display.

Make sure you turn up your guitar’s volume knob, obviously a non-issue for an acoustic!

Pluck or pick the thickest, closest string to you (low E string) and watch for the readout on your tuner’s display.

If the display shows you below the desired note you are flat and need to increase the tightness of the string by turning your tuning peg counterclockwise slowly, while still occasionally plucking or picking the string for reference until you reach perfect E tuning.

Congratulations, you’ve tuned your first guitar string, it’s that easy!

The steps to tune the rest of the strings are identical. The only differences to be aware of are the different string/note names: E, A, D, G, B, E, and the tuning peg locations…

Most guitars will either have all six tuning pegs on one side of the headstock (term: six in a line) or a split of three on one side, three on the other (term: side by side). They all operate the same way, counterclockwise to tighten, clockwise to loosen. It may be confusing as the G, B, E tuning pegs will be upside down but you’ll get it in no time.

Tune Your Guitar Using a Piano or Other Instrument

If you have access to a piano or another guitar/instrument (assuming they are in tune) you can match the pitch by playing a note, using it as a reference, and tuning your guitar to that reference.

Here are the keys you need to be aware of on a piano:

After tuning the E string you can continue with A, D, G, B, E matching each note with a reference on the other instrument. Or, you can use the method below.

Tune Your Guitar Using the Fifth Fret

Once your E string is in tune using one of the options mentioned on this page, you can tune the rest of the strings using the fifth fret as a reference to tune the string below it.

Looking at the sixth string (thickest, closest string to you), the open note is E. The first fret note is F, the second fret is F#/Gb, the third fret is G, the fourth fret is G#/Ab and the fifth fret is A.

Next, if we look at the fifth string just below E, what is it? That’s right, A! We can use the fifth fret on the E string to tune the A string as this is the same note!

This works for A, D, G, and high E (first string) on the fifth fret. To tune the B (second) string using this method you would use the FOURTH fret on the G (third) string for reference, not the fifth fret.

How to Tune a Bass Guitar

You would tune your bass guitar the same way we tune any other guitar. The only difference being a bass has only four (E, A, D, G) or five (B, E, A, D, G) strings. Again, keep in mind the location of the tuning pegs on the headstock.  

How to Tune a 12 String Guitar

To tune a twelve string guitar, we would reference “How to Tune a Guitar” above and use the same principles. The main differences here are, you guessed it, twelve strings instead of six.

This goes a bit further as we are now introducing another octave on our first four pairs of strings. The twelve string guitar has two strings where one would normally reside. There are six pairs of two strings. Each pair is tuned to the same note (E, A, D, G, B, E) however, the first four pairs (E, A, D, G) each have a low and high octave string. In the final two pairs (B, E), both strings in each set are tuned the same, both high octaves. Twelve string tuning goes like this:

String 12: Low E ←- Note the low and high pairs
String 11: High E
String 10: Low A
String 09: High A
String 08: Low D
String 07: High D
String 06: Low G
String 05: High G
String 04: High B ←- Note that from here on they are all high tunings
String 03: High B
String 02: High E
String 01: High E

Alternate Guitar Tunings

In addition to the standard EADGBE tuning, there are plenty of other tunings to try.

Drop D Tuning

To tune to Drop D, all you do is tune the low E (6th string) down to D. It’s that simple. You can easily tune to Drop D without a tuner by tuning the 6th string down to match tuning with the 4th (D) string. Pluck the D string, pluck your E string and tune your E string down until it matches your D string. The 6th string will end up tuned to D, one octave lower than the 4th string.

Some popular songs that are played in Drop D are:

Foo Fighters – Everlong
Click here for guitar tab

Led Zeppelin – Ten Years Gone
Click here for guitar tab

Neil Young – Harvest Moon
Click here for guitar tab

Linkin Park – What I’ve Done
Click here for guitar tab

Open C Tuning

Open C tuning is CGCGCE. Popular in songs such as:

Led Zeppelin – Friends
Click here for guitar tab

Soundgarden – Burden In My Hand
Click here for guitar tab

John Butler Trio – Ocean
Click here for guitar tab

Open G Tuning

Open G tuning is tuning your guitar to DGDGBD. In comparison to standard tuning EADGBE, you can see that you will only change tuning on strings 1, 5 and 6. Noteable songs in Open G:

George Thorogood & The Destroyers – Bad To The Bone
Click here for guitar tab

The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up
Click here for guitar tab

Eric Clapton – Walkin Blues
Click here for guitar tab

Other Notable Tunings

Other tunings to be aware of:

  • Drop A – A E A D F# B
  • Drop B – B Gb B E Ab Db
  • Drop C – C G C F A D
  • Open D – D A D F# A D
  • Open E – E B E G# B E

Different Types of Guitar Tuners

There are four main types of guitar tuners to be aware of:

Non-Chromatic:

These tuners only recognize standard guitar tuning: E, A, D, G, B, E. These tuners do the trick if you’re not worried about additional tunings. However, if you want to tune alternate tunings: Drop D, DADGAD, or other open tunings, etc… this tuner style is not for you.

Chromatic:

The chromatic tuner is the most common type of guitar tuner I’ve listed here. A chromatic tuner will show the current tuning of any string in relation to the nearest semitone (half note on a chromatic scale).

The chromatic scale contains twelve notes in ascending or descending order: A, A#/Bb, B, C, C#/Db, D. D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, G#/Ab.

The chromatic tuner simply identifies the note you are playing and shows you if you are flat (too low) or sharp (too high).

These come as a plug-in type, both stand-alone and pedal, as well as microphone type, which may be included in other items such as metronomes.

Polyphonic:

Unlike a chromatic tuner which tunes one note/string at a time. A polyphonic tuner allows you as a guitarist to strum all of the strings at the same time and see the tuning of each string. Pretty cool, right?

Strobe:

For complete accuracy, strobe guitar tuners are the go-to tuner for music professionals. They use the hertz value of a chosen note and flash at the same frequency of that note. The flashing is the rotating of a disc that is set to a specific speed related to the frequency of the desired note. The more out of tune the faster the flashing effect. As you get your string closer in tune the flashing will slow and eventually, once fully in tune, the disc will appear to no longer be spinning, you’ve achieved the perfect tune!

Other Guitar Tuning Tools:

There are other ways to tune a guitar if you do not have a guitar tuner like the ones we’ve mentioned above.

Apps:

There are plenty of free tuning apps for your tablet or smartphone. A simple search on your preferred app store will show many options. I’ve include a few here:

  • GuitarTuna – Easy to use and responsive. A great all-around tuner for most stringed instruments.
  • Fender Guitar Tuner – Another fantastic tuning app from one of the most recognized brands in the guitar world.
  • gStrings Free – Simple to use, easy to read, gets the job done.

There are plenty of other options, these three are just a few of our favorites.

Online:

These are similar to the smartphone apps, just desktop/laptop-based. Some options just play a note and you match it with your guitar or with some, if you allow microphone access you can access chromatic tuning ability.

  • Fender Online Guitar Tuner – Again, what can we say, they do it well! This one just plays a note and you match it. Each string can be selected and you can loop the sound.
  • JamPlay Online Guitar Tuner – Chromatic style that requires microphone access to use.
  • ProGuitar OnlineGuitar Tuner – Similar to JamPlay, chromatic style that requires microphone access.

How Often Should I Tune My Guitar?

The simple answer here is every single time you play it. Tuning a guitar should always be the first step when you decide to pick up that guitar.

Changes in temperature and humidity, accidentally bumping the tuning pegs, aging stings, etc., all directly affect your guitar. It only takes a minute or two and the results speak for themselves. You wouldn’t sing out of tune on purpose, you shouldn’t play your guitar out of tune either, it’s no fun, trust us.

What About Travel & Storage?

The only times when you may leave your guitar out of tune or specifically tune it out of standard not for playing purposes would be traveling with your guitar in any environment that is not heat controlled, like the cargo hold of a jet, storage unit, a vehicle that is too hot/cold, etc…

What you would do in this circumstance would be to relieve some of the tension off all the strings. That way, if the temperature or humidity would force the strings to tighten. you won’t have to worry about the excessive force on the strings and neck.

How Do I Remember the String Names?

Don’t worry, soon enough it will become second nature. In the meantime, there are MANY different mnemonics that can help you remember!

Standard guitar tuning is: E A D G B E

Some of the most popular and easy to remember mnemonics:

– Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie

– Every Amp Deserves Guitars, Basses Everyday

Mnemonics in reverse order (E B G D A E):

– Easter Bunnies Get Dizzy At Easter

– Every Boy Gets Dinner At Eight

There are plenty more, I find the best option is to make one up yourself, that way you are sure to remember.

What to do Next?

  • Learn the string and note names.
  • Familiarize yourself with the tuning pegs and their direction of rotation.
  • Practice tuning with electronic tuners and work your way up to tuning by ear using a pitch reference and tuning using the fifth fret method.

Final Thought

Always tune your string UP to the desired note from flat. If your string is too sharp or you tuned it too far past your reference, make sure you tune it flat (below) your reference and then adjust up to the note.

This makes sure the string is under the correct tension and doesn’t back off or store tension on the nut (see picture right) which could release and cause the note to go flat.

There are locking tuners available that provide more tuning stability. They work by clamping the string inside the tuning post.

Now go tune-up your guitar and jam away! Thanks for reading.

If you enjoyed this article, please check out our most recent posts: