Changing Strings for the First Time and It's Off

Seeing's how I'm now playing in front of people and increasingly in the proximity of my family, I thought it necessary to change the strings. I don't want one to break and kill one of them, and I don't want to be brought to my knees screaming as a string breaks and slices my kidney in half.

Enlisting the help of my dad (who has experience changing guitar strings), I set out to accomplish this feat. It's actually really simple; I was concerned that it sounded too easy. It really is as easy as it sounds, and that's what I wish someone had told me.





I was recommended Martin & Co. (Est. 1833!) Marquis 80/20 bronze .012-.054's by Tad, the guy who rang up my order when I bought my guitar.

Beeyutiful. (Sic.) Yeah, pink and (this shade of) purple pull on my heartstrings, what of it?

I'm totally sold on Martin now, and that will be my future "I'm actually a real guitarist" guitar. I'm planning to skip the $600, $800, and $1,800 stages so I only have my FG700S dreadnaught and a GG cutaway by the name of Samus. It of course has to be a blond (i.e., natural wood finish). Of course. And secretly, I'll put green, red, and orange stickers on the inside, fastened lovingly with gelatin glue, and we'll grow old together and have jam sessions after every completed Metroid game, and I'll learn all the Metroid songs. And paint pictures of us. With swings. Oh, but listen to me go on.

They're about $7 a set. I need to keep a few sets on hand. I think I will try the .013-.056's next- they're not that much bigger, right? And they come in a really neat blue box.




I didn't have a string winder, but it's not difficult to do without one. I think it even made it less nerve-wracking. Here are the resources I found most useful: this great, one-printer-page guide found on McCabe's Guitar Shop in California's website, and the restringing guide from Frets.com which has more pictures and description but is obviously longer.


And of course, here's how I did it.

After letting the tension off of the string, we used needle-nose pliers to get the pin out, because it's a new guitar and they're hard to take out by hand when it's new. Should be easier next time. Note that my dad used a cloth so as not to scratch the pegs and he didn't try to crush them. He used this time to tell me more of his string changing career. Turns out, his dad used to play guitar in church, too. I guess it runs in the family. They went to a Christian Satanist church. Weird, huh?


I replaced them one string at a time since it was my first change, and I don't think my fret board needs a deep cleaning this soon. I don't have a fear of taking them all off at once otherwise.

This is what the pins look like.


Go look at one of my provided links for details on what happens inside the guitar; basically, you put the ball end of the string into the hole, then push the pin in.

Now to the other side. Slowly, my dad revealed that he didn't actually have a guitar with strings, but line. Fishing line. But he did have six gauges.


Put the string through, then pull it taut. Then, measure about an inch and a half past where the string comes out of the gear, and let that inch and a half back through. (Depending on how you like to wind your strings, it could be 1", 1 1/4", or 1 1/2"). Then put a kink in it, then thread it under, like in the above photo. Then (and I forgot to do this) bend the string up. This will keep it locked into place and it would have made the process much easier for me. You can clip it at this point so that only an inch or so is sticking up. That would have made my life easier last night.

Then you simply turn the gear, taking care to wind the string onto the peg in a manner that looks right. I wind going down instead of up. It seems righter. I wound one of my strings backwards, and as a result, it was pushing against one of the pegs. I had to undo it and certainly it will snap one of these days very soon. Drat. I'll change my strings out again sooner thanks to my paranoia.


And, that's it. Repeat six times. Here are the links again: the one page guide, and the longer guide. I'll post a final edition of "How I change strings" once I can wind them flawlessly and look good doing it.


That guitar has never singed as brightly. The brightness goes away fast, but it still sounds better. And I was beginning to have a small problem with buzz, and I think the new strings fixed it. Oh, and it's off. To the shop. I'll make a post about that a bit later. (And I'll try to post more, I've been too busy making sure what I'll be posting is correct. I.e., I've been learning.)