How to Restring Steel-String Acoustic Guitars

You should change your guitar strings whenever the tone or tuning suffers. Here’s how to restring quickly and easily and keep your strings in tune.

1. Start by removing the old string. You’ll see that one end of the guitar string is held in place by ball ends, which are placed in the holes of the bridge, and held in place by the bridge pins. If you can’t remove the bridge pins manually, use a string winder, which has a notch you can use to pry the pin out.
2. Once you’ve removed the bridge pin, place the new string back in the hole. Replace the pin so the groove in the pin faces the nut. The pressure of tuning the string up to pitch will keep the bridge pin in place. Keep light pressure on the pin if it shifts
   
3. Your next step is to fasten the strings at the tuners. First reserve a certain string length that will wrap around the tuners. Assume that about two inches of string will be needed beyond where the string reaches each tuner. Bend that string as a reference point and thread it through the tuner, so the string is turned around the top of the tuner.
4. As you hold the string taut with your left hand, slowly wind the tuner so the tension on the string increases. The first wrap of the string should be above the string length you are holding. After the first wrap is complete, the rest of the windings should be underneath the string length, and should continue winding downward. It’s important to wrap the string neatly. Tangles and odd windings will eventually shift as you play.
5. The first wrap of the string should be above the original string length
6. While tuning the string up to pitch, you may wish to pull on the string at the twelfth fret to let the string stretch. This stops the string from stretching out while you are actually playing. It also prevents tangled windings while you turn the tuners.

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When to Change Your Strings

In time, sweat and dirt from your hands will start to tarnish and dull the guitar strings. Eventually, the high-end brilliance and low-end bass frequencies suffer. The guitar sounds less vibrant and full. The instrument also does not ring as long.

A guitar with old strings is also harder to tune. The string eventually becomes fatigued from the constant pressure of being stretched across the guitar. Here are some tuning problems you may encounter:
• You may constantly need to retune certain strings.
• Some strings may seem to be in tune for one chord, but out of tune for others.
In any of these situations, you should change the strings.

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Buying Used or Renting Guitar

Buying a used guitar can be a great value, and many vintage instruments are prized for their tone and collectibility. However, beware of buying a used guitar that may cost a lot to repair later. Renting a guitar is a viable option if you’re not sure how much money you want to spend or what kind of guitar you want. However, they may be harder to play, or not sound quite as nice as other guitars, which might be discouraging.

It’s important that you understand how much of your early struggles are due to your lack of experience versus the instrument’s problems. It’s important for a beginner to play on a guitar that’s properly set up so that the player isn’t working harder than necessary to play the instrument

If the strings seem to be so high above the neck that it makes it hard for the fingers to press down, the guitar is considered to have high action. If the action is high, ask a sales person to adjust it. Make sure you’re completely comfortable with the way a guitar plays before you purchase it

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The Vibrato Technique

To give a guitar note a singing, vocal quality, you use a technique known as vibrato, where the pitch is slightly moved back and forth to create a singing quality like a human voice.

Vibrato involves a modulation of pitch created by moving the string. There are two basic types of vibrato:

1. Classical vibrato involves moving a left-hand fingertip back and forth along the string length, causing the string to tighten and loosen slightly, which causes the pitch to move. Classical vibrato is easier to apply to nylon-string guitars than to steel-string or electric guitars because the nylon-string tension is lower. This vibrato makes the pitch both rise and fall above the original note.
2. Vertical vibrato involves moving the string back and forth in a motion parallel to the frets. This vibrato is used in popular guitar styles, such as blues and rock. The pitch only rises compared to the original note

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