How to String a Guitar

A guitar is a musical instrument which belongs to the chordophone family, which is stringed and played by plucking on it, either by the fingers or a plectrum. Guitars consist of a body with a rigid neck where the strings are attached. It usually has six or more nylon or steel strings whereas the body is made from various kinds of wood. There are two families of guitar, viz. the acoustic and electric, people who make and repair them are called 'luthiers'. When you play your guitar for a long time or if it remains unused, the strings of the guitar loose their tension and don't sound melodious. This is when you have to restring them. Take a look at the following steps to know how to string a guitar.

Steps to String a Guitar

Similar to brake pads of a car, the guitar strings also wear out with use. They loose their tuning easily and create intonation problems. Sometimes they may also break because of this wear and tear. For guitars which are used quite often, you need to change the strings every two weeks. Mentioned below are a few steps you can follow on how to string a guitar properly.

• Step 1: Fix the three bass strings (the thick ones) and the three treble strings (the thin ones) to the bridge of the guitar and make sure they are tightly secured.
• Step 2: Put the strings one by one through the post holes which are placed at the head of the guitar next to the tuning keys.
• Step 3: Now bend one of the strings sharply to the right and turn the tuning key counter clockwise, locking the string to the right from where you started. Do this for remaining 5 strings either clockwise or counter clockwise alternatively.
• Step 4: After this wrap each string around the post and stretch the strings to increase the stability.
• Step 5: Tighten the strings with the tuning key and tune the strings to their approximate pitch. After this step, tune the guitar properly.

Those were some basic and simple steps on how to string a guitar. Stringing a bass guitar or an electric guitar is also very easy and you need to follow the same steps as mentioned above. There are other things you need to take care of when you want to string your guitar. The most important is the brand of strings that you choose as this will give a longer shelf life to your guitar strings. The brands such as D'Addario and Ernie Ball are one of the most popular string brands because of their durability.

Secondly you need to buy strings which have a composition of nickel, stainless steel and phosphor bronze. Nickel strings are best used for electric guitars, stainless steel provides better tone and phosphor bronze is used in acoustic guitars as it gives a mellow sound.

Tips to Use Guitar Strings

Take a look at these tips on how to string a guitar more easily and efficiently so as to get a better sound quality and increased durability.

• Every time you play your guitar, or clean it, wash your hands properly and wipe the strings with a dry cloth after each use as it will help you preserve your strings for a longer time.
• Keep your fret board oiled and clean.
• If your guitar strings break very often, look for sharp edges on the bridge or the tuning pegs and get them mended from a luthier as soon as possible.
• Change your guitar strings when they start loosing their intonation as the life of these strings depends on how often you play and take care of your guitar.
• In case you break one string, replace all the others in that set as the sound of the new string will be completely different than the others.

So, those were some great tips and methods on how to string a guitar. No matter how often you change your guitar strings, the life of your guitar strings only depends on how you use them. So if you are fond of your guitar, use it carefully as that will not only increase its durability but also pay you compliments on your great guitar skills.