#2 How To String Your Guitar

Welcome to this, the second set-up tutorial, which should help you restring your guitar more easily and effectively.

When it comes to choosing strings, select those, which are most appropriate. If you like a light gauge suitable for rock lead work, most people feel happy with a set of 9's on a Fender scale length neck, whilst 10's feel right on the shorter Gibson scale length. If you're a rhythm player - or a Stevie Ray Vaughan fan - you’ll probably want a set of 11's or 12's. Remember, the lighter the string, the weaker the tone. I have a friend who puts 8's on his Les Paul and he has zero tone........Still, it's all a matter of individual preference.

When it comes to removing old strings, there are two schools of thought. Some people say you should take them off one at a time, to maintain some tension from the strings, which counteracts the tension of the truss rod in the neck. Others say that you can just take the whole lot off at once. Personally, I take the whole lot off, which is also necessary if you want to clean and oil the fret board. In this case, I'd recommend working as quickly as possible, so if the neck is going to move, it has as little time to do so as possible. I haven't noticed any ill effects on any guitar I've ever owned by taking them all off at once. In the end, it's your decision. I can't be held responsible for your '59 Les Paul Sunburst losing its neck!

Just slacken the strings off and then cut them in the middle of their length with your wire cutters. Then throw them away - carefully. Now's your chance to get rid of all that dust under the strings! This is where the string winder can come in handy if you're taking the strings off an acoustic. The built-in bridge pin puller removes the pins easily and without any damage to the bridge or top of the guitar. Sometimes, the pins are reluctant to budge. In that case, place a piece of padding - a duster or soft cloth - around the reluctant pin and carefully remove the pin with pliers.

Unwrap the strings carefully taking care not to kink them in any way. In the case of my Les Paul, I thread all the strings through the stop tailpiece at the same time, and with my Strat I thread them all through the trem block in one go, too. For some reason, I string my acoustics one string at a time.

Starting at the low E string, I pass the end of the string through the hole in the tuner post. Experience will eventually teach you how much needs to go through. Allow enough to ensure about three or four winds on the wound strings and about five or six on the plain strings. About two to three inches is about right. The wound strings tend to bind together better where they go round the tuner post so they need fewer winds.

Make a sharp bend in the string where it exits the hole and, ensuring that the string is going round the post in the right direction (hands up who's managed to get it going round the wrong way at some time or another!), make one turn of the string pass above the hole. Then, on subsequent turns, make sure the winds go below the hole, with the winds going successively towards the bottom of the tuner post. This will make the strings "break" over the nut at the sharpest angle. On some guitars with standard nuts and trem units, too steep an angle can cause binding of the strings in the nut slots. In this case, don't have the winds too close to the bottom of the tuner post. This may indicate that the nut needs some attention; the slot widening or lubricating, but that'll have to wait for a future article in this series.

Don't forget to use your string winder. If you have to restring a couple of guitars, you'll want to save your energy for playing guitar afterwards!

So, you should end up with a neatly wound string, with the first turn going around the post above the hole, and the rest of the winds going below it, trapping the end of the string between the upper and lower winds. In this way, the string is "locked", with the end being gripped between the top wind above the hole and the first wind below it. Hopefully, the picture below of the head of my Les Paul will give you some visual clarification. Click to enlarge.

(If you look at the fifth string, you can see the end it poking out below the first wind.)

Remember to clip off the end of the string. You can do this when you have passed the string through the post hole if you're confident you've got the length right, or you can leave it until you've wound the string on. You may find that the string end gets in your way if you go for this latter option. If you leave about half an inch sticking out, this should be ample. Trailing string ends are dangerous - they can poke your eye out if you're not careful! They look messy too. Also, just bend the cut end up a little so you don't get those horrible circular scratches around the tuner post where the sharp end digs into the face of the headstock as you wind the string. Some people try and wind as much of the string on as they can in case of breakage. This isn't a good idea as you then have lots of windings on top of each other and you may get tuning problems as they "bed" down. Also, if the string breaks, you'll either break it at the bridge, or somewhere along the length of it - then you've lost the ball-end - or, it'll break near the tuner end, in which case you've probably not got enough useable length left.

There are some other methods, but this one has served me well for about 30 years and I've never had any problems with strings slipping out of pitch. If it ain't broke.........etc.

At this point, I ought to mention locking tuners. I have these fitted to my Strat Plus and they're fantastic things! All you do to put a a string on is to pass the string through the post hole - you don't need any slack at all - and then lock the string using the knurled knob on the back of the headstock. This causes a pin inside the post to be forced against the string, locking it securely in place. On the other hand, locking tuners are expensive, and with practice, stringing a guitar with standard tuners can become a very speedy operation.

Well, that's it for stringing tips. I hope you found it useful. Remember, this is what works well for me. You may find other methods, which work just as well, if not better. Whatever method you use, you should end up with a guitar that sounds "brand new". Now play it and enjoy the sound of new strings. Take a break - you've earned it!

This guitar tutorial is compliments of Steve Cobham.  Steve lives in Wolverton, which is part of the city of Milton Keynes in the U.K.  You can contact Steve at steve@guitars.powernet.co.uk.

Guitar Setup Tutorial Home Page

#1 – The Tools

#3 - Setting The Intonation

#4 – Adjusting The Nut

#5 - Adjusting The Truss Rod