How to Put on Strings on a Electric Guitar

Are you ready to learn how to put on strings on a electric guitar?

Learning how to put on strings on a electric guitar can seem like a daunting task if you’ve never done it before.

Practicing changing your guitar strings is the best way to get good at it.

With some patience and some experience, it will eventually feel easy and natural.

When you’re a beginner, it can feel really complicated and you could be worried about breaking something on your guitar.

Fortunately today we’ll break down the process and you’ll see that, with time and practice, you’ll know how to put on strings on a electric guitar in no time.

Remember that, as long as you go slow and are patient, it’s virtually impossible to break anything.

Plus, you’re learning a vaulable skill that you can use on any guitar in the future.

The process is simple, and is broken into 2 parts:

Part 1:

1. Starting with the low E, your thickest string, loosen the string completely using the tuning knob.
2. Remove the string from the headstock of the guitar by slipping it out of the tuning peg and then out of the bridge.
3. Place your fresh string through the bridge and pull it taught so you’re sure it’s all the way through.
4. Place your fresh string through the hole in the tuning peg and pull it through, leaving a bit of slack. You want to leave a little slack so that the string can wind around the post 2 or 3 times which secures your string to the post.
5. Begin winding your fresh string until it is tight.
6. Repeat with your next string.

Now that you’ve changed all of your guitar strings, you can move on to the second part of the process.

Part 2:

1. Starting with the low E string again, pluck the string and tighten it using the tuning knob until it is in tune.
2. Stretch the string out a bit by plucking it at various places along the fretboard and above the pickups.e
3. Pluck the string again, and tighten it using the tuning knob until it is in tune.
4. Move on to the next string, and repeat the process.
5. Once you’ve done this to each string, start actually playing your guitar.
6. Every so often, you’ll notice it will go out of tune. At that point, check the tuning of each string again, and tighten as needed.

After a bit, you’ll notice that your guitar will stay in tune on it’s own.

At that point, you’re done!

Why is it best to change your strings one string at a time?

Simplifying the process of changing your strings makes it easier to organize what you’re doing.

This is why it’s best to change one string at a time.

Once you’ve detuned your string, you can remove it and replace it with a fresh string.

Then, you can wind the tuning knob enough to get your fresh string close to being in tune.

It won’t pay to tune it all the way to pitch since it will stretch out and come out of tune.

You just need to get it in the ballpark. We’ll stretch it out more fully in the next step, once you’ve changed all of your strings.

Is it better to tune each string to tune as I change each one?

Stretching your strings until they’ve reached the optimal length is a process.

When you first change your string, getting it close to pitch is the best you’ll be able to do since fresh strings keep stretching the most.

When you’ve changed all of your strings, then you can focus on getting your strings in tune, but focusing on getting one string at a time to stay in tune is a waste of time.

No matter how many times you stretch them out individually, for some reason, the act of strumming and picking as well as fingering chords and playing leads stretches them out much more efficiently.

This is why you should think of changing your strings as a process.

Remember, even after you’ve changed them and gotten them stretched out, you’ll still have to tune and re-tune them as time goes on.

Temperature and humidity changes will affect your strings being in tune simple because.

Why is it bad to tune the string to higher than tune?

Overstretching your strings by tuning them to higher than their intended key always seems like a good idea to a beginner.

In reality, it’s more likely to cause breakage and could even cause damage to your guitar.

It’s counterintuitive, but your fresh strings are designed to be stretched to an optimal point, and then no more.

This is why stretching them further than they are intended to can cause them to break.

If they don’t break immediately, it can cause damage to the string on a microscopic level and lead to the string breaking sooner than it would have with regular wear and tear.

You could also cause damage to your neck or guitar bridge by stretching them out too far since your guitar is set up to withstand pressure from your strings tuned to key, not tuned higher than that.

Still, there are some people who swear that tuning to higher than pitch is okay, so it’s your guitar and it’s your choice, but just remember the caveats that you could do more harm than good.

It’s better to be patient.

Is there an optimal way to strech out fresh strings?

Relaxing the strings by pulling and releasing them at different places on the fretboard will do a lot to help them stretch out.

The full length of your string needs to be relaxed so it’s not a bad idea to pluck your strings by the bridge as well as around the 2nd or 3rd fret.

This allows the full length of the string to be pulled and released along its entire length which lets the entire string come to its optimal length.

It’s not as good as playing your guitar for stretching your strings, but it’s a good way to cut down on the time you need to spend getting your strings set up properly.

Plus, it’s easy to do when you’re changing your strings since you have the electric guitar laid out in front of you.

Once your strings have gone their full length, there’s not much benefit to plucking and pulling your strings however, since they are at their optimal length stretching them out anymore won’t do any good.

The only thing it will do at that point is to hasten your strings going out of tune.

What does the playing and re-tuning process do the fresh strings?

Naturally coming to its own length means that your guitar string is now able to stay in tune.

The process is repeated until you can play a chord on your guitar, and it will stay in tune.
The actual amount of time this takes will vary quite a bit depending on the temperature of the room you’re in, the humidity, how long the strings have been out of their package, etc.

Just be patient and give it some time.

This is a good time to practice your chord changes and to have some experience in tuning your guitar.

Once you have your strings to where you feel they’re in tune, it’s a good idea to clip the strings at the headstock leaving a few millimeters of the guitar string.

This does nothing to help your sound, or your playing but it does mean no one will get poked by a guitar string and it looks nicer.

Once you’ve mastered changing your guitar strings and know your guitar well, you can change all of your strings at once or do other things you feel are better for you and your guitar.

But, if you’re just starting out, it’s better to stick to the basics, change one string at a time, and do whatever you can to minimize any damage you could cause to yourself or your electric guitar.

FAQ/Tips and Tricks

• Bying a string winder with a cutter on it will make changing your guitar strings a LOT easier. You’ll be able to wind and unwind your string a lot faster and will easily be able to cut your guitar strings when you’re done.

• You don’t actually have to change your strings one at a time. The problem is, it can become very confusing for a beginner and more than one person has messed up their guitar with a floating bridge by changing all of their strings at once instead of one at a time.