Stringing an Acoustic Guitar

[TheGearmandude]

The slot in my low E string bridge pin is not wide enough to let a 54 guage string slide easily through the slot and when I try to tighten the string it pulls up the pin I fiddled with it now it string is stuck in the pin and I can not push the string back to realease the tension to get the pin out please HELP!!

[myjacodog]

@TheGearmandude You might try loosening all of the strings, reaching in the soundhole and pushing the 6th strings pin out from inside the guitar.

[myjacodog]

The shorter side of the saddle goes on the side of the bridge that the smallest sized string is on.

As far as tuning goes, you should pick up an inexpensive electronic tuner so that you have a visual reference. If you have an iPhone, there's supposed to be an tuner app.

[funguy4utube]

As I tune up .. I will pass an octive or two .. right .. so how do I know which octive to stay at ? 

[funguy4utube]

Thanks for this ... for calm delivery and easy to follow .. I have two questions though:

1) I took all my strings off for restringing .. seems that is not the way to go ..

right ? Or is it a non-issue ?

2) My saddle popped out .. hmmm ... It has a slope to it .. high on one end .. but now I am not sure if the high side is to the top of the guitar or the bottom .. help please ... I guess I could go to the guitar store and view other saddles and see how it slopes... up or down.

Thanks ... pg

[myjacodog]

Glad it helped.

[HDONKEY1]

very helpfull indeed, thank you

[steakswans]

great vid mate, very helpful

[myjacodog]

@steakswans Glad it was helpful!

[only1me666]

That tutorial video actually helped me.. Followed it step by step and had no problems. Also, I have that same string winder lol! Thanks a million mate!

[myjacodog]

@only1me666 Glad it helped... That string winder was the best 99 cents I ever spent!

[textin24]

This video helped me out a lot thanks. This was my first time changing strings.

[myjacodog]

Glad it was helpful

[RoledMandalor]

What are you playing at the end? By the way, great tutorial! Much helpfull!

[myjacodog]

Glad the video helped. The song at the end is called See the Girl Sitting on the Fence and it's from Stefan Grossman's Ragtime Guitar book.

[timsplain]

This is so straightforward and helpful, thanks!

[alishababy14kiss]

what is the best gauge for a high e string?pls answer.need to know fast.and your toturial is the best vid i've seen so far! thanks!

[myjacodog]

@alishababy14kiss Glad the video helped. The first or high E string is normally a .012.

[alishababy14kiss]

@myjacodog thank you so much

[Rocket11213]

Goodinstr vedio on how to. thanks.

[charmnbee]

Wow!  This was extremely helpul. Super clearcut and straightforward explanation. Thanks!!

[myjacodog]

@charmnbee Glad it helped

[PinoyKidzProductions]

Thanks man for the help! I got to say stringing the high E string is the hardest, where do you buy those tools to cut of the strings?

[myjacodog]

Glad it helped. I got the side clippers to cut the string with at a building supply store.

[09matrix09]

Man i tell ya this is the best restring video i have seen yet. thanks o and by the way what strings are thoes?

[myjacodog]

Thanks for your comments. The strings are a set of D'Addario EJ-17.

[YourBestDroog]

what does it mean if i can get the string in tune when it's just barely gone around the post once?

[myjacodog]

Sounds like you didn't leave enough slack in the string. The string may have trouble staying in tune.

[YourBestDroog]

thanks

[howiegeewhiz]

THANK YOU JIM! For finally showing me how to do it right. It seems so simple, and it IS once you know how, but if you don't know your wonderful "slack" technique you end up with a guitar that goes out of tune almost as soon as you play it! Best stringing tutorial on YouTube.

[myjacodog]

Thanks for your comments. Glad it was helpful

[myjacodog]

Thanks!

[freelolipopinpants]

god i'm pissed i watched some other vid on "how to" never showed the slack trick so my fucking strings kept snapping, at least i know when i buy my 3rd set of strings in 2weeks i'll know how to do it right =(, thx for showing the correct way xD

[myjacodog]

Glad it helped

[DontReadThisUsername]

Thank you for showing that "slack trick" with your hand.

[vwoopvwoopvwoopvwoop]

This was really helpful, thanks alot. First time I tried to restring my guitar the top E snapped, then the G followed straight after. I've just replaced the strings with the help of this guide, and it's all good so far - sounds great!

[myjacodog]

Glad it helped

[laannniiii]

thank you jim!

[stickcreator01]

every video i go through is bad about stringing... i cannot understand what im doing wrong. The first time the string broke. the second time the string got bent so bad it cant be used again. i mean WTF

[twistedenjoyment]

just be delicate you have to hold string carefully and try to keep them on a flat surface (to stickcreator01)

[Gamagachee]

What do you mean by ball park pitch (I'm not so good with metaphors and it's my first time playing)

[myjacodog]

By ball park, I mean getting the pitch close to the correct pitch. After all the strings are replaced, you can get a more exact tuning using your electronic tuner.

[Gamagachee]

Oh ok thanks

[JohnsBeharry]

Dude thanks a lot! I've been battling with this for a week and a half, finally got it

[collmaria]

Hey! my bridge pins for the A and low E string won't stay in! they keep coming out. what should I do?

[myjacodog]

It's hard to say without seeing it.

Try this: After you've put the string in the hole in the bridge, put in the bridge pin . Hold the bridge pin in place and pull the string straight up until you feel the ball end of the string hit the bottom of the bridge pin.

Then proceed with the rest of the re-stringing process.

Also check that the slots in the bridge pins are facing the right way (toward the fingerboard).

Good luck!

[lostnflorida]

Bend the string slightly with some needlenose at the ball/barrel end , so it catches underneath the wood and stays seated

[virgo47x]

Great guide, thank you very much. I'd use a bit more than a palm for lower strings as they are thicker and sometimes do less than 1.5 of a turn, but the procedure itself is great. Thanks!

[myjacodog]

Thanks for your comments

[kll115]

Thanks for posting this. I'm 19,a nd have been playing since I was 10 but never learned to string it, I always paid to get it done. Now I don''t have to. Thanks alot. =)

[greatestiron]

What a great help thanks !! (from Far east Asia)

[martinjdougherty]

thanks this has been a big help

[myjacodog]

I'm glad that you liked it. New players may find the video on how to hold a guitar helpful, as well.

[Shinique04]

I agree. I searched through 5 other videos before I reached this one & they were not helpful at all. Thank you for explaining it clearly. This was a big help.

[brofkand]

excellent video. so many other videos don't explain the process well enough for beginners. Thanks so much!

[myjacodog]

Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad that you found it helpful

[Chill398]

After you put the string through and wrap it under you say "your gonna crimp it again and kinda bend it over" (and the video isnt clear at all as to what you just did) you compelety lost me. I didnt know what you ment to i wrapped it around the top again so there was a coil on top and a coil on the bottom of the string and tried crimping it like that and winding it and it looked horrible and comepelete screwed up the string i bought so now i cant play untill i go buy a another new string.

[Tegoip]

thanks

[ha7ed]

This was a wonderful video. Thanks for posting it.

[Chill398]

I bought my first guitar in September and now i think it needs some new strings. A friend of mine told me to call him when it needs new strings because you can damage your guitar. Hes kind of a dick though so id rather do it myself. What precautions can I take to not do any damage?

[myjacodog]

There are only way a couple of ways that I know of that you could damage your guitar while changing strings.

The first would be if you were using pliers instead of a bridge pin puller. That could damage the bridge pins and make a big dent on the guitar if you dropped them.

The other would be if the guitar was tuned too high and left that way. It could put too much tension on the bridge and neck. Use your electronic tuner and you should be fine.

Life's too short to be around jerks.

[JasonJRY]

wow - i never knew that people string with their palm for access coverage.. thats a good one to learn =)

[bkolisman]

awesome. thanks a bunch, this is gonna be a huge help.

[myjacodog]

Glad you found it helpful.

[warhound70]

is it ok to tune by ear?

[myjacodog]

Yes, tuning by ear is great. You'll still need something to give you a reference pitch, like a tuning fork. If you don't use a reference pitch you may tune the guitar too high or too low.

Too low's not the problem. The problem is tuning too high. The reason that's a problem is because it may put too much tension on the guitars top, bridge and neck.

[lovejoedanger]

thats alot

[ChristineOlive]

thanks for this :)

[Schroeder182]

Saw your video yesterday. Picked up a winder and some strings 5 minutes ago. Nearly tried to do it from what I remembered yesterday but now I'm going to rewatch it just to make sure!

Fingers crossed :)

[usernamelame1]

cool thanks ive been doing it wrong.  Nice videos btw

[myjacodog]

Thanks for checking out the video. Glad it helped.

[caloliq]

Dude, thanks!

Merci! all the way from switzerland!

[Perchakk]

Awesome man!! Thank you very much:)

[SoulmanDH]

he thank you, I have the same guitar. I made so many mistakes with that.

Thanks a lot.

[myjacodog]

Glad you found it helpful

[goroll]

Thank you so much. I have been playing for many years and i'm quite good both playing the instrument and vocaly. The thing is that i am selftaught and no one has ever showed me how to do this properly. I had my suspicions after a while that it wasn't all those strings i bought that was crap. It was my stringing. hehe. I have always winded the entire string to the intrument. I now belive that is the problem. Thank you again.