How to Restring an Acoustic Guitar

There are many people who have a keen interest in learning how to play the guitar and learn music. Due to the easy functionality of the guitar, it has quickly become the most loved and popular music instrument among youth. However, the people who are beginners or are just starting to learn face difficulties while restringing their guitar.

There are many types of guitars available in the market today, but we will be focusing on how to restring an acoustic guitar as it is the most sold guitar and is easy for beginners to learn on. To help the beginners as well professionals learn how to restring a guitar I am going to describe the entire procedure step-by-step in this article.

Before you begin, be sure to place your guitar on a table or a clean surface. Make sure that the area where you are placing your guitar is neat so that you don’t lose any tools while restringing the guitar. It is also a good idea to place the guitar on something soft, such as a towel or t-shirt, so as not to damage the back of the guitar.

There are many kits and combos available that are specially made for helping in restringing a guitar. The basic tools that you need for restringing the guitar are;

• New strings
• String winder (helpful but not necessary)
• String Cutter
• A tuning machine if required.

After collecting all the tools you can now release the tension of the strings. The unwinding of the strings can be done with the help of a string winder.

Start unwinding the strings starting with the low E string. The unwinding of the E string should be in the counterclockwise direction, or towards the body of the guitar.

Tip: It is recommended to do one string at a time so that it is easier for you to restring the guitar.

Once the string is unwound you can now proceed to the bridge of the guitar to remove the ball end of the string. Take out the pin from the bridge after the string is loosened. Remove the bridge pin and carefully pull out the string.

Now that the strings are completely removed from both the bridge and head of the instrument, your guitar is ready to be restrung.

Take the new strings that you have brought and place them properly in the hole of the bridge. After placing the string in the proper hole, slide in the bridge pin. As you push in the bridge pin, keep some tension on the string until you feel it “pop” into place. Then push in the bridge pin all the way.

Take the other end of the string and pass it through the appropriate tuning peg of the guitar.

Start winding the string clockwise if you have removed the string counter-clockwise and counterclockwise if you unwound the string clockwise. I would recommend starting with the low E string first.

Make sure that you are properly winding the string with the help of a string winder. 

Repeat these steps for all the strings. While winding the strings, be sure to keep some tension on the string to ensure it is holding in the tuning peg and tightening properly. Don’t completely tighten and tune the strings until all the new strings are on the guitar.

Once all of the strings are on the guitar, begin tightening them. Generally, the order in which I recommended tightening the strings is 6E, 5A, 4D, 3G, 2B, 1E.

Now that all the strings are placed and stretched properly it is time to tune the strings. The tuning of the strings can be done with the help of a tuner or tuning machine. If you are unable to tune the strings on your own you can seek help from the professionals at the local shops to tune the strings.

The final step is to cut the excess strings after tuning. Take a string or wire cutter and cut the excess strings and voila! It’s done!

I hope that this article helps you in understanding all the steps and details about restringing the guitar. You can also watch any professional restringing the guitar to see the procedure and then try it yourself if you are a beginner. 

Please also check out this infographic as an additional resource.