Now that you got your guitar, you play it almost everyday, 24/7. Then one day, as you were playing, one of the strings snap. So how are you gonna replace the broken strings?
There are 3 ways:
1) You can go to any guitar shop and get it fix.
2) Get your experience friend to fix it for you.
3) Do it yourself.
If I were you, I would rather do it myself than relying on others. If you bring it to a guitar shop, they tend to include their own service charges on top of the price of the set of strings. So you tend to save up some cash if you do it yourself. If you ask your friend, you have to check with their schedule and yours in order to get it fixed. So its kinda tedious that way. Further more, as you gain more experience in playing guitar in the future, if you do not know how to change your guitar strings, you tend to portray yourself as an amateur guitarist because changing strings is one of the basics fundamentals that every guitarist should know.
So if you're thinking on how to go about doing it, look no further. Below is a detailed, step-by-step guide that I've created for you so that you can use it to change your strings by yourself.
1) Fit strings from the guitar body. On Fig. A, the strings go through from the back. On some guitars, the strings go through from the bridge. Examine your own guitar to find out where exactly you are suppose to fit the strings from the body part.
Fig. A: Fitting Strings From the Back
Fig. B: String comes out from the bridge after fitting it from the back
2) Pull the strings all the way to the headstock. Make sure there is not much slack on the strings between the bridge and the headstock. Then, apply the 3-finger rule as shown on Fig. C. This rule is made so that you are able to coil the strings to about 2-4 rounds on the machine head.
Fig. C: Using 3-finger rule
3) Make a sharp bend after the 3rd finger as shown on Fig. D
Fig. D: Making a sharp bend after applying 3-finger rule
4) Once the sharp bend has been made, fit the strings to the hole in the machine head as shown in Fig. E.Fig. E: Fitting Strings to the hole in the machine head
5) Next, create another sharp bend (this time on a different direction compared to step 4) to the other opening in the machine head as shown in Fig. F. If you do it correctly, you can almost pick the guitar up with just that string.
Fig. F: Creating another bend
6) Tension the strings a little bit (Don't tune just yet!) until you're able to get a low tuning note, say, a low C on the sixth string. When winding the strings, be sure to use your right hand to pull the string away from the headstock. This creates a tension so that the strings are coiled neatly. Note: I recommend you to get a peg winder such as the one shown on Fig. G. This will greatly reduces the time and effort in winding the strings. It is very cheap and you can get it at any guitar shops out there.Fig. G: Tensioning the string
7) Stretch the string as shown in Fig. H. This is to get the slack of the string out so that your string will stay in tune most of the time. Referring from step 6, once you have stretched the string, your tuning will go from C to let's say, B#. This is normal for every new strings. All you have to do is tune back to low C and repeat this process again up to a point where your string does not go out of tune anymore.
Fig. H: Stretching the strings
8) For the rest of the strings, repeat steps 1-7 again
9) Tune your guitar properly with an electronic tuner
10) Cut all the excessive strings that are dangling on the headstock with a snip plier or any wire cutter. This will ensure that your guitar will look neat and tidy.
Make step 10 a habit for you. That's because when you're performing in the future, people are going to look at you. If your excessive guitar strings are not cut, you tend to give the audience a bad impression about you. At least that's what I think. I get turned off easily with guitarists that doesn't cut the excessive strings when performing no matter how good he or she is. To me, it resembles your own identity. It lets your audience know what type of person you are. If you don't cut the strings, your audience will perceive you as a sloppy, messy kinda person in real life. So please cut those dangling strings.
Another thing to note about changing strings; you can replace just the string that is/are broken on your guitar. You don't have to necessarily change the whole set if you only break 1 string. Just replace that very 1 broken string will do. Much, much cheaper and time saving that way compared to changing the whole set.
Once you've done all of that, you're ready to rock and roll. :-)
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