Changing guitar strings is probably the most basic but yet misunderstood guitar care.
By changing guitar strings you are preventing your guitar to "break up" with your strings. Sort of speak. They do have an intimate relationship you know?
First let's talk about why your guitar might want to break-up with its workhorse strings. After all, you gotta have strings to make your guitar sing, right?
Ok, so what might cause a guitar to "break-up" with its strings you ask? Well read on my guitar hero.
- Perhaps the strings are rusty on some places.
Why and how you ask?
If your guitar travels in many different places especially if it’s exposed to many different environment the guitar strings will pickup moisture. Just like most metals when exposed to moisture, rust will settle in. I will point out a tip later on how you might be able to avoid this but for now, let’s keep reading…
- Perhaps the guitar is Not tuned to a standard pitch of A440 or another standard reference pitch. I would like to suggest a tuner to make sure your ‘axe’ is in standard pitch. Why do want to do this? You’re choosing to train your ear to be as close to standard tuning as possible in addition to not tuning your strings way too high causing string breakage.
To make sure your tuning is in standard pitch use tuning devices.
Let’s take a look at some cool new tuners I’ve seen recently at zZounds.
Precision, Precision, Precision. The original tuner from way back is called the Peterson tuner and today incredibly updated. So if you’re a serious guitar player and really want to have what I would call the classic strobe tuner then this one is a great choice!
Great for intonation and visual cue to check whether your strings are in pitch or not.
It’s fairly expensive. So if you have to ask how much?
You can’t afford it!
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Here is another strobe tuner made by PlanetWaves. Rugged and looks pretty hip. I like the functionality of chromatic tuning if you’re into that.
This is highly rated according to purchasers at zZounds garnering a rating of 9 out of 10 stars.
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Here’s the last one.
Also from PlanetWaves, is pretty intense. In addition to the tuner it has a built in metronome, and a chord finder, it can locate 7000 chords in the palm of your hand.
How cool is that?
Still unrated as its New!>>>
Ok let’s get back to some other reasons why your guitar might break up with your guitar strings.
- Perhaps the strings have worn out in spots which you really can't see you’re your naked eye; you should be able to “feel” these spots by running one of your fingers underneath your strings. If you can feel bumps and ridges it’s time for a new string or set of strings.
Your hands and finger tips are dirty from general exposure and have contributed to the dirt underneath your strings. The dirt build-up under the strings is like mold. Yeachhh! Well guess what? String grunge can start breaking down your strings - let alone helping to wear down your frets!
The above are just some of the causes of your guitar "breaking-up" with your strings.
Here’s a pretty cool tool to include in your guitar case. It’s a combination of a string winder and an end string clipper. Snap!
I don’t know about you, but at times I have a hard time finding that spare diagonal cutting pliers around the house. Here, it’s already built into your string winder.
In contrast, is this old “stand-by” string winder below with a built-in notch at the end - to pull the pin from the bridge of the tail end of your acoustic guitar.
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Here’s some care and feeding rules when changing guitar strings you should consider:
Rule1: Changing guitar strings should be done - one string at a time. I will follow-up on how to do this correctly on my next Blog. I will also tell you Why!
Rule2: After playing specially if you are just starting out always clean each individual string. Details on an incredible material I discovered to really clean your strings on Episode 2, my next Blog.
Rule3: Last, keep your strings tuned to a standard pitch such as A440.
For the most part, changing guitar strings is a silent communion between you and your guitar. Remember, the guitar chose you. You did not choose your guitar.
Finally, if you’ve read this far down (congrats by the way, for putting up with my rants!) as mentioned at the start of this Blog how do you keep your string from rusting?
Well besides keeping it in a hermetically sealed tight box. No seriously.
Ok, ok… you have to clean your strings each and every time after you play your guitar. I guess that was Rule 2 right?
Try it. You’ll like it!
So there you have it Episode1 of changing guitar strings.
Keep playing and keep your guitar strings clean. I’ll see you at this next Blog.
~E
