Playing an electric guitar requires many skills. While most people understand that you must know which string produces which tones, they often overlook the strings themselves. Guitar strings wear down over time, and you must frequently replace them to ensure your guitar’s life expectancy. 

The process is not difficult to understand, but it can be confusing to new players. Keep reading to learn each step in the process and how to complete them correctly. 

Examine the Guitar Bridge

Before you remove the strings or make any changes, you want to thoroughly inspect the guitar and bridge for defects and general health. Doing this task may eliminate many other reasons for a lousy performing guitar, letting you fix the situation without ruining the tension already in the strings. 

If nothing appears to be wrong, you can prepare and protect your guitar from damage during the stringing process by gently loosening the tuning keys. 

Gather Your Equipment

Once you determine that you must replace the stirring, then it is time to gather your equipment. You want to ensure you have everything you will need before you touch anything on your guitar. 

Luckily, most of the work was done for you. You will find many guitar string changing kits available at your disposal. You may even find a few standalone dedicated string tools if you do not need a full kit. Some of these kits and tools are fast and easy to use. Others require a little finesse. Some guitars even come with a wrench for this purpose. 

Some popular string changing tools include:

  • Guitar cleaning kit or fluid
  • Medium hex, Alex, or cross-headed screwdriver 
  • Container for the screws
  • String-changing tool kits
  • Wire cutters

Regardless, the only tool you must have is a wire cutter for cutting off any leftover excess string. You may want a few other tools to get around your guitar’s specific needs, but you will go far with just a wire cutter and your hands. 

Select Your Guitar Strings

You cannot string your electric guitar without strings. If you are only removing your old strings to clean your instrument, you should be fine, but having extra strings is always a good thing. You may also want to just replace the strings regardless to make sure you have the best sound possible. 

Guitar strings come in all brands and features. It does not matter which strings you purchase, though. You are free to choose the ones that best suit your preference. Just note that your strings will last longer if they are high quality. 

String Gauge

When going through your options, the one thing you must strongly consider is the string gauge. The string gauge determines how a string sounds, bends and weighs. Strings come in four categories: extra-light, light, medium, and heavy. While you can get any gauge string, individual gauges have specific purposes and may not be compatible with all guitars. 

Extra-Light Strings

Extra-light strings are the best strings for beginners. These thin strings let you fret and manipulate notes with ease. You can use them with most lighter music styles such as pop, fingerstyle, and soft rock. You can also use them for shredding, but they may not produce the right sounds for it. Also, they are too lightweight for rhythm guitars. 

Light Strings

Light strings are also great beginning strings. They are easier to fret and bend, and you find them in most music stores. These strings produce a bright tone that works well for cleaner music styles such as fingerstyle, light rock, pop, country, and punk.  They also lack the weight and sound output for rhythm guitars, but they are the perfect strings if you play the lead. 

Medium Strings

If you want guitar strings that can do everything, you should go with medium-gauged strings. They offer a nice balance between great lead sounds and crunchy rhythms. Their warm tones make them the perfect strings for playing blues and jazz. 

Medium strings also hold their tone longer, making them great for metal sounds, but they require more strength to bend. You can shred all day with them, but they may slice your fingers if you are not ready for the higher tension. 

Heavy Strings

These thick strings are the go-to strings for jazz, blues, and metal guitarists. Heavy strings are thick enough to handle drop tuning without altering their sound and feel. You must adjust the tuning nut to accommodate them, but they will last a long time before you must replace them.

String Material 

While not as crucial as gauge, string material significantly contributes to your guitar’s sound and string replacement schedule.

  • Nickel: Available in pure and plated varieties, nickel strings produce warm tones with bright top ends. 
  • Cobalt: Cobalt string emphasize treble output with bright tones. They are also magnetic, which can boost your guitar’s output.
  • Steel: Steel strings produce warm low tones with a treble boost. 

Remove the Old Strings

Now you can remove the old ones from your guitar. Please note that you must remove the entire string. You cannot simply cut them out and expect the new ones to work. With that said, the procedure is simple enough that you can make it second nature with enough experience: 

  1. Remove the backplate so you can reach the strings while keeping the screws in a safe place
  2. Note the path of the old strings through your guitar
  3. Loosen the tuning pegs or machine to put some slack into the strings
  4. Unwind each string from their pegs and free it from the neck
  5. Remove the strings from the bridge by pushing them through the holes
  6. Pull the string from the guitar

For better results, you want to remove each string separately. You also want to avoid cutting them in case they are good enough to reuse. That also means you should avoid yanking them as that can break them and the guitar. 

Clean the Guitar

With the strings off, you can take the time to thoroughly clean the guitar, as you should have easy access to the fretboard and frets. You can clean most guitars with a soft cloth and the manufacturer’s recommended cleaner. Just note that you must use a compatible, oil-based wood conditioner if your guitar features an unfinished fretboard, but you can use a simple polish on finished ones. 

If your guitar needs a deep cleaning, you can use a soft cloth with a lemon solution, a fret cleaner, or steel wool based on the manufacturer’s recommendation. Either way, you want to avoid touching the body and cover up sound holes to protect them from damage.

If you plan on reusing the old strings, you should take this time to clean them as well. Most of the time, you can remove dirt and grime off them with a lint-free cloth. 

Insert the New Strings Through the Guitar

Once cleaned, your guitar is ready for the new strings. Stringing an electric guitar is the reverse of removing the strings. So, you can go back to that section if you need a quick guide. Either way, you want to lay your guitar on a flat surface in a spacious working area before inserting the strings. 

You may also want to place the guitar on a blanket or cloth to protect it from dents and scratches. Many guitarists like to put the guitar head on an edge platform to make things easier, but this is not required if you have easy access to the whole instrument. 

As with removing strings, you may want to add the new strings one at a time. This will prevent the strings from snagging on each other. Many guitarists prefer starting with the heaviest, highest-gauged string, or the top E, but you are free to insert them as you like. 

Thread the Strings Through the Backplate and Bridge

While you can start the string from anywhere, you may want to begin at the backplate cavity and move up. This procedure will ensure the strings remain accessible throughout the process. Most of it is straightforward as well: you just insert each string through its corresponding hole in the cavity’s base. 

You know when the string passes through the hole once there is no resistance. The lack of resistance is the sign that the string popped through the bridge. Once through the bridge, you want to pull the string until you reach the end of it. The end should have a stopper feature that sits comfortably in the cavity, holding the string in place. 

Weave the Strings Through the Tuning Holes

With the strings through the bridge, you can slide them into groves through the machine heads, ensuring the nuts face the bridge. 

During this process, you want the holes facing you. For the best results, you want to wrap the strings in opposite directions with an inside-out “S” shaped crimp. You are doing it right if your right hand approaches you while your left-hand moves towards the pegs. 

You want to ensure you can lock each string entirely and then tighten it by pulling it to the top towards the tip of the guitar. Just make sure that you leave 2 to 3 inches of slack in each string. You can do this by placing and holding your index finger on the string about 2 inches away from the tuning hole. 

Tighten and Lock the New Strings

Once all the new strings are in place, you can tighten them to their final tuning position. Most guitars require you to turn their tuning pins counterclockwise to tighten the string in place. You can use a tuner to ensure each string is tight enough for the sounds you want to make. Either way, you want to ensure the string winds around their pegs in a uniform manner. 

With most guitars, you tighten the strings by twisting the tuning pegs until they reach your desired tension. You can pluck them and listen to the tone if you need a guide. Either way, you can give yourself a better grip if you hold the strings in place until they start tightening. 

Once you reach your desired tension, you should lock the strings in place by passing the string through the post and nut. You can then loop the two ends and give them a final tightening towards the headstock. 

Remove Excess String

At this point, you are just about done. You have strung your electric guitar, and now it is time to clean up any loose ends. 

The first thing you want to clean up is any excess lengths of string hanging off your guitar. This excess may get in your way as you play the guitar. The ends are also sharp enough to slice through your hands. So, you want to remove enough to play freely but still have enough leftover if you need to retune it later. Most guitarists prefer leaving about an inch of excess string for this purpose.

You can remove the hanging string ends with a good pair of wire cutters. The cutters should slice through the strings, leaving you with a clean and tidy headstock. You can throw away the trimmings. 

Final Tuning and Testing

With your strings reattached and ready to go, you should give them one final tuning and examination. You can thread the strings correctly and still end up breaking a string or two. It is also just a good idea to thoroughly tune new strings as clipping off the excess can push the strings out of alignment

New strings are also sturdier than the old stock. You have to wear them a bit to prevent them from buckling under the tension. The strings should stretch in place within a few weeks after installing them, but tuning them will speed up the process.

You can use your favorite tuning process and equipment for this part of the procedure. There is no right or wrong solution. As long as the strings produce the sounds you want, they are good. You may have to retune each one until it settles down properly. 

You can replace the backplate once you successfully tune the strings without breaking them. However, if one breaks, you must repeat the stringing procedure to replace it with a new one. 

Reattach the Backplate

The backplate should go back on your guitar the same way it came off. You just line it up with the holes in the guitar. Most experts recommend replacing the screws in a figure-8 arrangement to keep the anchor points correctly aligned. 

When Should You String Your Electric Guitar?

Electric guitars only have a few moving parts, but they are all critical to making music. In particular, the strings control the tone, sound, and overall voice of the guitar. With such an important piece, you want to remain good forever. 

Unfortunately, guitar strings are not forever. They wear down and break over time. You must generally replace the strings on an electric guitar more often than you would with an acoustic or classical guitar. In most cases, this means you want to replace them once a month, but various factors affect how long they will last. 

These factors include:

  • Guitar usage: Guitar strings weaken with age and how often you use them.
  • String quality: High-quality strings consist of sturdier materials that make them last longer than the cheap, low-quality ones.
  • Guitar maintenance: An excellent general maintenance schedule can increase the life of your strings as just touching your guitar affects sound quality.

Regardless, you want to replace them before they break, which typically happens when they start sounding dull. Ideally, you only want to replace one string at a time as that preserves string tension, but you can replace them all if you must clean your guitar’s fretboard as well. 

Clean Your Electric Guitar Strings to Extend their Life

The primary reason why you must replace most guitar strings is that they get dirty. The dirt, oil, and grime weigh down the strings changing their tone, clarity, and attack. Your strings get dirty for numerous reasons. For instance, the natural oils from your fingers collect on them as you play. 

If you do not wipe off that oil immediately, it will dry and leave a residue. You could constantly exchange your strings with a new set to keep your guitar sounding perfect, but that can get expensive. Therefore, you may want to see if you can clean your old strings before you discard them.

The internet is full of easy tips for keeping guitar strings clean. However, you must avoid using household cleaners. Cleaners such as soap and bleach and not meant for musical instruments and may end up damaging the guitar’s finish or leave the fretboards damp and vulnerable to rust and mold. Always use a dedicated guitar string cleaner and a microfiber towel to clean your strings. 

You can even boil your strings! The popular cleaning method does work, but it will alter the gauge and quality of the strings. There is also a limit on how many times you can boil them before they become brittle. If you go this route, you should only boil the strings for 10-15 minutes and then let them dry and cool completely before using them to minimize the effect. 

Conclusion

You must replace electric guitar strings more often than you would for other types of guitars and instruments. Generally, you want to replace them just as they start losing their tones but before they break. Stringing a guitar with new strings seems intimidating, but it is simple to master. You can even use the time to clean your guitar so it can produce crisp new sounds every time you play.