How to Restring a Steel String Guitar
- 1). Remove the old strings and bridge pegs (if your guitar has them) from your guitar. The bridge pegs may be difficult to remove, so use a pair of needle-nose pliers if they give you a hard time. Some guitars do not have the bridge pins. Clean your fingerboard with a fresh cloth.
- 2). Open your package of new strings. Separate the strings and arrange them according to their gauge. The string package should indicate which strings are which and where they go on the guitar.
- 3). Locate the ball end of your thickest steel string and make a small bend close to the end with you finger and thumb. This will make the restringing process easier.
- 4). Grab the end of your string and push it through the string hole that is located on the bridge of your guitar. Place the bridge pin (if your guitar has them) in the hole after you have done this, making sure the notch located on the pin is pointed towards the neck of your guitar. If there is no bridge pin, just proceed in the same fashion without worrying about the bridge pin.
- 5). Tug on the end of the string. You should feel the ball catch before it places itself under the bridge. Gently push on the pin (again, if your guitar has them) while you do this, to make sure that it doesn’t dislodge itself while you are pulling on the string.
- 6). Go to the other end of the guitar to continue this process. Push the string through the hole that is located at the tuner post. Tug on the string to make it tight, then release about an inch of slack on the string.
- 7). Grab the free end of the string with your finger and thumb, and then loop the end back around the tuner post twice and then under the string.
- 8). Tug on the free end of the string to tighten the loop around the tuner post before you proceed to bring the end over the rest of the string and kink it in a downward direction.
- 9). Wind the string and tune it. Cut any excess string off. Repeat the whole process with the rest of the strings that need to be restrung.
Source...