How To Fix Your Guitar String

Guitars are fun instruments and easy to pick up. But when a string snaps for the first time, the strings become discolored, or the guitar just doesn't sound as good anymore you'll need to restring it.

Cost To Restring a Guitar

The cost to restring your own guitar is $5 – $30; this covers the cost of the strings. The cost to have a professional restring your guitar is $25 – $50, or the cost of the guitar strings plus $20 or more of service. Guitar stringing is an easy process, so it's worth attempting yourself.

How Much Does it Cost to Restring a Guitar at Guitar Center?

Guitar Center charges around $20 for the labor of restringing a guitar. Purchasing strings will cost $5 -$30. So the cost at guitar center will be around $25-$50. If it's a unique guitar (extra strings, special string type) they may charge an extra fee of around $10.

How Much Does it Cost to Restring an Electric Guitar?

Electric and acoustic guitar strings are comparable, so if you restring the guitar yourself you are still looking in the $5-$15 range.

How To Restring a Guitar

Can I just restring my own guitar? Yes! It's not a challenging process. Once you purchase your strings you just need to remove the old ones, replace them with new ones, and tune it. You will need new strings and a wire cutter. For this guide, we will assume that your guitar uses strings with balls on one end.

Step 1: Remove the Old Strings

Place your guitar on the floor or a table with cloth (towel or carpet) underneath it so that you don't scratch it.

Use the tuning peg to decrease tension (flatten the pitch) on the low E string. Once the string has little tension, either clip it with a wire cutter, or continue turning the tuning peg until you can remove the wire from the hole of the post of the tuning machine.

De-tension your guitar strings before restringing.

Remove the bridge end of the string as well. For some guitars you simply pull the string through the bridge, others you will need to pop out a bridge pin first.

You can remove the other strings in the same way. Remember to decrease tension on the string before clipping them.

Step 2: Install the New Guitar Strings

Place the ball end of the appropriate string in the bridge hole. If your guitar has bridge pins they will likely have grooves. Slide the groove of the bridge pin over the string (so that the string secures nicely).

Use bridge pins (black in this picture) to secure your restrung guitar strings.
Tommaso Rollo, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

Next thread the other end of the string through the hole on the post of the corresponding machine head. Leave some slack in the string and begin to wind the tuning peg counter-clockwise. As you wind slowly lower the string so that it doesn't overlap itself on the post of the machine head. If the string is tight after it has wound around the post 2-3 times, then you are good. Much less or more and you should redo this step.

Clip off the excess string that sticks out of the machine head with a wire cutter. You want less than a half inch of string sticking out.

Great now do steps 1 and 2 for all of the strings!

Step 3: Tune Your Guitar

Congrats, all you need to do is tune your guitar and your ready to go.

If you are unclear on any part of the process, this video should help.

How to Restring a Guitar

Guitar Restringing FAQ's

Is it Bad to Remove All Guitar Strings at Once?

It is fine to remove all your guitar strings as long as you de-tension them first. Some worry that the truss rod would bow the neck of the guitar unnaturally, but this shouldn't be an issue. That said, would you want to clip all 6 tensioned guitar strings at once? No, that would be dangerous to you and the guitar.

Some are concerned that you will need to do another set up after removing all strings from a guitar, but Scott Marquart of stringjoy.com claims that another guitar setup is unnecessary.

How Often Should You Restring a Guitar?

If you play for several hours a day, you may need to restring your guitar once a month. If you play most days, restring your guitar once every several months. If you just pick it up a couple times a week, you may just need to restring once or twice a year.

Interestingly, piano technicians only restring pianos after decades of use. However, guitar strings aren't nearly as durable and are plucked with picks and greasy fingers instead of struck with felt hammers. As a result, they last much less long.

How To Fix a Broken String on a Guitar

To fix a broken guitar string you will generally have to restring it – often restringing all strings in the process. That said if you just break the string above the nut, you may be able to fix it with just a pair of pliers. More on that here.

How Long Does it Take to Restring a Guitar

The first time you restring your guitar, give yourself 60 min to learn the process and carry it out successfully. Once experienced it should take you around 20-30 min. One veteran guitar player of about 50 years mentioned taking just 11 min to restring his guitar.

Should I Replace One Guitar String or All of Them?

In general yes, you should replace all your guitar strings at once. The strings may age differently if you don't. In addition, guitar strings usually come in sets. It is hard to purchase single guitar strings, and usually not cost effective.

Because the high E string is thinnest it is most likely to break. Some string sets come with two high E strings. You may want to invest in such sets if you are interested in keeping similarly aged strings, while having the flexibility to replace high E strings that keep breaking.

How Do I Know if My Guitar Strings are Bad?

There are several symptoms that indicate your guitar strings are bad or dead.

Gunk under the strings. Run your finger underneath the strings; black gunk or rust may fall out under old strings.
Discolored or splotchy strings. Exposure to skin oils and other environmental factors can cause string discoloration. Compare parts of untouched string in the headstock to frequently touched parts near the sound hole.
They sound "bad." New strings have a warmer resonance; as they age the sound may become duller.
You can find more indications that your strings are bad here.

Conclusion

Restringing your guitar is not an expensive process. If you do it on your own it will only cost you $5-$20 for a new set.

To replace your guitar strings, carefully remove the old ones, install the new ones, then tune it up.