How to Remove Old Guitar Strings from the Tuning Posts

Video Transcript

"MATT GRAHAM: Okay, so now we're going to remove the strings from the tuning posts. And again, you don't really need any tools, technically speaking, to take the strings off the tuning post. I'm simply unwrapping it. But when you get down here to the end, it can kinda hang up. And when you pull it out, the string will actually whip back, like that, and that one actually hit me in the thumb. And so what can happen is the end of these cut strings can be very sharp like a needle. And when it's stuck in the hole and you pull it out, it's been wrapped around that post, so it's got this curvature, and its tendency is to flip back. And what that will do, it's kinda like getting stung by a scorpion. It will come around and hit you in the hand. And I've actually had my fingers pierced to the point of bleeding by strings that I was trying to remove from the headstock by hand. So I recommend for safety's sake that you use your needle-nose pliers and same thing, you're just going to unwrap the string from the tuning peg. But then when you get to that end part and you'd pull it out and the string whips back, it's going to hit the pliers instead of your hands, which if you're a musician playing the guitar, you're hands are probably pretty important to you. So again, I'll just unwrap it and then grab it down really close to the tuning post with your pliers and just pull it up and then just move them all to the side."