How to Insert New Strings on the Guitar

Video Transcript

"MATT GRAHAM: Okay, so we've removed the old strings. We've cleaned the guitar. We've lubricated the nut with graphite. We're ready to open up our new package of strings and begin to put the strings on the guitar. So when you open a pack of strings, it's usually--they'll be in order from the thickest diameter string to the thinnest. And yeah, these are labeled. The three thinnest strings are plain steel, and the three thickest strings have nickel, a thin wrapping of nickel going around the string. So I'll look for the one with the thickest diameter. Here it is. It's the 42 or the .042-inch thick string, and I'm just going to pull it out in this little paper packaging. There's one company that makes strings where the little bead on the end of the string is color coded. Instead of putting the strings in separate labeled packages, you open it up and the strings are color-coded based on which string you're dealing with. So I'm going to take the opposite end and with this particular style of guitar, the Strat-style guitar, again, you have to insert it in to the hole in the back of the guitar. And so again, I'm just going to put it through there. If it catches, just keep working with it. And then hold it in place, so that when you flip the guitar over it's going to fall back through. And there we have it coming out of the correct hole for the low E string. And so I'll just grab it on this side and pull it all the way through until that bead on the back catches on the plate on the inside of the bridge. And so we'll just--as we go to the strings that will be the first step that we do."