Get the Tools Necessary for Changing the Strings on Your Acoustic Guitar

Video Transcript

"MATT GRAHAM: Now I'm going to talk about the tools that you'll need to change the strings on an acoustic guitar. The reality is you don't need anything except your bare hands to change strings on acoustic guitar. Even once you put them on there, you can use a piano or another guitar that you know is in tune to make sure that your new strings are in tune. But here are a few tools that will make it easier for you to change the strings. The first one is a tuner, which obviously will make the process of getting strings from being totally loose to being the right tension for standard tuning with your acoustic guitar. Needle-nose pliers with a wire cutter in them are handy for trimming excess wire, removing old strings from the guitar. A polishing cloth and a Q-tip or a cotton swab are good for--once you have all the strings off, it's the best time to clean the guitar. And lastly, in the music store, we'll one have of these string winders. Some people swear by them that they're an indispensible tool for changing guitar strings. The reality is you can do everything this will do with your bare hands, but it takes some of the strain off your wrists when you're winding a string all the way around the tuning post. It also has a small [INDISCERNIBLE] in the end that's actually good for removing bridge pins. And I'll show you how to use this later."