How To Restring An Acoustic Guitar

Acoustic guitar uses removable bridge pins to hold the strings in place at the bridge. Bridge pins require a little more fiddling to get them to secure correctly to the string in place at the bridge.  Remove and replace every string individually, or simply to unstring everything and then restring it all at once. The choice is yours as to which method to use. After you remove the old strings and pull out the bridge pins, follow this process to restring your acoustic guitar:

1. Drop the ball end of the new string in the bridge hole and replace the pin.

2. Pull the new string until you feel the ball end come up against the bottom of the bridge pin.

Tug on the string to make sure the pin doesn't pop out, but make sure not to crease the string as you grip it for tugging.

3. Insert the string end through the appropriate tuning-post hole.

4. Crease (or kink) the string at the top of the tuning-post hole toward the inside of the guitar (away from the tuning key).

For the three lower (in pitch) strings, kink the string to the right as you face the guitar; for the three higher strings, kink to the left.

5. Turn the tuning key so the string wraps around the post.

For the three lower strings, turn the tuning key so the posts rotate counterclockwise; for the three higher strings, the posts should rotate clockwise. Following this procedure ensures that the strings wrap from the middle of the neck over the top of the post and to the outside of the guitar (toward the tuning key).

6. As you turn the key and wind the string around the post, make sure that the string coils from the top of the post downward toward the headstock surface.

The string may want to flop around as you start to coil the string, so use your other hand to control it.

      TIP: If you have too much string, you'll run out of room on the post before the string is tightened up to pitch. If that happens, simply loosen the string, pull a little more string through the post hole, re-kink the string, and  begin the winding process again.

7. Keep turning the tuning key.

 As you do this, the coils around the post tighten, the slack in the string disappears, and the string begins to     produce a recognizable musical pitch.

      TIP: Be sure that the string is inside the appropriate nut slot before the string becomes too taut to manipulate it further.

8. Bring the string up to the proper pitch by turning the tuning key slowly.

9. Clip away the excess string sticking out of the tuning post.

Cut the wire as close to the tuning post as your wire cutters will reach so the point doesn't jab you in the finger! If you don't have wire cutters available, loop the excess string into a circle or break the string by repeatedly bending the string back and forth across the crease.

      TIP: New strings will continue to stretch (causing them to go flat) even after you tune them up to pitch. To help get the stretchiness out of the string, pull on the string gently but firmly, bringing it directly above the fingerboard, and then tune the string up to pitch by turning the key. After each pull, the string will be flat (under pitch), so repeat the process of pulling the string with your fingers and tuning up until the string no longer goes flat after you pull it. You may have to do this three or four times, but the whole procedure shouldn't take more than a couple minutes.

Tuning Guide: Ukuleles

Ukuleles are a great choice for getting into playing music. Relatively easy to learn and simple to play ukes are a popular instrument of choice for the budding junior musician just starting out on their musical adventures through to a seasoned player looking to enhance their creative endeavours. Did I mention that they look cute too?

Ukuleles come in four basic sizes: Soprano, Concert, Tenor and Baritone.

The three smaller size ukes - Soprano, Concert and Tenor - are all tuned to the same four notes: G4-C4-E4-A4. These four notes relate to each string from low to high, or from the string closest to you when held in its playing position, through to the string closest to the floor. Referred to as High-G tuning the G note is tuned higher in pitch to the C note on the next string down. This method has become the standard for ukulele tuning. Most new uke students will have learnt the little tuning song, 'My Dog Has Fleas' to aid in the tuning process to get the strings tuned to their correct pitch.

Some Tenor uke players will tune to a Low-G tuning. Here the low G string is tuned an octave lower in pitch compared to high G. The tuning range is: G3-C4-E4-A4.

Baritone ukes are tuned differently to accommodate their longer scale length. Standard tuning for a baritone uke from low to high is D3-G3-B3-E3. These are the same notes as the four highest strings on an acoustic guitar.

The easiest and most accurate way of tuning your ukulele is by using a clip on tuner. Clip on tuners work on sensing the vibration of each note and displaying the pitch or note name of each string. It's always best practice to tune up to a note rather than tune down.  This helps with tuning stability and accuracy. Clip on tuners can used to tune any stringed instrument too. So if you've got a uke, or a guitar, or even a violin player in the house, a good quality clip on tuner will service the tuning needs of all of those instruments.

If you're having trouble tuning your uke, or keeping it in tune, you might need some new strings. New strings are a quick fix in addressing any tuning related issues your uke may be experiencing as well as improve the overall sound and tone of your instrument.

Keeping your uke in tune will improve your playing and overall sound and keep everyone happy.

Happy strumming!

Buying In-Store vs Online: The Sound

We have been talking about the benefits of buying in-store vs. buying online. The previous article was on the topic of the experience, and how a local music shop offers you an experience that you can't get online. You can read it here if you've haven't already.

Today's conversation revolves around the topic of the sound.

Sound is subjective. That means what sounds great to one person, doesn't ring the bell for someone else. It's something that make us unique as people. Someone will love the sound of a Strat plugged into a lightly driven tube amp, while another will love and prefer the sound of a dropped tuned Ibanez RG with gobs of gain engaged. It would be a pretty bland existence if we all sounded the same right?

It's one thing to read or watch the plethora of highly compressed video clips of new gear reviews through your iPhone earbuds, your tiny laptop or smartphone speakers, or your desktop speakers. But it's a completely different thing to actually play and listen to that guitar, amp or pedal you've seen online in the real world. There is nothing like sitting in a room with a great Strat plugged into a tube amp where you can actually hear and review the guitar and its tone with YOUR own ears.

You can sit on a drum kit and play it listening to the differing tones of maple vs. birch shells. You can come in and hear the sizzle and the decay of the cymbals you're considering to buy. The same can be said in hearing and discerning the sonic differences and subtleties of a solid top mahogany acoustic guitar vs a solid top spruce model. There is no comparison in the sound of physical air being moved and a highly compressed video clip.

Not only do you get to hear it properly, but you get to feel it too. You can feel the body of the guitar resonating against your body. You get to feel the profile of the neck. You get to feel the actual frequency response of the amp and the sensation of the air being moved in the room. You experience the 'thwack' of that snare drum, the 'doof' of that kick drum or the sizzle of those hi-hats. You get to test that pedal you've been checking out, with your OWN guitar, in a place where you can turn it up and get a real playing and sonic experience of the gear you've been considering buying. 

No matter how good the video production might be in the review sites you watch, it's no substitute for YOU testing it out with YOUR hands and YOUR ears to discover its sound in the real world.

Your local music shop provides the benefit of hearing the real sound of the gear you've been checking out on-line. You'll be better informed and better equipped to part with your hard earned in order to translate the sound you hear in your head because you've heard what it really sounds like when YOU play it.

Until next time, keep on picking!