In this guitar lesson, we're going to learn how to change the strings on an acoustic guitar. We'll be covering the two main types of acoustic guitars - steel-string and nylon-string (classical guitar). There are a few differences between them, so be sure to check what your guitar is before changing the strings.
Steel-String Acoustic Guitar
First, we'll take a look at the steel-string acoustic guitar. The main thing to be aware of here is the bridge pins. Loosen each string so that it's completely slack. Now you can remove the strings from their pegs and pull out the bridge pins out of the bridge which will allow you to completely remove the strings.
The next step is to put the ball-end of your new string into the bridge hole and push the pin into the hole. Next, you can put the other end of the string through the appropriate tuning peg. A trick for helping to lock the string in place is to have at least one wrap go over the whole, then the rest under.
Do this with each string, making sure the bridge pin is pushed down as far as it can go. Lastly, you can tune the guitar up to pitch once you've got all the strings on the guitar. You'll also want to clip off the excess string ends from the tuning pegs.
Nylon-String Acoustic Guitar
The main difference between changing strings on a steel-string acoustic guitar and on a nylon-string acoustic guitar (classical guitar) is that you don't have bridge pins. Instead, you'll have to tie the strings to the bridge.
Push the end of the tighter end of the string through the bridge and tie it around itself. Make sure the wrap lays flat. Take the other end of your string and put that through the appropriate hole in the tuning peg. Make sure you've wrapped it around itself so the string locks into place.
You can do this with the rest of the strings and tune them all up to pitch. With nylon strings, you'll find they stretch quite a bit more so it may take some time to get the guitar to stay in tune at first.
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