For all the advice that I got about buying a guitar for my friends, I learned very little about guitar strings. I had always assumed that the guitar alone determines the sound you get out of it. With an acoustic guitar, the main thing is how the body is constructed and what materials are used. If you had good tone woods, solid construction, and a large enough body to resonate, you would get a brilliant warm tone. With electric guitars, it had to do with what pickups you used. Different pickups would give sharp tones, mellow tones, or hot distorted sounds.

When I had been playing for about a year, I got sick of my guitar, but I didn’t really have money for another one. It wasn’t a very good model, and it didn’t sound great in the hands of inexperienced player. When one of my friends suggested trying some different guitar strings, I thought he was being silly. I had tried a few different acoustic guitar string brands, and had not noticed any difference. He told me to buy myself some high-quality Martin Guitar Strings and listen again. When I did, I was blown away. They really did sound warmer, brighter, and all around fuller.

That sound was great for me for a while. I have never had anything but good things to say about Martin Guitar Strings.

The problem was that my guitar was a little bit tinny. The Martin strings were too bright for the particular axe that I was using, So I knew that I had to experiment more. I wanted dark guitar strings with a much mellower, lower pitched sound. I was playing my guitar mostly for accompaniment, so I didn’t need it to project out all that much.

When I finally found the perfect set of acoustic strings, I was absolutely overjoyed. They were made by a local manufacturer who hand wound them. Hand wound guitar strings are a little bit expensive, but if you find really good ones they are more than worth it. Unfortunately, he doesn’t make the strings anymore, but fortunately I stockpiled enough for several years to come. I practice using Martin strings still, but I have my special strings waiting in a case for shows. By saving them and using them sparingly, I should be able to make them last for as long as I need them. By that point, maybe I will have bought a better guitar.

You can learn how to restring an accoustic guitar here.

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Here are a few steps to help you restring an acoustic guitar

1. Remove the old strings by popping out the pin on the bridge and unwinding it from the head.
2. Thread the ball end of a new string through the bridge and anchor it with the pin. It is important that the ball end of the string sits firmly against the bridge plate. (If you have a pinless bridge and the strings simply pass thru the back side of this bridge, put a “hook like” bend on the tip of the string before threading it thru the hole, this way it feeds up and over the saddle.)
3. After attaching the string to the bridge, stretch it up the neck and bring it down the center of the peghead, then thread it thru the tuning shafts hole.
4. Leave a bit of string length to wind around the tuner, and bend the string to help hold it in place on the peg, then turn the tuning peg to tighten it. While you turn, hold the pin firmly to keep the string from popping out. Turn it at least one rotation, but make sure you don’t turn it too tight.
5. Stretch the new string with your fingers, then turn the tuning peg a bit to retighten it.
6. Use wire cutters to clip off the excess string, leaving about 1 or 2 inches.
7. Tune the new string to a guitar tuner.

A great step-by-step guide with photos that show you how to restring your guitar properly can be found at: http://www.fretnotguitarrepair.com/stringing.htm

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How To Tune Your Guitar The Right Way

By: Mike Selvon

Proper maintenance is important to any technical piece of equipment, all the way from vehicles down to instruments that you play. The guitar is no exception. One of the things that you must do on a regular basis is to tune the strings on your guitar.

Without doing this, they can stretch and the sound will be distorted. Tuning your guitar every so often will help prevent you from looking like an idiot in front of your friends whenever you are trying to impress them with your musical skills.

There is a standard, as there always seems to be, involved in guitar tuning and it is conveniently labeled the standard guitar tuning method. The standard involves tuning the strings from the thickest to the thinnest. The order should be E, A, D, G, B, E.

This method is the easiest methods because it is the easiest for tuning the most amounts of scales and chords. The way to start this method is with the E string. The E string is the thickest, and the least likely to fall short of tuning.

The A string is the next string that you should tune. The way to adjust the A string is to place your finger on the fret, pick the fifth and sixth strings while adjusting the fifth string tuning peg until the two notes sound the same. The D string comes next in line.

The way to find the proper D string note is to find the A string that is located just behind the fifth fret. You then turn the fourth string to that note. Tune your G string to the note that rings when you put the first finger on your left hand just behind the fifth fret.

The B string should sound like when your first finger of your left hand is placed behind the forth fret. You should recognize that the tuning of the B string is the only one in the method that uses the fourth fret and not the fifth. Last is the E string which is where you place the first finger of, you guessed it, your left hand behind the fifth fret on the B string.

There are other ways to tune your guitar, but they can get more complicated. You can use an online guitar tuner. You can customize these tuners or you can use the standard method in order to hear how the note is supposed to sound. There are many sites that you can visit in order to find an online tuner, but when you find a site that you like, you should bookmark it in your favorites so that you can easily find it the next time.

If you don’t have a keen ear attuned to different pitches, you might want to invest in an electric tuner. With this device you can look at a tuning monitor to see how off-tune each string on your guitar is. Then, by following the needle on the display, you can tune each string on your guitar according to the reading given on the electric tuner.

Even if you do have a trained ear, electric tuners can come in handy if you’re trying to tune your equipment just before a gig. Noises and other distractions can keep your ear from creating just the right sound on your guitar strings.

If you’re experienced enough, you can tune your guitar by using piano notes. This is quite difficult to do though, especially if you’re not trained in tuning your guitar with this method. Experts and musicians who have been performing for years can also tune their instruments though harmonies and octaves, but this might only confuse the beginning guitar player.

If you’re unsure about your tuning abilities, it is best to just stick with the other methods, such as an electric tuner, to make sure that your strings are tuned to just the right pitch.

Author Resource:-> Mike Selvon owns a number of niche portal. Please visit our guitar portal for more great tips on guitar tuning the right way.
Article From Talkinmince Article Directory

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How To Do Proper Guitar Setup And Maintenance

I just bought this Guitar Setup and Maintenance 3 DVDs set from Learn And Master Guitar, but didn’t have enough time yet to test and review it. I thought I put the link already up here as it sounds pretty good.

It says it will show you step-by-step how to set up your guitar, make basic adjustments to your guitar so you end up with a better playing and sounding instrument, properly restring your guitar, how to adjust the action from the bridge to the saddles, how to adjust the neck and check the relief, and much more.

Check out the video:

I think this sounds interesting, don’t you?

Here is the link to the official Learn & Master Guitar website with a lot more info about this Guitar Setup And Maintenance course

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