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HOW TO STRING AN ELECTRIC GUITAR (VINT STRAT)

  • remove old strings

“To put on new strings, we 1st have to remove the old ones.. Start by loosening each string gradually until there’s no tension left. Then simply cut the strings.”

  • clean and polish

“Remove the strings from the neck and body. You might have to remove the tremolo cover to do this. Keep it off for now. Clean up your instrument- you can reach all those hard to reach spots the strings were covering.”

  • lemon oil if necessary

If you have a rosewood fingerboard, you can also apply some “guitar-grade” lemon oil. Rosewood is a porous wood and it can start to dull and crack over time if left unchecked. A bit of Lemon oil will rehydrate it and help clean it. Just apply a generous amount on the fingerboard and let it seep in. Wipe off any excess.”

  • feed ALL  strings thru BLOCK 1st

“After you’re through cleaning, we need to put on our new strings. Remember to put the string through their respective holes in the block before you do ANY cutting!!!  Make sure the strings are in order before going on.”

  • measuring trick

“Start with your Low E/6th string. Pull it taut to its tuner. Now measure about 1 1/3 posts up. Make a right angle bend, aiming in towards the key. This helps us measure the correct string length. Feed the string through to your bend and start tightening the string. You can use your fingers to guide the string into a descending coil around the post. Stop when you feel tension. Check to make sure you’re in the nut slot (or under any relevant “string-trees”). Remember, you can always loosen and reposition a string…”

  • cut off strings

“If everything looks good, you can go ahead and cut the excess off. Cut close to the post but MAKE SURE YOU DON’T CUT THE STRING ITSELF!!!”

  • do another string

“Let’s try the A string. Pull it taut to its tuner. Now measure about 1 1/3 posts up. Make a right angle bend, aiming in towards the key. Feed the string through to the bend and start tightening. Guide the string into a descending coil around the post.”

  • measure the last string

“I’ve put on all the strings except the High E. We need to measure this one a little differently because we ran out of posts. Pull the string taut over its post. Now pinch it to mark its distance. Move your pinched “marker” to any other post and measure 1 1/3 posts and make your right angle bend. Now just feed the string through to the bend and start tightening. Guide the string into a descending coil around the post. Put your tremolo cover back on and your done.”

  • stretching

“Tune your guitar. It takes a little a little time for the strings to lose their elasticity, but we can help them along by stretching them. Simply fret notes from low to high on each string and give a tug every time you change position. If you do this after tuning a few times it will really help the strings break in faster. You can also barre up and down the fingerboard while working the vibrato bar. “

“Thanks for watching! Be sure to  check out my other videos & website.”

MAESTRO 13.COM

Notes on the Guitar

notes on the guitar header

As we learned on the Introduction to notes page, music is comprised of a sequence of 12 notes that repeat as many times as your instrument can manage. Think about a standard piano keyboard with 88 keys. These aren’t all different notes, rather the 12 note sequence has been repeated 7 1/3 times. The guitar isn’t mapped out as visually as the piano (with its symmetric pattern of white and black keys), but we still follow the same sequence of twelve notes.

On a guitar, the more frets you have allow you to play more notes of the sequence. All guitars have at least 12 frets, so we know that they can hold at least one octave worth of music. A standard 22 fret neck goes 10 notes higher in the sequence.

Do you remember the string names from the Using a Digital Tuner page?

good low e to high e strat pic - copy1

                                “Eddie Ate Dynamite Good Bye, Eddie!”

                                (6th)  (5th)(4th)       (3rd)  (2nd)(1st)

                            (LOW/thick strings)     (HIGH/thin strings)

dynamite plate

Let’s try to figure out the notes up the Low E (6th) string. We start on that note and count through the next note in the chromatic sequence. You can use this chart as a reference:

—————UP————->

A

A#/Bb

B

C

C#/Db

D

D#/Eb

E

F

F#/Gb

G

G#/Ab

Starting here and counting “up” >

*Remember- it doesn’t matter where you start in the sequence. Just keep counting from one note to the next. (When you get to G#/Ab, the sequence starts over again on A).

If we count up (going L to R in the sequence)from the letter E, we get:

E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Bb B C C#/Db D D#/Eb E

Here is how it would look on the guitar:

e string chromatic with string nos.2

*You can find the rest of the notes on the Low E string by simply continuing the sequence until you run out of frets. You can fill in this chart using the same method that we used for the Low E string. Simply find the open string letter and count up the sequence from there. You will know you did it right if the 12th fret (the double dot) reads EADGBE again. We know there are only twelve notes in music, so wherever you start on a string, you can count up 12 frets and be on the octave of the same note you started on. (We don’t count the number we start on-that’s why you don’t end up with 13).

Dexterity Exercises

***Video coming soon!***

Most beginners feel that their hands are completely uncoordinated and independent of each other. This is a common complaint, but luckily there are several exercises and techniques that can help you to synchronize your left & right hands. Concentrate on placing your fretting hand on the correct fret while striking that same string with your picking hand. Both hands should “hit” at the same time.

Here’s an easy exercise: Start with your index finger on the Low E/5th fret. Next place your middle finger Low E/6th fret. Move over to the A string and play index (5th fret) and middle (6th fret). Follow this pattern up and down-while keeping the same fingering for the same frets.

final-dex-ex1

You should get in the habit of playing every musical example forwards and backwards. Not only will your technique improve, but your ear will improve as well. Here is the same example switching the finger order . You’ll still use your index for the 5th fret and your middle for the 6th.

final-dex-ex2

Now let’s try adding a third finger to the mix. Your index plays 5th fret, middle plays 6th fret & your ring plays the 7th fret:

really-real-final-dex-ex3

Here is the the same example backwards (remember to keep the same fingering):

final-dex-ex4

We can’t forget about the pinky, so…Your index plays 5th fret, middle plays 6th fret, ring plays the 7th fret & pinky takes the 8th fret.

real-final-dex-ex-5

And backwards (remember to keep the same fingering):

dex-ex-6

Notice that when we use all four fingers, we cover four frets (using one finger per fret). This “four fret block” is very important because it allows you to span two octaves without shifting your arm up or down the neck.

the-four-fret-block-jpg

You can see how we used the four fret block in the exercises above. Let’s move it to a different fret and try to mimic the same fingering. Start on the Low E/12th fret with your index finger, then play Low E/13th fret with your middle. Next move your index to the A string/12th fret followed by your middle on the A string/13th fret, and so on. You’ll notice that this is the same fingering we did in the first example.

Try adding additional fingers until you can repeat the original exercises in this new location. Remember- you can move this four finger block anywhere on the neck…and you should. JUST REMEMBER TO KEEP THE BLOCK’S SHAPE INTACT! The same fingers should remain on the same frets throughout these exercises.

Practice these shapes on the lower, middle and higher registers, and you’ll feel comfortable playing anywhere on the neck.

*In the next lesson we’ll learn our first scale (the Chromatic Scale). It also uses the four fret block…but with a twist…

**Newbs are free to move on to the next lesson, OR stick around for some advanced finger independence.

In all of the previous examples, we used consecutive fingers to play from low-high, or high-low. Kind of like how you might drum your fingers on your desktop. Start the four fret block any where you like and try to play these sequences from string to string using:

1(index) 2(middle) 3(ring) 4(pinky)

1234

2341

3412

4123

4321

3214

2143

1432

Good Luck and be sure to take plenty of breaks!

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