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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

HOW TO STRING A TELECASTER

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

“Remove the strings from the neck and body. Now is a good time to clean up your instrument- you can reach all those inaccessible spots the strings were covering.”

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.”

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

“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…””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!!!”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

Introduction to Notes

The single most important thing to learn in music is the Musical Alphabet. Don’t move on until you have this memorized. Be able to recite it forwards AND backward without hesitation.

Let’s start simple. How many notes are there in music? Imagine all the songs you have heard in your life and consider all the stylistic and cultural differences. How many notes would it take to create this seemingly limitless body of music? THE ANSWER IS TWELVE.

12? That can’t be right…but it is. You can play any melody or song using a dozen notes.

Think of these 12 notes as increments on a ruler.number-rulerl

As we move to the right on a ruler, the numbers go UP. Move left and the numbers go DOWN.

If for some bizarre reason you had an unlimited supply of rulers, you could theoretically place them end to end (in either direction) to infinity. The 12 note sequence always remains the same. It just keeps starting over. The only difference is if you are going right (UP) or left (DOWN).                                                                                                     

                                                                    UP———————————————–> three_rulers2                                                                      <————————————-DOWN

This perpetual 12 note sequence is the basis of understanding music. The only difference is that in music we replace these numbers with letters.

We use the first seven letters of the alphabet (ABCDEFG) to name all 12 notes.

* I know 7 letter names doesn’t seem like enough to name all 12, but bear with me. This is one of those musical concepts that don’t seem to make sense at first.

7-letter-ruler

We can fill in the missing note names by using something known as sharps (#) and flats (b). Sharps and flats can be likened to “generational suffixes” that add “Jr.” or “Sr.” to someone’s name to distinguish them. We’ll add sharps and flats to the existing letters to finish naming the 12 notes.

Sharps (#) raise the pitch of a note- moving it one space to the right.

Flats (b) lower a letter one space- moving it one space to the left.

The space between A and B could be considered one space higher than A (making it an A#) or a B lowered one space (making it a Bb). Both names are considered correct. This is what is referred to as enharmonic equivalents. This means that A# and Bb are the same note expressed differently. Later you will find that one name or the other will be preferable in a given situation.

Let’s try to fill in all 12 notes now.

chromatic_ruler

Notice how we don’t have spaces between B to C and E to F. The reason is we only needed 12 names for our alphabet. If we added a sharp to all 7 letters, we would end up with 14 names. We only need 12, so B and C will always be adjacent to each other. The same thing goes for E to F.

3 chromatic rulers in a line ! and @ OCTS

 Most people are familiar with the layout of a piano. It’s a great visual aid to see how our musical alphabet lays out. The original 7 notes of the alphabet that we used to name notes are always white keys. Black keys are for sharps/flats.

Here is the complete 12 note sequence on the keyboard (NOTE that B goes right to C and E goes right to F with no black note between them):

lil-keyb_w_staff

Here is what that 12 note sequence repeated on a keyboard looks like:

big-keyb_w_staff

*Note that every letter has a sharp or flat after it EXCEPT B-C & E-F!!!

To find out how these notes appear on the guitar, check out the “Notes on the Guitar” page.