How To Clean Guitar Strings At Home

Classical Guitar Strings Buyers Guide

Brown paper packages tied up with strings, these are a few of my favorite things! Except it's guitar strings, that is! How does it feel, are you a bit wiser as to what strings you should buy? No? Oh well, fair enough, I guess you need a little bit more information before you make your final decision. Because we get it, sure, now you know what strings are good, but you still haven't had the chance to find out how to actually put on new strings, and anyway, what's the reason that we only have nylon strings for classical guitars on the list, what about steel strings? Where are those?

Yep, there are a few questions you need to find out the answers to, so go ahead and read our buyer's guide that will help you to learn more about guitar strings and will help you with that last bit of knowledge you might need in order to make a decision.
If you still have no idea what strings to go for, select three strings from the list that you want to compare and make your own list of pros and cons. Sometimes this is the easiest way of making a decision because it gets very visual. If you see that one type of strings has four cons and one none whatsoever, you'll know which ones to go for. And never underestimate YouTube, listen to the strings you're interested in buying!

How to String a Classical Guitar?

So, your new strings have arrived, and you take the old ones off and then you realize that you have no idea how to put the new ones on… Don't worry, we've got you covered! We would also recommend you to look at YouTube videos or maybe ask a friend to help out the very first time you change your strings. It's always easier to watch somebody else do it and then imitate instead of just reading and guessing that you're doing it right.

How to Tie Classical Guitar Strings

• The first thing you need to do, as we mentioned, is to remove the old strings. This isn't very difficult, start by unwinding the strings. You can take all of them off at once or change one at the time, but the easiest way of doing it is just doing them all at once. There's really nothing to worry about in this step, just take them off!

• You'll start with your 6th string. Stick the end through the bridge. A piece about as long as your thumb or even longer should be sticking out. Now you take that little piece and loop it over the bridge, and up, under the long string. Tuck the little piece under itself to make a knot and press the long piece down so that it's holding the little piece of string in place and it's pointing to the right, just like when you just had put it through the bridge. Now tighten the knot by pulling both ends.

• Do the same thing with the other strings, but the three higher strings should be looped three times since they're thinner.

• Once you have fastened all the strings to the bridge, it's time to attach them to the tuning pegs. Turn the tuning pegs to that the hole for the strings are faced up, to the front of the guitar.

• Put the string through the hole once. You're now going to make a simple knot by taking the end of the string up over and then under itself. Now wind the string up until it's tuned. This way the string will wind on top of itself. Try to get this little knot as close to the middle of the guitar head as possible.

• You're going to have to retune your guitar often in the beginning, because new classical strings stretch. This doesn't mean that you've put them on the wrong way, it's perfectly normal.

• If the strings loosen up or fall off, just try again!

What Are Guitar Strings Made of?

Guitar strings were originally made from animal intestines but thankfully it's not like that nowadays! There are two types of guitar strings, steel, that suit genres like country music and rock, and nylon classical guitar strings, which is what you'll be using on your classical guitar. Always make sure to use the type of string your guitar is designed for. With different options for electric guitar instruments, strings for acoustic guitars and classical guitars - we can help you.

How Long Do Guitar Strings Last?

Strings of a Classical guitar If you need to ask this question you don't have to worry about changing strings often. The truth is that the answer to how long guitar strings last depends on how much you play. A professional guitarist will know exactly how often he needs to change his strings, whereas a beginner that doesn't play very often or long can go years without changing strings since they're never that picky about it anyway. Sure, it does happen that strings break, but most often you don't have to wait until they do so to change strings.

Change it up! Some guitarists stick with the same strings for decades, but they're missing out. New nylon composites and amalgams are being developed all the time, and the difference they make can be amazing. So if you can't afford a new guitar, try some different strings - they might even make you practice more!

How to Choose Guitar Strings

It might seem difficult to decide what strings you need. Two main factors are if you need nylon classical strings or steel and what tension you want, more about that in the next question.

Another important aspect is, of course, the sound, which is the reason why we've linked to YouTube videos in most of the reviews so that you can listen to them. There are also strings that are good for reducing left-hand noise, so if that's something you have a problem with you might want to buy strings that are specifically good for this.

Classical Guitar Strings High Tension vs. Low Tension Strings

Nylon Classical Strings Vs Steel Strings

As we said before you need to make sure that you use nylon strings for classical guitar. This is not just a recommendation, but a rule.

When it comes to the tension you have more options. You can choose to buy low tension strings. They have a slow attack, and a smoother, cleaner tone. They're perfect for baroque music, for example, Bach and similar music.

Low tension guitar strings High tension strings are better for passionate, Spanish music like flamenco. You get an aggressive attack and more life in the tone.

It can be good to know that hard tension strings are, like it sounds, harder, which means that they're also harder to press down.

So if you know that hand strength isn't your forte, you should probably go for either medium tension or low tension strings (light tension), and if you want to eventually get hard tension strings, do lots of classical guitar technique exercises that will build up your hand strength.

Expert Tip:

Always keep an extra set of strings at home, in case one should break when you least expect it! You want to avoid any problems with your classical strings!

Did you know?

There are electric guitar string winders that you can use instead of winding your classical strings by hand - it takes forever!

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