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neck to feed into the tuner. With a steel strung acoustic you will find that the string is fixed into the bridge with a plastic pin.

Whatever type you have just look how the strings are fixed before removing them.
If you have an acoustic with bridge pins you might find it useful to buy a bridge pin puller, you can use normal DIY tools but you run the risk of marking your valuable instrument.

With the new string in place, fed the end through the hole in the tuning peg, pull the string straight then kink it about an inch from the far side of the tuner, tension the string with the free hand and wind the string onto the post of the tuner.
I like to start the coils just beneath the protruding end of the string and wind further coils neatly so that there are no slack bits. As the string tightens ensure that it is lying correctly on the bridge and the nut. Gently pull the string away from the finger board to stretch it and to keep in line, keep winding until the string will play a note, we'll worry about tuning it later.

Repeat the process with the remaining strings. When the last one is in place use the side cutters to remove the excess string from the free end by the tuner, don't cut too close to the post but be careful about leaving a sharp end sticking out.

Tune up fairly roughly and try stretching the strings again. To do this simply pull the string away from the fingerboard at the 12th fret for about an inch then re-tune and get thrashing!

Learn more about this author, Jeff Dray.
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