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A good way to avoid your strings from going out of tune for the first few days is to stretch them once you have put them on. As the new string is put on your guitar and brought up to pitch, the metal stretches slightly over time. While it may not seem like anything over a few minutes, in an hour that guitar will sound terrible. I have found the best way to avoid this is to stretch the strings as soon as they have been brought up to pitch.

Once your string is tuned, press down on the first fret of the neck, and get a good grip on that fret. Next, with your free hand place your thumb a few fret back from the end of the fretboard so your fingers are dangling just off the end of the fretboard. Hook two or three fingers under the string, and slowly pull up on the string as high as it will comfortably, then lower it back down. Do this about 20 or 30 times, then re-tune your guitar. The only thing you need to worry about is to make sure you are not doing this in sharp, jerky movements, as that is a recipe for string breakage. Be careful when doing this to the higher strings, as they are more likely to break.

Now that all your strings are on and stretched, it may be a good idea to intonate your instrument. This is not necessary, but I think it's a good idea to re-intonate after every string change. To do this, simply get a good tuner and plug into it. Hit the harmonic at the 12th fret, and tune your guitar to that note. Then, hit the note at the 12th fret. If the note is sharp or flat, you need to adjust your string length. Check your bridge: the saddles (the things the strings go over) should have a screw mounted in the back that connects them to the bridge. If the note is sharp you need to lengthen the string length, so take that saddle and, by turning the screw in the back of the saddle, move the saddle further away. If the note is flat, the string length is too great, so shorten it by bringing the saddle closer to the fretboard. After this, re-check the tuning of both the 12th fret harmonic and the 12th fret note. This can be a little tedious, but it is worth the peace of mind it brings knowing that your guitar will now be in tune up and down the fretboard.

Learn more about this author, Graeme Melcher.
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