Keeping New Strings in Tune- How to Stretch Your Guitar Strings
Jun 2nd, 2007 by admin
What’s the biggest problem you face when you put on brand new guitar strings? For me it is the fact that my new guitar strings stay in tune for, say, 15 seconds until they sound like adolescent boys trying to hum an E chord. So what can you do to keep your new guitar strings in tune? Simple. You can stretch them.
Stretching your guitar strings when you first put them on will keep them from losing tune. How? Because when new guitar strings are “stiff” if they have never been played. Once you string your guitar and start playing, your strings “loosen” up and will have less tension on the neck. That causes them to lose tune. By stretching them when you put them on and then tuning your guitar, your strings will already be loose and will not stretch as you play.
How to stretch your guitar strings:
Stretching your guitar strings is quite easy, but it still needs to be done with care so you don’t snap a string.
After you have all your new guitar strings on your guitar, put your guitar across your lap with the neck to your left (you can switch if you are a lefty). Use your pointer and middle finder of your left hand to push down on the low E string at the first fret. Slide your thumb on your right hand under the low e string at the 5th fret. Now gently pull up on the low E string while still pushing down with your left hand. Don’t pull too hard, but hard enough that there is a good amount of tension on the string (your right thumb should be about .25 to .5 an inch off the fretboard). Pull it up and down a few times. Then move your left hand up two frets (two the third fret) and your right hand up two frets (to the 7th fret) and repeat. Do this until your left hand gets to the 15th fret. Do the same thing on each one of your guitar strings. Then tune your guitar. This should help keep your stings from going out of tune.
As a warning, please be very careful not no snap your guitar strings. If it won’t pull anymore, stop pulling. A guitar string napping in your face can be quite painful (and dangerous).
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Hey Ross,
Thanks for commenting on my site. You have got a pretty good one here yourself. I enjoy your articles.
Stretching your strings should just be a part of the process of changing your strings. The reason I do it is if you dont new strings will go out of tune every 3 minutes anyway because they stretch naturally. Either you stretch them by playing and have to tune your guitar a dozen times, or stretch them manually like noted above and only have to do it two or three times.