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306 Part V: Gearing Up: Outfitting Your Arsenal TEAM LinG
If you remove all the strings on a guitar with a floating bridge system, stick a
shim (or wedge) between the bridge and the body to keep the bridge stationary
while you restring.
To remove a string from your acoustic guitar
1. Turn the tuning key in the direction that loosens the string or makes
the sound go flat.
2. Turn the key for two or three complete revolutions (until the string is
completely slack and the coils around the tuning post loosen).
3. Pull the coiled string off the post and remove the string end from the
tuning post hole.
4. Remove the bridge pin, which holds the ball — a ring or hollow
cylinder — end firmly in place (check out the information on bridge
pins in the section “Stringing a Steel-String Acoustic” in this chapter).
5. Remove the string from the bridge to get the string completely off the
guitar.
To remove a string from your electric guitar
1. Turn the tuning key in the direction that loosens the string or makes a
note go flat.
2. Turn the key for two or three complete revolutions (until the string is
completely slack and the coils around the tuning post loosen).
3. Pull the coiled string off the post and remove the string end from the
tuning post hole.
4. Cut the string at its midpoint with wire cutters (if you don’t plan to
save the string for a spare), which allows easy removal through the hole
(it takes time to snake the coiled end through the hole in the tailpiece
or bridge).
5. Remove the string from the bridge to get the string completely off the
guitar.
Stringing a Steel-String Acoustic
One difference between acoustic- and electric-stringing is that an acoustic
uses removable bridge pins to hold the strings in place at the bridge. Bridge
pins require a little more fiddling to get them to secure correctly to the string
in place at the bridge.