Changing strings

[String_Theory]

Originally Posted by vintage40s

I never heard of locking tuners until now. So I looked on YouTube. You replace all your tuning machines with new ones that have a little vice clamp inside of them. So you clamp and cut each string, and make maybe one wind. No round and round winding of the strings around the pegs.
But it would be hard to give up the Grovers on my 50-year old Martin.

It's actually recommended that you don't even go with 1 wind for perfect stability with no slippage possible in the wraps. I pull them tight, clamp them, and then tune up. It's stupid fast. I have some coming for my new Emerald I just got. Get in touch with Gotoh, maybe they can get you some with the specs of your OEM ones. Mine have been on order for a couple weeks now, I was told 4 weeks to make them.

[Meursault]

I’ve learnt recently that re-stringing a guitar on Friday evening whilst enjoying a leisurely drink (or two) isn’t a good idea. It seemed like a relaxing way to spend the evening in theory.

[jaymarsch]

Originally Posted by bufflehead

On the other hand, I'm considering switching to the Joe Beamish method.

Me too!

Best,
Jayne

[Badtux]

I'm of the poke the string through the hole (hole pointed sideways) and crank away school. I get sufficient wraps on bottom and top to lock the string in. Never had an issue. No knots or hooks or anything.

Have a Fender "classic" electric guitar with their "classic" tuners, the one with the hole in the top, those require pre-cutting the strings to the correct length. I just use the old string as the guide there. Otherwise I don't cut the strings until after done.

Oh yeah, tensioning. I pull the string off to the side to tension it while cranking, also to give me a guide for how much string to put through the hole and guide how the string goes onto the peg so I can lock in the string. Keeps the string from pulling out of the peg hole like pulling up will do. Do it enough times, you figure out how much slack will get you enough string. Crank away pulling sideways until it's ready to go into the slot on the nut, then pull upwards instead, you're at the point where you won't pull out the peg. On a guitar that has slots on the bridge of course you'd need to guide it into those too. And of course if it's an electric guitar that has a hole at the head end rather than a peg, it doesn't really matter, but pulling sideways still lets you guide it on the tuner better.

It ain't brain surgery. Figured out how to do it myself when I was a kid. Now I'm (checks calendar) way not a kid by umpty ump years. Still works.

[nowgypsy]

I do what MikeB described.