Is this true when changing your strings?

[FoxHound4690]

Originally Posted by jim1960

I've been playing for nearly fifty years. I've always removed all the strings when doing a string change. I've never had a guitar suffer because of it, and that's the same whether I have a piezo installed or not. Nor do I know a player whose guitar suffered damage due to removing 6 strings to do a string change. If this practice was really harmful to guitars, techs, especially authorized techs, would have adopted the practice. It would be widely spread. It's not.

Thanks for letting me know Jim, that's interesting. you've basically concluded for me what i've been wondering about. Thanks heaps!

[leonski]

I change my strings one at a time just because I've always done it like that. I take them all off once a year to clean the fretboard and polish the rest of the guitar.

[PapaC]

I’ve had my Gibson Songwriter for 15 years, always take all strings off to change. I’ve never adjusted the truss rod.

I recently took it to the local luthier for a check up and he said it needed nothing, that it was in “great shape”.

[Big Band Guitar]

I do one at a time.

I do not believe anything will be harmed by removing them all at once.

At worse it may take a few more minutes for the new strings to settle in.

[Birchtop]

Do what you like, remove them one at a time or all at once.

Doesn’t matter what guitar, acoustic or electric, you ain’t going to hurt anything. Just be mindful that your tail stop on some electrics will slide right off the posts if you remove all the strings. Don’t want to scratch or ding anything

I remove them all frequently, all at the same time, whether it’s fitting a new saddle, nut, cleaning fretboard, body, or just installing a new set of strings.

Loosen tension and snip. Easy peasy. Rarely do I save a set of strings unless I have a new set or new guitar I’m experimenting different strings/guitars with. Even then I rarely save them one they’ve been installed once.

[Coop47]

Originally Posted by 6 Strings MI

I've done a little reading about this subject. Some people say that if you have under-saddle pickups, you should change strings one at a time.

I've never heard that before, but I guess it makes sense if you don't have a tight fitting saddle. Interesting.

[Birchtop]

Originally Posted by FoxHound4690

Yeah my main electric guitar is a Gibson Les Paul classic and it's got the standard metal tailpiece, so not sure if the technical aspects of a guitar might have an impact.... and whether the headstock is a factor, on Les Pauls the head stock is angled where as on a strat for example its virutally completely straight.

If you take all the strings off, just be sure the bridge and tailstop posts don’t turn at all, and that they stay where they are. No problem. What usually happens is folks start cleaning and wiping when all the strings are off and accidentally turn the posts. This will change string height and setup. With no tension on them from the strings they are easily moved.

Headstock angle is not a factor when removing all the strings at once on the Lesters or SGs

[FoxHound4690]

Originally Posted by Birchtop

If you take all the strings off, just be sure the bridge and tailstop posts don’t turn at all, and that they stay where they are. No problem. What usually happens is folks start cleaning and wiping when all the strings are off and accidentally turn the posts. This will change string height and setup. With no tension on them from the strings they are easily moved.

Headstock angle is not a factor when removing all the strings at once on the Lesters or SGs

good to know, thanks heaps =)

[Planemaker]

Originally Posted by Mark Stone

On my last coupla' Gibsons (J-45 and Hummingbird Pro) the 9v battery for the LRBaggs Element is in the guitar body and requires the removal of all strings to change.

Nah, just have to loosen them off and you can get your hand in there to change the battery.

[seannx]

I like to do change them one by one. The care instructions for my RainSong said to change them one by one, because if they were all taken off at once, the UST could shift position, and result in unbalanced sound when plugged in.

[Cibby]

Occasionally I remove all the strings on both Hummingbird and HD28 and never had a problem neck relief and string height always remained the same. Can't remember in 54 years of playing having a problem. Most of the time I'll do one at a time. I've changed strings between sets to that's when they all come off at once to. But now with better sounding coated strings which I've switched to that rarely happens.

[nikpearson]

...that way you can clean the fingerboard and polish frets making for bettering playability.

I’m certain there’s no risk of damaging a guitar’s neck by changing strings all at once, but would advise where an undersaddle pick up is fitted the strings are taken off with the guitar securely mounted on its back - a neck rest on a table with a towel or similar under the guitar back works a treat. This way there is no risk of the saddle falling out of the bridge. Have restrung many guitars with USTs this way and never experienced a change in sound output.

[Wade Hampton]

I do both - change one string at a time and take them all off in one fell swoop, depending on the circumstances.

It definitely won't hurt anything to take them all off at once, despite endless folklore to the contrary. Anyone who believes that it will has clearly never spent any time hanging around guitar repair techs, or looked closely at the instruments the techs are working on if they have.

But I generally change one at a time, not on any sort of high-falutin' principle, but simply because that's how I usually do it. With the mandolin, which is another one of my primary instruments, taking all the strings off at once means you have to re-intonate the bridge once you get the instrument strung up again, which is a major pain in the butt if you don't actually need to do so.

So on mandolin I always change one string at a time, from the inside courses outwards. I do the same on banjo. On guitar and mountain dulcimer I generally change one string at a time simply because that's what I'm in the habit of doing. I usually go from the bass strings to the trebles, not that it makes any difference at all which way you go.

But I take all the strings off at once whenever I have a compelling reason to do so, like wanting to clean and oil the fretboard. But I never do that more than once a year, because over-oiling the fretboard is much worse for the instrument than ignoring that entirely.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Alnicol]

I have 17 guitars - a mix of acoustic and electric,plus a 3 ukeleles.
I always take all the strings off in one go .It gives me the chance to clean the fretboard and polish the frets.
Never had a problem in 45 years.

[Silly Moustache]

This story about doing damage by removing all the strings is an old tale dating back to the time when there were cheaper guitars without truss rods, string guages/tensions were ill defined and many guitar had floating bridges which could move out of position (not just archtops).

There are no issues in removing all strings on most modern guitars, apart from archtops and mandolins with floating bridges on which I tend to leave the 1st and last strings on until the others have been fitted.