Luke, stringing a guitar isn't too hard. The next time you need to string your guitar you should have the person show you how he or she does it. All the same there isn't much to it.

Basically, you string a guitar one string at a time. Let's say you start with the first string, the high e string, replace that string, tune it, and then move onto the b string, and so forth. Once you have replaced all six strings let it set a day or two, check your tuning, retune if necessary, and then use a pair of wire cutters to trim off the extra length of strings you don't need. That's basically the process in a nutshell.

Assault Freak, well, I generally let my guitar set a day or two before trimming the strings simply so I know the strings will  stretch and can be tuned to the proper pitch before I snip off the unneeded length of string. I've seen plenty of guitar players who do the trimming right away and I guess it doesn't matter when a person trims them, but I try to be on the safe side.

Anyway, I guess I hadn't thought Luke's problem might be more basic such as how to wind the strings.  I suppose I took that part for granted.

Hi everyone.
Well putting strings on a guitar is not to hard it just depends on what kind of guitar you have
If you have a standard steel string guitar all you have to do is thread the strings through the tuning pegs.
The way I remember it is that the top of the string is pointed and goes at the head of the guitar and the bottom of the string always has a small circle on the bottom so it goes at the bottom of the guitar.
Guitarman

On a steel string or an electric the thicker strings can be tuned lower. I have 12-s on my electric and 13-s on my acoustic and both of them are always tuned down a whole step. Gives deeper and richer sound to my guitar and to my style of playing.

Hmmm, good insite on this.

I have a Fender acoustic, plus a Flying V BC Rich electric that severely needs tuned.

One problem I'm having with my electric is the intonation.  For example, the higher I go on the fret board, the more out of tune the strings are.  This is very annoying when playing lead solos.

Best Regards,

Luke

Hey there,

I use a pic a majority of the time.  If I'm playing let's say, strings 1 and 4 at once, and I want to only play those two strings, I would use my fingers.

I'm more in to heavier rock, like EVH, so of course using fingers isn't always the best.

Best Regards,

Luke

Lol, well you just answered your own question!

Practice is essential, no matter what.  I myself am still struggling to hit the correct string at times, although mainly with songs that are much faster pace than normal.

If any are interested, I did develop audio tutorials on techniques I use when playing guitar and keyboard (piano).

Best Regards,

Luke

Truth is... you can practice songs with small tweeks to your own style too. The songs don't have to be exactly like the original when you play them. Especially with lead guitar.
And Hadi... playing with a pick or your fingers only has nothing to do with being blind... that completely depends on the style. and you were right about learning how to hit notes more accurately. Practice is key!
Luke... sounds like the fender has some problems up on the bridge. Bring it into a sho to check.. I use to have a fender with the same problem. Something to do with the tention that is on the bridge.. which is adjustable. But I never figured it out myself. lol

Hadi, weather you finger pick or use a guitar pick really depends on the style of music and in many cases the song itself. There are a number of songs where you may need to finger pick the strings, and there are other songs that require a guitar pick to play. So my advice is to be come familiar with doing both.

For example, if you are into hard rock, metal, etc you'll need a guitar pick to play the leads. Certain legendary guitar players such as Van Halen use a guitar pick playing several notes in a row with a quick down, up, down, up, down up progression. Finger picking can't give you the rapid down up picking required for sustained rock guitar leads. Which brings me to the other thing I want to say.

If you are fumbling around and not hitting the right string then you are giving your hand far too much motion. Generally you should have your wrist resting against the bridge of your guitar and only slightly flick your hand up and down to strum or pick strings. It sounds to me like you are not grounding your wrist and letting your whole arm move which is not necessary or desirable when playing guitar.

The best suggestion I can give is this. First, wrest your wrist against the bridge and just flick your wrist or hand up and down in order to strum or pick notes. Second, practice your scales while picking down on the first note, pick up on the second note, pick down on the third note, and so on. The basic idea here is your pick shouldn't go more than an an inch or two passed the string before you reverse direction and pick the next note in sequence. Doing this will help you pick better and eventually will help you learn how to do rock guitar licks too.

Ray, tuning largely depends on several factors. Generally, a guitar is tuned to the key of e, since that is the primary key for a guitar, but as has been mentioned a person can tune it down a step or so to get a more metal or grungier pitch for metal. If playing with a piano or keyboard the guitar might need to be tuned to the key of c since its much easier to retune the guitar rather than the piano. Then, there are cases where the guitar needs to be retuned for a certain song or band as some songs are not played in the key of e.

For example, the Rolling Stones largely play their songs in the key of g. Many of their hits such as Brown Sugar and Start Me Up require that the guitar player tune his/her guitar to the key of g, and then the chords used will sound just like the album. That's because Keith Richards tunes his guitar to g, and as a result most of the Stones hits have the same chords but played using alternative tuning which makes it hard to learn them by ear unless you get use to how the band does things.

I guess the point I want to make is that tuning is largely up to the player. Standard tuning is standard tuning and is generally great for a new or first time player, but eventually they may like to experiment with alternative tuning, different cording, and experiment with different styles if they want to have a more than average knowledge of the instrument at hand.

hello
well, first of all it's good to hear that you guys can play guitar with pics too...  lol i thought that could be impossible.
Tom, you're kinda right. i manuver my right hand alot, maybe that's one of the reasons which i can't  acurately hit the notes.
i'll try to practice, then. to be honest my practice rate is 1 hour at a week.
anyway, how do you guys try to play a note of a music? in piano, i can easily figure things out and play a music once i listen to it.
but in guitar, i bearly have idea where to start and which note is better to start.
well, this leads to another question--- can we use tabletures? with jaws, i have tried some and they seem too hard.
sighted people can easily play everything with tabs,....
googling showed me a project which is incomplete and i guess abandoned,
http://code.google.com/p/lunartabspro/
these days i don't have alot time for guitar classes and i wonder that can you achieve some experience without  going to classes and such.

Mord-Sith, when it comes to alternative tunings this is where your scales and cord theory comes in handy. If you don't already know this then you'll need to learn more about the notes that make up a certain scale and/or cord in order to tune your guitar to a different key.

For example, the notes that make up an open e on a guitar are e, a, d, g, b, and e. However, if you want to tune your guitar to the key of g like the Rolling Stones you would simply tune a few strings up to the key of g. That would make it g, b, d, g, b, and g when the strings are played openly.Basically, the same notes that are found in a standard g cord. Just tuning the e string to g, a string to b, and high e string to g you've effectively tuned the guitar from the key of e to the key of g. Make sense?

Once you understand what notes make up a certain cord or a certain scale then its easy to experiment with alternative tuning and using alternative cording for that key. If you don't know your scales and cord theory well then you would be better off sticking with standard tuning in the key of e until you learn it.

As far as tuning by ear I use a pitch pipe for initial tuning so I can tune my guitar to standard pitch and make sure I get a clean e, a, d, g, b, e notes for an open e. After that I can tune up or down if desired for alternative tuning but I always use standard tuning for a baseline to start with. To do that you need a pitch pipe or similar to help you find the correct pitch for each string.