Now, that you have all the information you need to purchase your own Guitar, we want to start talking about some things that you need to know to get set up to play your guitar. The first thing we want to talk about is stringing the guitar. As we mentioned before, if you have an Acoustic Guitar, you need to get acoustic guitar strings, and electric strings for the Electric Guitar. Here are couple of examples of some typical guitar string packaging.  [Shows various guitar string packages]. These ones here say electric guitar strings on the packaging. [Points to the packaging]. And up in the corner on this one, it says acoustic guitars. [Points to the corner of the packaging]. So, these are typical strings that you would get. If you needed Nylon Strings, they would say it on the packaging, as well. Another thing that we recommend, that you don’t have to have, but is handy, is this [Shows the new tool]. This is called a string winder. It really does three things. The main thing, that it does, is if you grip it, and then you take this rotating part, and you put it around the tuning peg, then you can actually loosen and tighten your strings much faster, and it takes a lot of  strain of your wrist. These days they also come with a couple other functions that are very cool. This one has a little notch, it’s a string cutter, so if there is the excess string that you want to cut off, you just put it in this area and cut it right off. Here on the winding part there is the little notch. On Steel String acoustic guitars, as we mentioned, the strings are held in place by bridge pins, and they can be difficult to get out. This little notch [Shows the notch on the string winder] actually fits around the bridge pin, and you can pull it out. It takes a lot of work out of the process. What we are going to do now is walk you through changing strings on the various types of guitars that we discussed.

Do I really need any tools aside from my hands? Yes, the amount of pressure the strings exert on the guitar at various points can make it difficult to take them off, so you will need at least one tool to change the strings on your guitar. At the very least use a set of pliers.  The ends of strings tend to have very sharp edges, so to avoid cutting yourself by using pliers. They are also useful when you need to cut a string.   Do I really need a string winder? You can get by without a sting cutter, but we highly recommend using one.  Some tuners can be very tight and difficult to turn and various guitars require different amounts of rotation. Nylon string guitars specifically require more turning of the tuning pegs to get the string in tune. A string winder  is an inexpensive tool that will make replacing and changing your strings a lot easier and quicker.   Can I use pliers to change strings?  Yes, you can use a set of pliers to change your strings but be careful. You’ll want to use them to gently pull bridge pins out, feed the strings through the holes in the tuning posts, and possibly to cut or crimp the ends of your string. That said, it is somewhat easy to scratch your guitar using pliers. Many a guitar has suffered an unsightly gouge from a pair of pliers... you've been warned!