The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi , I’m new to the pedal steel guitar and to the forum and I have a question about changing the strings.
Can you remove all the strings before putting new ones on or should you take one off and put one on ?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you and have a Happy New Year

Take them all off ,give the old girl a good polish and stringer up.

Thank you so much for the fast reply

One thing to be aware of; if you have the strings removed and think you want to turn the guitar over to check something on the underside, don't! On some guitars, if you turn them over without the stings in place, the separate parts of the changer fingers can move out of the correct position. Nothing will work properly if that happens. And you will spend a lot of time fixing it. That said, I usually do remove all the strings at once when changing them.

thanks for posting that question Joe, I'm a newbie and would have never thought you could take them all off at the same time...

are there any special ways to go about stringing them up...or do you just basically string em like you would a normal guitar....with getting a couple wraps or so on the tuning peg, then giving them a good stretching as you tune to pitch?

http://steelguitar.com/strings.html

Here's a pretty good tute on string changing thanks to the folks at Carter guitar. The rest of the information there will be of help to anyone new to the game...some of us oldtimers still too.

thanks for that Jerry!!!

You bet. Happy New Year

And one more take on changing strings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoT_LMr-hmA

The first of three videos!

A couple of things you might want to try:

First, if you have pins instead of slots (or slots that do not hold the ball in firmly) you can wedge something soft between the back of the changer housing and the finger, such as some cardboard folded up to the proper thickness.

Second: I actually put a bend in the end of my string before inserting it - after doing a couple you learn how far from the end to crimp it. I bend it 135 degrees, so it is angled backwards at a 45.

Thanks for that Douglas, that was a good watch to see how to get em stretched in a bit.

Good question Joe. I am in your camp and waiting to do my first string change. Both instructions above indicate measuring and cutting the string prior to install. I can see this making sense because the strings wind over the guitar face and can scratch the surface during the wind. But myself being from a 6-string guitar background who always cut after install, this is quite different. Is measuring and cutting before winding actually the most common way players are changing strings?

Hey Ken....actually on vintage style slotted tuner say on a Fender guitar, measure up two tuners is the way I would string up those types of guitars, all others I would waite to cut after they were installed....but it never dawned on me to do that for pedal steel...still haven't done my first string change yet either..lol....I just change guitars so far...lol

Remember to oil rollernuts and make sure each can move when changing strings. Might prevent some tuning issues.

Except when I want to clean the neck/fretboard/keyhead, I do 1 string at a time. I do the following:

1. tune the 9th string down to B so when I put the 10th string on, I have a "B" note to match it up with.

2. Change and tune the 9th string to D.

3. Keep going up from there.

This way, I always have a note to match with the string I am putting on before getting it up to pitch. The 3rd string I usually tune to F#. I let it sit for a half hour or so. Then I take it to G for a while. Then up to G# and let it sit for a spell. That's only if I have overnight before I have to play. Almost never break a 3rd on installation.