Modern Style Tuners

It's now time to start changing some strings, and we kick off with modern Fender style tuners. We will be going through how to best string this style of tuner, including all the tips, tricks and accessories you may need!

Summary: What is a Modern Fender style tuner

Modern style tuners on Fender guitars are the ones with a hole through the tuning peg. If you have a modern Fender, or Fender copy guitar, they will likely have these kind of tuners on them, unless your guitar is a reissue of some kind. Have a look at your tuners and see if they look like the following picture (ignore the height, just focus on where the hole is):

For those of you who are fairly new to any form of maintenance, some of the terms may be a little bit foreign to you at the moment. To help you follow along, here is a cool diagram detailing the key parts of the guitar for string changing.

Checklist: Changing Strings

Once you get into the flow of changing strings, and have done it a few times, all of this will become second nature. However, in the meantime, here is a checklist to work through:

• 1. Pull the string through the bridge and up through the tuning pegs. Make sure it is nice and taut.
• 2. Allow roughly two tuners' length of extra string after the tuning peg. With smaller tuning pegs, you may need to do 1 length instead.
• 3. Put a kink in the string where the peg is, then pull the string back through, leaving half an inch between the kink and the peg.
• 4. Aim for 3 wraps around the peg for taller pegs, and 2 for smaller pegs.
• 5. Cut the excess string with a pair of wire cutters.

Equipment: What you need

In order to make your string changing quick and neat, we recommend two pieces of gear. Firstly a set of wire cutters and secondly, a string winder. These two tools will massively speed up the process and improve the quality of the finish of the string changing.