Hello, my friends

When restringing, do you remove all strings?
I've heard that removing all strings at once can damage the neck due to lack of tension.

How do you do it?

When I'm just changing strings, I do it one by one. When I need to clean the fingerboard and polish the frets as well, I take all of the strings off. The key I was told is to take the tension off each string by tuning it down till you can pull it off the tuner, not just putting the cutters on it and whacking them all off. Though I've seen that done too, but I'm too paranoid to do that due to what you just mentioned ^^

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

In the beginning I was told to do this one by one and so that's how I've always done it. I've only taken all the strings off in a major work situation like the rebuild of my Musicmaster.

I normally do all the strings at once. It's much quicker, and I've never had a problem after doing it this way for over a year. I used to go one by one, but it's just more time consuming and you can't really clean the guitar off as well as you can when they're all off.

When I'm restringing a guitar at work with a tune-o-matic bridge I usually like to keep at least one string on so that the bridge doesn't move while I'm changing strings. I do the same with archtops with those wooden bridges which can get knocked out of place so easily.

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I've talked with repair techs, and you won't hurt anything by removing all the strings. I've restrung both ways and prefer one at a time. Easier to tune, and the tension bar on my Kramer stays in place with other strings holding it.

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My gear:

Hot Rod Deluxe
1975 Vibro Champ
G-DEC 3 Thirty
Kramer XL III
Standard Stratocaster
Oscar Schmidt acoustic

Anything with a floating tremolo should be changed one at a time. Aside from this, if you are going to replace the set immediately, it really doesn't make a difference.

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You dig?

Hi Rui Barata: there's possibly some issues with the neck wood moving when no longer under tension with older acoustic instruments and classical guitars that have no trussrod. And, as TGS says, it is useful on some types of bridge to have one or more strings keeping things in place. Also, I know that violin and cello players often like to restring one at a time - but that's more to do with keeping pressure on the front plate so the soundpost doesn't fall out. (They seldom change all four strings at once in any case.)

However, a Fender electric is a rugged old bit of kit. Taking all the strings off is no problem in the slightest. Personally, I detune them all a bit so there's no whiplash and them chop 'em off with snippers. Life's too short for messing around...

...Though as I click submit I see that Martian is recommending the other approach - but I think he'd agree that's more to do with the bridge than worries about damaging anything.

Cheers - C

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Once again, great minds think alike!

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You dig?

+1, Either that or be sure to block the trem so you don't do ant body damage. I go one at a time. It's harder to clean the neck but it gets done.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

For the past 40+ years, I have always removed all six strings, then restrung the new. If that guitar neck can't take the paltry change in tension of having all six strings removed, get a different guitar. And yes, I have guitars with tailpieces that will fall off when all strings are removed, but that's a good time to polish those hard to reach parts of the guitar anyway. When I change strings on guitars, I set up for it and usually do at least six guitars at a time.





I'm not big on frequent changes, either. Of course, I have a good selection of guitars, but my fingers don't sweat at all - never have, so corrosion due to bodily fluids is something I never have to deal with.

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

One by one.

I would like to do all at once for ease of conditioning the board, but am concerned about neck probs. Don't know if it would cause probs or not.

Depends on what I'm changing strings on. Mandolin or an arch top with that non attacked bridge? One at a time. Floyd Rose? One at a time. Anything else all come off fret board gets a nice cleaning and then re string. The short amount of time strings are off all at once will not effect the neck.

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Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self. Therefore, trust the physician and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility.-Khalil Gibran

I have always changed one at a time except when I'm doing a major clean-up and polishing of the guitar.With a floating bridge it is almost essential to do one at a time to maintain proper tension on the springs.By doing one at a time for so long I now find this way much faster.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I have always removed all the strings. No issues for me .

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Chet Feathers

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.