Nickel and steel guitar strings should give off a silver luster, while acoustic strings should maintain a vibrant bronze. However, some discoloration simply might come from dirt and oil. If your strings are still looking dull after a fresh clean, its a good idea to slap on a new set.

The image below illustrates a guitar fretboard and shows all the notes along the Low E string. The low E string is the largest string and will be in red. The color for the strings will be slightly different than the color for the notes. The high E string, is the thinnest string, look below.

Don’t wind the string on the wrong way. It can cause hassle. Not only will you have to turn this tuner the ‘wrong’ way to tune up, the angle out of the nut is sharper and the string can get fouled or run against other tuners (neither of which is great for tuning).

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in the order, A, B, D, G. Now that you have some tension on all the strings, and they are sitting correctly on the saddle and the nut, you can give them a stretch. This is an essential part of the process. If you don’t stretch your strings, you will find it virtually impossible to tune the guitar.

There is no easy way to identify the gauge of strings on your guitar unless you purchase a caliper or micrometer to accurately read your strings’ thickness. As a general rule, If you are playing electric guitar, you are most likely playing with extra light or light string set gauges (either 10’s or 11’s).

F
The 1st fret note on the D string is an Eb. The 2nd fret is E, the 3rd fret is an F and the pinky on the 4th fret is an F#.

Anywhere between 2-4 windings will be plenty and, so long as you are restringing your guitar in a conventional way, this should ensure that you have enough tension in your string to maintain your tuning and avoid any string slippage.

So when the strings are “properly” (according to those tutorials) installed, you need to turn counterclockwise in order to tighten the bass strings, and clockwise in order to tighten the treble strings.

Only D’addario use colour codings because they package whole sets of strings in one plastic bag, most other manufacturers sell strings in individual paper packets. D’addario’s way is less ecologically wasteful, apparently. Questions about socialism, communism or Marxism?

XL Nickel Wound, D’Addario’s most popular guitar strings, are precision wound with nickel plated steel onto a carefully drawn, hexagonally shaped, high carbon steel core. The result—strings with long lasting, distinctive, bright tone and excellent intonation—is ideal for the widest variety of guitars and musical styles. DIAL IT IN. CRANK IT OUT.

WOUND TO PERFECTION 700,000 TIMES A DAY. String winding equipment is designed and built by D’Addario’s engineering team, guaranteeing a production range of 500,000 to 700,000 strings per day. Digitally-controlled string winding machines ensure productivity, accuracy, and consistency. SIX SIDES OF STABILITY.