How To Restring A Ukulele

There will come a time in every ukulele player's life where they will have to change the strings on a ukulele. Never fear! There are lots of reasons why it's a good idea to do this yourself, instead of paying someone to do it for you. For me personally, there aren't a lot of music stores within an hour's drive of where I live. I also have some experience in swapping out the strings on my violins over the years without the assistance of a luthier, so while I was a teensy bit nervous at my first attempt on how to restring a ukulele, I felt confident that I could do it properly.

One of the reasons I learned how to restring a ukulele was because I am really not a fan of the standard strings that have come on most of my uke purchases so far. I'll be talking about the different types of ukulele strings in a future post, but safe to say that after I swapped out the strings on my Makala baritone ukulele, it played like an entirely different instrument, and I became a believer in swapping out your own strings.

My Kala Bocote "Butterfly" tenor is one of my go-to ukes for practice and meditation. I busted a string on it earlier this year when I was adding some inlay stickers (because I like pretty ukes), and I put a set of standard Martins with a low g on her. Well, after playing on a wound low g for a while, I decided I was going to splurge on a set of my favorite Living Water strings, and a few weeks ago, it was Ukulele Restringing Day! So here's what I did, and how I did it.

A couple of tools that are good to have handy are wire cutters and a needle nose pliers. I'm also a jewelry maker, so I have an entire arsenal of pliers and cutters for all sorts of things, and yes, I do occasionally use my jewelry tools on my ukes. (Not to be confused with the time my husband used my expensive German jewelry pliers to pull ticks off a deer skin from a hunt, but that's a story for another time.)

1. To begin, I started by just loosening the strings on my uke. Because I don't have a peg winder (yet), this took a few minutes. Gently loosen all four strings, and then unwind each string individually. 

2. Once the strings are unwound from the tuning pegs, loosen the knot at the bottom of each string where it is attached just below the bridge. A little wiggling or some gentle manipulation with the needle nose pliers can help you with this.

With all the strings off of the ukulele, sometimes I'll take this opportunity to give my uke a good cleaning using a dust cloth.

3. Next, when you take your strings out of the package, you'll notice that each individual string is in its own little envelope and labeled with the string name and number. Some string brands don't do this and instead use a color code and a little dash of color on the end of each string. 

4. I always start with the fourth string, the g. Uncoil the string and insert one end through the hole and bring it up towards the sound hole of your instrument.

From here, you get to learn how to make the little ukulele string knot! There are other types of ukes that use things like beads or have the ends of the strings hidden inside the uke. But you will find the vast majority of ukuleles use this technique for attaching strings. With a little practice, it's pretty easy to master.

5. To tie the knot, wrap the end of the string around itself 2 or 3 times, forming a loop. It will resemble a surgeon's knot.

6. Pull the knot tight. You might need to use a pair of needle nose pliers to help you with this.

7. When you put the other strings on, you can tuck the end of the first string into the knot before you putt it tight to get it snug up against the bottom of the bridge.

8. On the headstock, take the other end of the string and put it through the hole of the tuning peg moving from top to bottom.

9. Wind the tuning peg clockwise (when viewed from the side) to tighten the string against the fretboard of the uke. Don't tighten it all the way, just enough so that the string stays taught. (You'll tune it later.)

10. Repeat with all the remaining strings.

11. Once you have all your strings on, you can tune them using your tuner. Turn the tuning pegs gently and give the strings some time to stretch a bit between tunings. To help your strings stretch, sometimes I'll press down on the top of the knot with my fingernail to tighten the knot a bit.

12. When all the strings are in tune, you can trim off any excess from the tuning peg.

Voila! Congratulations, you've put new strings on your ukulele! Don't forget that once you put new strings on your ukulele, they'll need a few days, maybe even a week, to stretch out nicely so they hold their tuning. This means you might find yourself tuning your uke several times a day, or even several times in one practice session. Don't worry, that's normal. Once your strings are stretched and relaxed (ukulele yoga, anyone?), they'll hold their tuning beautifully.