How to String an Ovation Guitar

Regularly changing the strings on your guitar is a good way to get the best sound out of your instrument. Changing strings on an Ovation guitar is very similar to changing them on any other manufacturer’s instruments. The main difference is that the strings on Ovation guitars are not anchored inside the body, but instead on the back end of the bridge.

Remove the six old strings by turning the machine heads clockwise to loosen the strings until you can unwind them off the tuning posts. Remove each string from its tuning-post hole and pull it through the bridge at the other end of the guitar.

Re-string the guitar, starting with the low E-string -- the thickest gauge in your pack of new strings. Looking up toward the neck on a right-handed guitar, the hole farthest to the left on the bridge is for the low E-string. One end of the string will have metallic ring; push the other end through the hole in the back end of the bridge.

Pull the string through the hole until the metallic ring fits snugly into the hole in the back of the bridge. Guide the string up the length of the guitar, ensuring that it rests squarely in the corresponding groove on the bridge, along with the groove in the nut at the top of the fretboard.

Locate the tuning post for the E-string atop the headstock, which is the post closest to the neck near the string’s position in the nut. Snip the string a few inches past the tuning post and wrap the string counterclockwise around the post, starting on the post's inner side. Poke the end of string through the hole in the tuning post and turn the machine head counterclockwise to tighten the string.

Repeat this process for the other five strings. The strings go down in gauge, so the next-thickest string, the A-string, goes in the bridge hole next to the low E-string. Work clockwise through the remaining tuning posts for all six strings.