Q&A: Acoustic Guitar Maintenance
Q: I’ve got a pickup in my acoustic, and in order to change the battery I have to reach inside the sound-hole. Is there any way to do this without having to replace my strings?
: Heck Yes. When I first started playing guitar I hated replacing the battery because it always meant I had to put on new strings. This is because if you pull the bridge pegs out, you can’t maintain enough tension on the tuning pegs while also leaving enough slack to put the dang things back in.
One solution I found (I was shown this by a guitar repairman at The 5th String in Berkeley) was to put two capos on guitar – one at fret 3 and one at fret 7.
Here’s some Step-by-Step:
1) Loosen your tuning pegs a bit so the strings are playing maybe an octave lower than normal tuning (this is just to give you some play).
2) Place your capos at frest 3 and 7 and make sure that they’re snug.
Place Capos at frets 3 and 7.
3) With you’re tool of choice pull the bridge pegs out of their sockets. I usually use a pair of needle nose pliers with the tips wrapped in small band-aids to prevent scratching.
Now you can get inside your guitar, without trashing the strings.
Needle Nose Pliers with Band-aids on Tips.
4) Do whatever you’ve got to do inside your guitar, i.e. change a battery, retrieve your wedding ring, etc.
5) Replace bridge pegs.
6) Remove capos and retune-guitar.
Hope that’s useful.
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