Guitar Strings: Types, Gauges, Costs & How to Change Them — The Complete Guide

A standard guitar has six strings, tuned from lowest to highest as E, A, D, G, B, and E. Those six strings are the foundation of virtually all Western guitar music — from open-chord folk strumming to high-gain metal solos. Whether you’re shopping for the best acoustic guitar strings, looking to replace a broken string on your electric, or wondering how a 12-string guitar works, understanding the basics of string gauges, materials, and tuning is the single most practical skill any guitarist can develop. Guitar strings cost anywhere from £5 to over £20 per set depending on brand, coating, and type — and the right set genuinely changes how your instrument feels and sounds.

The choice between string types is rarely obvious at first. Light-gauge strings bend more easily and suit beginners or players with smaller hands, while heavier gauges offer more volume, sustain, and tonal depth. Material matters too: bronze-wound acoustic guitar strings produce a bright, projecting tone that suits singer-songwriters, while nickel-wound electric guitar strings provide warmth and reduced finger noise. Coated strings — popularised by brands like Elixir — last significantly longer than uncoated alternatives, making them cost-effective despite a higher upfront price.

Changing guitar strings is one of those tasks that looks complicated the first time and becomes second nature within a few attempts. This guide walks through everything: the anatomy of a string set, what gauges professional guitarists use, how to string a guitar safely without snapping a peg or cutting your fingers, where to buy guitar strings near you and online, and the frequently misunderstood world of the 12-string guitar. Whether you’re a week into playing or a decade in, there’s something here worth knowing.

Understanding Guitar Strings: Materials, Gauges & Types

Guitar strings are deceptively simple objects with a considerable amount of physics behind them. Each string is characterised by two primary attributes: its gauge (diameter, measured in thousandths of an inch) and its core-and-winding material. The thinner strings on a standard set — typically the high B and E — are plain steel or nylon, while the wound strings (low E, A, D, and often G) have a steel core wrapped with a secondary metal to add mass without stiffness.

For acoustic guitar strings, the winding material is usually 80/20 bronze (80% copper, 20% zinc) or phosphor bronze. The 80/20 bronze delivers a bright, crisp attack that suits strummers and pickers, but tends to lose its sparkle relatively quickly as oils from your fingers oxidise the metal. Phosphor bronze strings have a slightly warmer tone and resist corrosion longer, which is why they’ve become the more popular choice among acoustic players over the past two decades. Martin, D’Addario, and Elixir all produce widely respected phosphor bronze sets, each with subtle tonal differences.

Electric guitar strings operate differently because the magnetic pickups respond to string vibration rather than air resonance. This means the winding material matters to the pickup’s output: pure nickel strings produce a warmer, more vintage sound, while nickel-plated steel (the dominant modern standard) is slightly brighter and provides a better magnetic response. Stainless steel strings are brighter still, but many players find them harsh on the fingers and aggressive on fret wire over long periods. Coated strings — featuring an ultra-thin polymer layer over the winding — are available across most material types and extend string life by a factor of three to five compared to uncoated equivalents, according to Elixir’s own published product testing data.

Gauge Guide: From Extra Light to Heavy

String gauge is the single biggest variable affecting playability. A set labelled “extra light” for electric guitar typically runs from .008 to .038 (often called “eights”), while a heavy set might be .011 to .052. For acoustic guitar, light gauge starts around .012 on the high E, with medium sets beginning at .013. The lower the number, the thinner the string, the easier it bends — and the less tension the neck of your guitar experiences. This is why switching from .009s to .011s sometimes requires a truss rod adjustment; the increased tension physically bows the neck forward. Many guitarists don’t account for this when changing gauge and wonder why their intonation drifts.

George Lynch, the guitarist for Dokken and Lynch Mob, is frequently cited in searches for what gauge strings he uses. According to multiple interviews and press materials, Lynch has used Ernie Ball strings — specifically regular slinky sets in the .010 to .046 range — for much of his career, a gauge that sits between “light” and “medium” and is favoured by many rock and hard rock players for its balance of bend-ability and punch. This is worth noting only because his tone — aggressive, harmonically rich, capable of extreme bends — demonstrates that medium-light gauges aren’t just for beginners.

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How to Change Guitar Strings: A Step-by-Step Guide

The process for changing guitar strings differs slightly between acoustic and electric instruments, and again between guitars with different bridge types (for example, a Floyd Rose tremolo requires a separate approach from a standard Stratocaster hardtail). For most players — those on a standard acoustic or a non-tremolo electric — the core method is consistent. You’ll need a new set of strings in your chosen gauge, a string winder (optional but saves considerable time), wire cutters, and about twenty minutes.

Begin by loosening each string using the tuning pegs until there’s enough slack to unwind and remove it. Cut the string near the middle of the body to make it easier to handle, then pull the bridge pin on an acoustic to free the ball end, or simply unthread the string from the bridge saddle on most electric guitars. Once the old strings are off, use a cloth to clean the fretboard — this is the only chance you’ll have easy access to the wood. On acoustic guitars, apply a few drops of lemon oil (on unfinished fretboards like rosewood or ebony) before restringing. Thread the new string through the bridge, seat the ball end firmly, then feed the string up through the corresponding tuning peg hole. Allow about two to three inches of slack beyond the peg before winding — this gives enough wraps for the string to hold stable. Wind the string downward, not upward, from the first wrap, and keep each subsequent coil below the previous one. Once tuned to pitch, stretch each string gently by pulling it away from the fretboard at several points along its length, retune, and repeat. Fresh strings go sharp repeatedly until they settle; this stretching process accelerates that considerably.

One common mistake is cutting the excess string too short before winding, leaving fewer than two complete wraps around the peg — this dramatically increases the risk of the string slipping under tension. Another is failing to seat the bridge pin properly on an acoustic; the ball end should be pressed firmly against the underside of the bridge plate, not resting loosely above it. If your guitar goes out of tune rapidly after restringing, these are almost always the culprit, not the strings themselves.

The 12-String Guitar: What Changes and What Doesn’t

A 12-string guitar has twelve strings arranged in six pairs called courses. Each course is played simultaneously as if it were a single string, which creates the instrument’s characteristic rich, chorus-like sound. The four lowest courses (E, A, D, G) are paired with strings tuned an octave higher, while the two highest courses (B and E) are typically tuned in unison. This doubling is what gives 12-string guitars their immediately recognisable chime — heard prominently in recordings by artists like Roger McGuinn of The Byrds, Leo Kottke, and on the intro of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” which was recorded on a Harmony Sovereign 12-string.

Replacing guitar strings on a 12-string follows the same principles as a 6-string, but with double the work and a bit more care around string order. The bridge of a 12-string guitar is designed to accommodate the paired string arrangement, and the nut slots are spaced accordingly. Most major brands — D’Addario, Elixir, Martin — produce dedicated 12-string sets that include the appropriate gauges for octave-paired and unison-paired courses. Standard 12-string light gauge sets typically run .010–.047 for the primary strings, with the octave strings in the range of .010–.027. Because of the additional tension from twelve strings, 12-string guitars require more frequent neck relief checks and are generally not suited to very heavy gauge sets.

One detail that surprises many players new to 12-strings: the thinner octave string in each low course is actually placed above (closer to the ceiling) the thicker primary string, not below it. This means your pick strikes the thinner string first on downstrokes, contributing to the brighter, more jangly quality of the attack. Getting the string order right matters; reversing it changes the feel and slightly alters the tone.

“The strings are where your fingers meet the music. Everything else — the amp, the pedals, the wood — is downstream of that contact point.”

— AB Rehman, Senior Features & Research Writer, editorial observation

Where Things Stand Now

The guitar string market in 2025 is more competitive than it has been in decades. Post-pandemic guitar sales created a sustained surge in accessories demand, and string brands responded by expanding their premium lines. D’Addario’s NYXL series — featuring a high-carbon steel core and nickel-plated steel winding — is marketed toward players who want improved tuning stability over conventional strings, a claim the company supports with internal break-strength testing data. Ernie Ball’s Cobalt and M-Steel series target similar territory, with cobalt winding said to improve magnetic interaction with pickups for increased output and clarity. These aren’t gimmicks; player accounts consistently describe noticeable tonal differences, though the degree varies by guitar, pickup, and amplifier setup.

For acoustic players, Elixir’s Nanoweb and Polyweb coated strings remain the dominant choice for those who want long-lasting performance, while Martin’s Authentic Acoustic series appeals to purists who prefer the feel of uncoated strings and are willing to change more frequently. The availability question — where to buy guitar strings near you — has shifted substantially online, with Gear4Music, Thomann, and Amazon UK together accounting for the majority of UK retail string sales. High-street music shops still offer the advantage of trying gauges in person and getting advice, but stock can be inconsistent. Guitar chains like PMT Music and the online-first Andertons typically carry the widest in-store ranges.

The 12-string guitar has seen something of a quiet revival, with artists in the folk, indie, and Americana scenes rediscovering the instrument’s texture. This has brought modest growth in 12-string string set availability, with Elixir and D’Addario both offering coated 12-string options that were previously harder to find outside specialist retailers. For any player maintaining a 12-string, buying in bulk online remains the most cost-effective approach.

Final Thoughts

Guitar strings are both the most overlooked and most immediately impactful part of any guitar setup. Players obsess over pickups, tonewoods, and pedals while leaving dead strings on their instruments for months — sometimes years. The reality is simpler than the gear conversation usually makes it: fresh strings in the right gauge for your hands and playing style will do more for your tone and enjoyment than most upgrades you could buy. That’s not a marketing line; it’s just the physics of a vibrating string meeting a fretboard, a nut, and a bridge.

The choice of acoustic guitar strings versus electric guitar strings, coated versus uncoated, light gauge versus medium — none of these decisions is wrong if it suits your hands and your music. The most important thing is to make the choice actively, with some understanding of what each option involves, rather than defaulting to whatever came on the instrument. Changing your own strings, rather than taking the guitar to a shop each time, also builds a practical familiarity with your instrument that pays dividends in small ways — you start to notice when the neck needs attention, when the intonation has drifted, when a tuning peg is starting to stick.

For anyone starting out, a set of D’Addario EJ16s or Ernie Ball Regular Slinky strings and twenty minutes of patience is all that’s needed. For players wanting to cut down on how often they change, Elixir’s coated sets represent genuine value despite the higher unit price. For 12-string players, buying dedicated 12-string sets from reputable brands avoids the hassle of mismatched gauges. The string aisle, whether physical or digital, is less bewildering once you know what you’re looking for — and now you do.