6 Ways to Handle a Broken Guitar String 

What do you do if you break a string?

The only way to handle is continue playing with 5 strings.

My horror story is: *My guitar pick fell into the acoustic hole.*

I love how B.B. King fixes his string mid performance is in his recommended before he even gets to it

My horror story: broke a string while playing the guitar solo to We will rock you the only guitar part in the whole song

If you're Tyler and you break a string you just grab one of the other 75 guitars you have.

Not me, but a friend broke his A string on stage. He's a bassist.

Lost my pick into the crowd, broke a string and slapped my vocalist with it, mic fell off stage once. Man, so much shit has happened on stage.

2:40 we all know why he's wearing sunglasses its not cos a light nor to look cool. Its the fear of string atack eye

Play a 7-string, so you will still have 6 strings when one of them breaks.

Tesla concert, early 90's: one of the guitarists breaks a string during his solo. He finishes it badly out of tune (Floyd bridge), unplugs it and hurls it a good 30 foot across the stage to his tech. Tech promptly catches it, grabs another off the rack, Hail Mary's it back across the stage, caught, plugged in, finishes song in tune.

My mom said she would break my guitar if i broke a string, she doesn't know anything about guitar and assumed strings lasted forever. I had to hide my guitar and go out and buy the string myself so she doesn't break it Edit: As the years went on she is now a fan of the guitar as well and helps me buy gear. I'm finally getting lessons now too. We did it.

old guitar player of mine did something magical. he went into an improv solo, used his tremolo to bend to correct pitch and watched him rip it. breaking 3 more strings immediately after - with intent - as he abused his bad horsie wah, seemingly leading to a dynamic that would end with a string break. People lost their shit. It was wild.

I broke a string 5 min before going onstage at a jazz competition...

Tyler: “have you ever broken a string while playing guitar on stage” SRV: “well there was this one time”

I knew a guy, a local "folksinger," as we used to call them in those days, who played in a lot of the same dives where I used to play. He had a broken string routine that was legendary on the local scene among the rest of us other local heroes. He was playing that Richie Havens one chord chestnut "Freedom" from the Woodstock movie in some open tuning. He was sitting down to play and his guitar case was nearby. The G string broke, and through the magic of open tuning he was able to keep strumming while he got a new string out of his case, removed the old one, installed the new one, tuned it more or less and never stop strumming and singing. The crowd went WILD. It's a lot less impressive if you heard him more than once because every night, on the same song, he would contrive to break that same string and do the whole routine again. I think he legitimately broke the string once and changed it out, and it was such a crowd pleaser that he added it to his act. He even incorporated drinking a beer into the string change sometimes. People used to say, "I saw so and so play last night and he..." and we'd interrupt them and say, let me guess..." I'm sure--I wasn't there when it happened for the first time--that he legitimately broke his G string and changed it out in a fit of inspiration, which would have been truly amazing and impressive. Shit happens, you get through it, the crowd loves it. But doing it a second time, ever, was just a gimmick. Other than that, he was a really good solo act, and a very nice guy.

I got a story with "human element". Playing bass in a thunderously sick thrash band. Guitarist n' I lock elbows, jump off stage and swing in circle(yes wireless). Super rockstar move. Until... bottom strap button pulled out, bass flew straight into some kids face. It knocked out 2 teeth and fractured his jaw. Other than the strap button the bass was fine. The bass was a Yamaha fretless. I lovingly referred to as the lazy boy. It was like having a recliner strapped to my shoulder. Heavy ass bass, meet face. Ouch.

Breaking a guitar string is one of the most terrifying experiences of any guitarist life. Not much tragedies parallel the horrificness of breaking a string. And for that I applaud you for the video

Breaking a guitar string might be terrifying, but imagine breaking a condom

Signs of a psychotic guitar play: Purposefully breaking strings.

string: *breaks* Floyd Rose: *dies*

Note on B.B. King changing his string on stage: He has a fine tuning tail piece instead of the normal one you'd have to feed the string through

*_All strings were definitely harmed in the making of this video_*

Heres a horror story: I played in front of my family YEP

BB's Lucille has a microtuner tailpiece. That's what let him drop the ball end into the tailpiece after winding the string on rather than feeding it up through a standard stopbar and then tuning up as we know it. BB also wound almost all the excess string onto the peg, leaving only about an inch of a tail hanging out the peg.

This isnt a horror story, it was incredible. I was doing a guitar performance for my school, and my teacher suggested I go to guitar lessons from a guy who everyone was learning from. He told me i wasnt a real guitarist and that id never sound good. A chip on my shoulder, I learned everything I needed for the show, and nailed it. Opening night it was the end of the solo and I had a huge guitar solo. I knew where he was in the audience and I stared right at him, and promptly broke my b string. I just continued to solo on other strings. It was so rock n roll it was incredible.

8:32 this gave me so much anxiety

10:45 - If you look up on B.B. King's guitar, the Lucille, it doesn't have a standard tailpiece. It has a mechanism that allows the string to be simply inserted into the tailpiece instead of threading it through the tailpiece.

broke my string while my friend was sitting next to me, flicked her in the eye and she had impaired vision for the week.

background - like 100 guitars 2 basses

BB King's Lucille he was playing has a TP-6 fine-tuner tailpiece, the ball end is fed onto a peg, rather than going though the stoptail.

SRV is the most impressive so far. Not to mention his stunning solo with a broken string, his guitar tech immediately rushed out with a new guitar, and the sound guy immediately turned off his amp to avoid the bump sound, all happened in seconds. And SRV grabbed the new guitar and continue playing

All that I know is that Stevie ray Vaughn made sure he hired the top notch guitar tech

Played the graduation song for my high school graduation. I was still learning how to play and I was given the opportunity to play the lead. Half way though the song my sting pops. I look at my friend (rythem for the song) he looks at me shrugs his shoulders and continues playing while turning away from me. Since I only knew the lead I rolled my volume completely down and pretended to strum the chords... 🤦‍♂️

3:09 Guitarist:panicking because the string is broken Guitars: being behind him

I went to a live buddy guy concert and he broke a string, stopped the song for a sec and went "i just broke my g*d d*mn string", he then proceeded to use the broken string to slap the other strings while continuing to play. He then went on to play guitar with a drumstick, a dishtowel, his mouth, and his butt, literally the greatest thing I have ever seen

my girlfriend broke her G string while we where playing together she then broke the high E string after we where done

normal bands: ono i broke string wher mi backup guitar frank iero: onO I BROKE STRING **wails and dramatically throws self into mosh pit**

i broke a string... in a guitar store..

my horror music story on stage : we were 5 in the bands, i was singing and playing sometimes the lead, sometimes the rhythm guitar, and there was another guitarist. he started playing the riff between the first chorus and the second verse out of beat, he was one beat late, and the drummer tried to follow him and he tried to follow her and i had to restart singing while playing so i couldn't exactly hear what i was supposed to do oh lord that was horrible xD

Next time i break a string im gonna go full BB. King mode My guitar teacher is gonna be amazed

*breaking string on stage me: mom pick me up, im scared.

Once I broke a G string on my acoustic during a church gig! B and E strings... okay, but the G string caught me off guard!

As for SRV, that was three man job: Stevie kept playing and communicated to his tech about broken string Stevie's tech came out of nowhere just in time with stage-ready guitar PA guy to mute Stevie as soon as he pulled out the cable!

Snapped a string after thinking " I've had these for 8 years these will never break, actually I can promise that" I then proceed to bend the high E. .moral of the story. I Was wrong, It Snapped..

I never panic. I just take a deep breath, close my eyes and pray that the audience has gone away by the time I open them again!

Me: take a few hours to change a string Bb king: restring tune it while singing in 30 second

I played a Foo Fighters tribute gig and during the final verse of Monkey Wrench, my D string snapped. I managed to play the rest of the song pretty well and had to play all the chords via Drop D. After that I had to play Everlong without the D string and if you've ever played that song, you can imagine how annoying it was to play. All was well until... ... I played another Foo Fighters tribute the next day and the SAME thing happened. During the same song.

What about John Frusciante breaking two strings and still playing like a boss lol

What’s weird is that I broke my high e string while I was playing and when I went to my phone, this video had uploaded.

Guthrie Govan, Steve Vai, Stevie Ray Vaughan, B.B.King, ... absolute legends.

I did see a blues guitar player about 20 years ago in a smallish Seattle club change his high E-string mid-song and he never really stopped jamming the guitar... He wasn't quite the singer/frotnman that BB or Stevie were, so his playing was central and he never really stopped... by far one of the most impressive feats I've ever seen in music. Small club, probably around 2000 in Seattle. As a budding Seattle rock musician at the time, I wish I would have remembered who it was. Doh! 😳

When your technician replaces your ESP with a Tele...

“Live vicariously through your pain”.

B.B King is the boss of replacing guitar strings. All that man did was play guitar. He was infatuated by it, breaking a string didn't even slow him down he knew how to perform wonderfully.

B.B King is seriously amazing. I've seen this video quite a lot and it still amazes me.

11:45 the subtitles "the worst thing happening to you on stage other than maybe your aunt blowing up"

Tyler: This blue PRS is my favorite guitar Also Tyler in the next video: 8:31

2:43 thats some legit tone right there!!! great recording aswell!

SRV, incredible professional and performer. Never seen that string break before, good catch 😉

I'm not scared breaking a string while in stage because I play drums...

I’m a little offended that John Frusciante’s string break wasn’t in this!

I have that whole Stevie Ray Vaughn concert on DVD. Amazing show! And that swap is so flawless

I was playing at an open mic in a local bar, competing for a paid gig the following week. My battery died before my first song so the owner let me use his. I broke his D and G strings with my first strum. Still got the gig though.

I always perform on stage....in my room...when nobody is looking :x

I was messing around and somehow ended up breaking all 6 strings

I'm sure glad I couldn't afford strings back in the day, weeks on end playing 5 string. While the others were well versed in what to do, you doing the rest of the strings and making it a show like The Who, was probably the best one.

My horror story is when I was playing in front of my friends and the high e string snaped and i just kept on improvising with different notes but my friends were like wwwwwwwwhhhhhhhaaaaaaaa ?!?!?!

How about a success story: Ok, so we were playing a song called “Pinoy Ako”(which means I’m a pinoy or Filipino), we were stressed as is, we were supposed to open the event but for some reason, the teachers made the kids line up and blocked the stage when they announced our band, so it was one heart attack down, but before the last chorus, while i was just strumming, the D string broke, and i was so thankful, because the solos were already finished but i still had to do a riff at the end, but it was only the G,B, & high E that was needed, so when I finished, i asked people, did you guys notice my string broke?, they’re like “what? How are you so good at guitar that we didn’t even notice your string broke” so i was like “thank god all these times i pretend to play live in my room, saved me from embarrassment”

I broke a string once.....on a Bass.....the E string....yes I was young

Those technicians were absolutely on point

Live at a music theater on the 4th note of the solo from highway 40 blues, our steel man took over for me and that gave me time to get my back up tele

Imagine being on stage w/Carlos Santana when the E string on ur bass breaks & you have no extras,& the booing starts,destroy that bass,then the cheering starts ..Santana said,nice save dude.He gifted me a bass at the after party.

Broke my string at my first battle of the bands whilst singing, so I took off my guitar and kept singing

That BB clip is the GOAT for string change recoveries!

You're my biggest inspiration

Normal people: Break a leg Guitarists: Break a string

5:04 steve vai is such a genius, what an extremely brilliant musician!

You’d make a good actor also Tyler💯like especially in a movie kinda like tenacious d or school of rock I’ve learnt so much from you and you’ve inspired me to further my learning 💯

It was great video to do for people who have broke a string on stage it was just perfect

"What do you do if you break a string?" I would take up a new hobby like running...and then run to another town to start my life over.

Just go cry in the corner

This stickers on the fretboard are amazing

Awesome video, man

i find to play the frets where the string has broken and carry on like a champ

King's strings hook into the bridge as opposed to being strung through.

Was once playing a sellout show in my city, the support band came out with a replacement guitar and I am forever in debt to them 🖤

The show must go on !

Broke the high e once. 😂 Im glad it was only on a christmas party special number and not a competition. I just stood there working the 5 remaining strings and song finished without the high e. We did good.

"Let me adjust my mane" not as frivolous as it might seem when you have long hair. Having your head being pulled backwards by the strap is not a good way to play guitar. I use the Steve Vai method when I break a string on a floating bridge.

I love your panic

And thats why he is THE KING!

Never broke a string on stage, but I broke a cable in the middle of a breakdown. We weren't invited back.

When you started ripping the strings off I had to look away...

Hobo Jim changed the broken string, on his acoustic, while continuing to play and sing, by himself. I saw him do it several times. Amazing!

It was like Stevie Ray Vaughan was supposed to break his string man I love this channel it show’s the best stuff

For today's exercise in missing the point: Was it difficult to rig a string to break on cue?

Was playing a gig with a set I had played 50 times before and we got to our closer with nothing out of the ordinary happening. Our closer song was an original where the main riff is an E power chord in a standard tuning with a flair added of bending a g note on the low e string to make it a riff. The song hits this hook riff probably 100 times throughout. I went for the very first bend in the song and the low e string snapped.....the hook riff is like 95% of the song. So I had to just hold an E chord and hope to god no one noticed because I didnt know my scales well enough to do a cover up.

Not guitar, but the most awesome, mid-song fix that I've seen was during a Fun Lovin' Criminals gig. The snare drum snapped, but the drummer finished the song on the toms and hi-hat with one hand, whilst he and his tech switched a new snare in. Phenomenal calmness and talent. I feel bad that I can't remember the guy's name.

I was busking and in the middle of a song and I blew 2 strings in a bend and a fellow buskers happened to be walking by and without missing a beat handed me his guitar while I continued to sing it was a truly beautiful moment of unspoken support from a fellow musician