How to Change Your Cuatro Strings

A Venezuelan cuatro takes four nylon strings: A D F♯ B, from the string closest to the floor to the string closest to the ceiling. Change the whole set. Mixing a new string with three tired ones makes the instrument fight itself.

You need the new set, a pair of scissors, and a slightly damp cloth. Not wet. Wood does not want a bath.

Watch the hands first

This is the TuCuatro walkthrough. Follow the hands. The spoken order in the video is A, then D, then F♯, then B.

Take the old set off

1. Turn each peg counterclockwise until the string goes slack. If the pitch goes up, you are tightening. Reverse.
2. Pull the free end out of the peg. If it sticks, press the trapped tip so it can slip through the hole. If there is a knot, snip that tip and try again.
3. At the bridge, press the string out of its slot and untie the knot. Pull it free. Repeat for all four.

With the strings off, wipe the fretboard, the sound hole, and the bridge with the damp cloth. You almost never get this access. Use it.

Which packet is which

Most Venezuelan sets are labeled A, D, F♯ (or F#), and B. Trust the letter on the envelope. If the letters fell off, use thickness:

• Thinnest: F♯ (second string). This one sits high. It is not a guitar second string.
• Thickest: A (fourth string, closest to the floor).
• Of the two left, the thinner is D. The last one is B.

Put a thick A where F♯ belongs and it can snap when you bring it up to pitch. Slow down at this step.

Tie at the bridge, then wind the pegs

Work floor to ceiling: A, D, F♯, B. (If the cuatro is set up left-handed, reverse that: B, F♯, D, A.)

1. Start with A at the first bridge slot. Leave about 10 cm past the bridge so you can tie a firm knot, like a shoelace braid. Cinch both ends so it cannot creep.
2. Same knot for D, then F♯, then B.
3. Feed A through its peg (lower right as you look at the headstock in the video). Wind clockwise. One wrap on one side of the hole, the next wrap on the other, so the string locks on itself. About 10 to 15 turns until it sits firm along the neck.
4. D is the upper-right peg. F♯ upper left. B lower left. Seat each string in its nut slot as you go.

Pull the string gently with the right hand while you wind with the left. Slack at the peg is how a new set slips overnight.

Tune it, then expect it to drift

Bring each string up to A D F♯ B. Use a chromatic tuner and read the note name, not a guitar string number. The online cuatro tuner is built for this instrument.

New nylon stretches. The first day it will not hold. For the next three to five days you will retune every time you sit down. That is the set settling, not a broken cuatro. After about a week it starts to stay.

When the set is done

Home practice, most days: a set often lasts around six months. Light use: up to a year. Stage and travel eat strings faster. Change sooner if:

• A string looks flat on the soundboard side instead of round.
• The cuatro hisses or sounds thin after you already stretched a new set.
• One string dies every few minutes and the others hold. Change that string. If all four drift, check heat and a slipping peg before you blame the nylon.

What to do next

Once it holds, learn where the notes sit and the first G shape. Both are in the free course.

• How to tune the Venezuelan cuatro
• Natural notes on the Venezuelan cuatro
• G major on cuatro
• Cuatro Basics (free course)

Or call +1 (613) 416-3412.