[ethic]

So, last December I bought myself a new guitar. It was
the first nice guitar I had ever purchased; a Larrivee
L-05 (there's a thread about it somewhere). Here it is:

http://www.larrivee.com/flash/produc.../L-05/l05.html

I got it new for about $1300 from an awesome shop. The
guitar rules. Soooo easy to play.

Anywho, I've been being very careful with it. I generally
only play it on weekends and keep it in its case during the
week; complete with a Dampit and everything.

I think it's about time to change the strings, but, I'm horrible
at doing that. Everytime I've changed the strings on my
cheap Washburn (which I love), it hasn't worked out too well.
Sometimes the low E bridge pin pops up. When I can't get it
back down, I just pound on it with a hammer. I mean, it works,
but there's no way I'm going to risk doing that to my Larrivee.

Plus, I don't think my Washburn even has a truss rod; so I
don't know if those are generally adjusted when the strings
get changed. I'm not going to mess with it.

Should I take it to a shop and have it done? Or should I try
to do it myself? If I do take it to a shop, how much do they
usually charge to do something like that?

[allthumbs]

Change the strings one at a time so you can check its' tuning against the already tuned strings. When you first change the string, hold the pin down with your thumb while turning the tuning peg with the other hand til the tension holds it in place. Take your tuner and fine tune all the strings once you have changed them all. I have read about using a hammer before in a post here. Not a good idea to force anything on a guitar.
You won't have to adjust the truss rod if you use the same gauge if strings.

[Rockerbob]

The pin is supposed to simple push the ball end of the string to the side (the side facing the sound hole) to lock up against the bridge plate, the piece of hardwood inside under the bridge. If the string pushed the pin up, the ball end is caught on the end of the pin, instead of aside the pin up against the bridge plate. Here is some really good info from frets.com. Note that the inside photo, the two installed strings have jet black pins holding them in. At first the pins looked like shadows to me.

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Musi...tringing1.html

[Ultimate Garage Band]

If you're not comfortable doing it yourself yet, get a guitar playing buddy that is comfortable to give you a hand show you how to do it. Some stores charge $5 to install strings if you buy the strings from them. Some don't charge anything if you buy the strings and you also bought the guitar there. It varies.

[cshude]

Congrats on the purchase- I also have a Larrivee and love it to death. I haven't had to make any adjustments to the truss rod yet and it's been 7 years since I purchased it. As far as changing strings, what i have always found is that there are 2 main things that I always make sure of: 1) at least three winds around the pegs, and 2) proper stretching of the strings to lock them in and stabilize the tuning.

Considering that you just dropped a grand plus at the shop, I would have them walk you through a string change- you really want to know how to change them yourself.

Cheers,
Chris