Re-stringing (Fender) with a whammy bar :(

[Yarbles]

Well, im a fairly unaccomplished amateur when it comes to guitar maintenance, given that I cracked the neck of my acoustic trying to change the strings last week. :(


Anywho, I was curious if anyone has a step-by-step guide on hanging a fender MIM strat with a whammy bar. My problem is fairly simple, I cant get the damn strings out of the body! The low E pops out no problem, the others almost seem to be jammed or stuck in the body. I took the back plate off and everything looks normal, but they won't budge! Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks in advance!

[disobedience]

I generally use a peice of the low E string to pop them out. Or a small Allen Key. I just feed it down through the top hole and give it a "LIGHT" tap to pop the ball end loose.

[Yarbles]

Thanks for the reply, so its normal for them to give off a bit of resistance? I read something in the manual I found online about having to do some tricky stuff to get it back in tune, involving popping the bridge up while tuning, could you elaborate on any of that by any chance?

Thanks :)

[disobedience]

If you have a standard Fender bridge it should stay in the same place (mostly) unless you make a drastic string guage change to heavier strings.

Worse case would be re-adjusting the spring tension by tightening or loosening the claw (2 screws) that holds the springs to the guitar body. Just don't back them out all the way and make small adjustments (1/4 to 1/2 turn on each) and retune the guitar. Check to see if it's level on top...repeat until it's good :)

[Blewbyou]

Dis is spot on with his advice. If you have anymore problems just let us know.
Blew

[Yarbles]

Just finished it all up, took me about a hour and half but it sounds amazin, thanks a bunch!


As I mentioned before, are there any other tips you can give on uhh, Not cracking the neck of guitars while changing the strings? It was probably just too much tension too fast, but I would like a second opinion. It's still plenty playable, just a hairline crack near where the head meets the neck.

[disobedience]

I generally change my strings 1 at a time...helps with the neck tension and makes it much easier ;) Unless I'm cleaning a guitar then I strip it right down...but that's a different thing altogether.

Always take your time and you should have no trouble doing any of the work on your guitar :)