Acoustic Guitar Bridge Removal

electric guitar string replacement?

Hi

I am new to guitar playing and have just purchased a second hand electric Guitar. It is a fairly cheap one, made by a company called ‘Legend’??

anyway I have an acoustic guitar also.

Two of the strings snapped on my electric guitar and I don’t know how to replace them. The string goes into a hole at the Bridge with no obvious means of removal. Any ideas??

I have tried allsorts but cannot find any obvious method of removing the string. The only thing I can think of is that there is a hole next to the strings for the insertion of a tool perhaps??

thanks

Unless you have an electric guitar with a locking tremolo system* (such as a Floyd Rose), you can remove all six strings at once. On a steel string acoustic, remove the bridge pins (the six pins in the bridge holding the strings in. Remove the strings. This is a good time to check the tuning machines. Make sure everything is nice & snug. Also, you may want to clean up the fingerboard Use a piece of 0-0-0-0 steel wool (ask for four-oh steel wool at the hardware store). Rub over the length of the fingerboard – always with the grain. This should remove the “crud” (technical term for built up dirt & oil) and also shine up your frets. If you see small flat spots or pits where the strings pass over the frets, take it to a tech to have it checked for fret wear. Use something like Number One’s Guitar Honey to treat the fingerboard. Put the ball end of the string in the hole in the bridge and put the pin back in with the slot facing toward the headstock. Push it down into the bridge. Take the other end of the string through the hole in the tuning machine, around the post and under the part of the string which is parallel to the fingerboard. Leave yourself a little slack and turn the tuning machine so that the first full wind of the string on the post goes over the short end of the string. This is a lot easier than it sounds once you see it. If you have trouble, stop in Music Showcase and we can show you. What we’re doing is “locking” the string on itself so that it is less likely to slip. Tune that string up to pitch. If the bridge pin starts to come out of the bridge, push it back in. Once the little ball on the end gets secure, the pin should stop moving. Repeat the process five more times and you should be set to go. If you have tuning machines which are slotted with a hole in the middle, just put the end of the string in the hole & wind it around the post so that the string comes off the bottom of the “wraps.” This is common on basses and it is important to use enough winds so the string goes through the nut (slotted piece at the top of the fingerboard) at an angle or else the string will rattle. Most electric guitars have one of two types of bridges (neither one has bridge pins). The first type is called “top loading” The string simply feeds through the back of the bridge. The other type “back loading,” means that the string feeds through the back of the guitar. If there is a back plate on the guitar that the strings go through, take it off when you are restringing – it’s a lot easier.

*If you have a locking tremolo bridge, use the allen wrench that came with it to loosen the bolt at the back of the saddle (six pieces that the strings are locked into) and remove the old string. Use a set of wire cutters to cut the ball off the string. Now feed that end into the saddle and tighten with the Allen wrench. At the top of the fingerboard, you will have a locking nut. There should be another Allen wrench to loosen the bolts. The rest is pretty much the same. It’s very important to use the same gauge strings and to only one string at a time (tuning the guitar to pitch after each string) because the “floating” bridge is very sensitive to tension changes.

Guild Madeira Part 3 – Bridge Removal