String change on a electric with a tremolo

I would think it is not okay to put the ball end of the string up on the tuning peg for your strat; at least if it is anything like my stratocopy. The ball end should go slightly into the body of the guitar at the bottom.

I found the following video most useful when changing the strings on my guitar - http://www.workshoplive.com/player/tips.cfm - click on the video labeled "How to Restring an Electric Guitar with String Through Body".
Even though they are using a telecaster in the video, it is essentially the same process for my strat. Feed the string through the body and the ball end will hold the string in the slot. Unless your strat has a floyd rose trem I don't see how you'd get the strings to stay in place without the ball end hooking into the body.

Good luck!

Thank you! that helps a lot once i'm able to actually re-string this thing........

but now I have another embarrassing problem :oops:

While attempting to restring my strat I had to remove all of the springs and metal pieces (not sure what they're called) to get the old strings out (it was strung through, much like the video above details) and somehow, the tremolo block popped out, and I can't for the life of me figure out how to put it back in correctly. Which piece/hole should I fit the springs into to hold the tremolo in place. The springs keep getting too tense and the hooks pop out of the holes in the tremolo block. I'm very frustrated and hope that leaving the strings of my guitar for this long won't hurt anything :oops:

aaaaaaaaaand I just realized this should have gone in the repair section of the forums :oops:

There is a metal piece with claws on one end that the round end of the springs are attached to right? There are 2 big screws holdong that piece on right? Loosen those screws, attach the springs then tighten them back up. Count the number of turns you loosen so you can tighten them back up the same. As far as what holes to put the springs into ... eyeball it and evenly space them. I think there will be a choice of 5 holes. If you have 3 springs, just space them out.

ah! that worked, thank you very much! Also, blusey's video helped as well, and my low A string is playing in tune with no hitch....... but it seems problems beget problems, as my low E string plays fine open, but when fretted anywhere above the 1st or 2nd frets, it just buzzes and doesn't really make a pitch at all. Is this from leaving my guitar unstrung for too long? (probably 2 or 3 hours while I was trying to fix the tremolo :oops: ) whether or not that is the case, is there a fix for this that I can without taking it into the shop?

First of all, leaving a guitar unstrung will do no damage at all.

It sounds like your low E string is just too near the fretboard. Do all the other strings play cleanly, all over the fretboard? To raise the string, you're going to need the right sized allen key. The saddle has 2 small allen screws at either side of the string. Give each 1 turn clockwise and see what the result is.

Thanks greybeard, that worked like a charm! Unfortunately now I have another problem, I have everything stringed through the body, but when I tighten up the strings to their respect EADGBE pitches, the tremolo moves! So when I get the low E string on pitch, if I then move on to tighten the A string and get it up to pitch, the E string will fall more than a half step. This happens with everything string. It's like i'm pressing down with the bar, but I'm just tightening the strings. Any idea what it might be?

(from another site)

The floating Strat bridge is a delicate balancing act between springs and strings. When changing ALL strings at once, tune up (Low E, High E, A, B, D, G) at very small increments until you get up to pitch. Sometimes it takes a dozen times to go through the Low E, High E, A, B, D, G sequence until you get up to pitch. And the result is that the bridge height and action are EXACTLY where they were before taking the strings off.

hmmm, interesting, thank you very much, couldn't find that information anywhere.

I tune my lower 4 strings, first time round about 15-20 cents sharp. The over-tuning up will even everything out and reduce the number of iterations until you're in tune.

hmmmmm, well, I've probably tuned it up using the E then e, A then B etc. method about 20 times or so and the same thing keeps happening. The tremolo just keeps lifting and the strings keep going flat. When I finally decided to stop, you could see a LOT of the tremolo block just by looking at the bridge and the tremolo bar wouldn't move at all and the strings were all still flat about a half step. I think i'm gonna have to take it to the shop, but if you guys have anymore idea I'm open to try just about anything.

I think, from the sound of it, you need to turn the two screws, that hold the claw a couple of turns.

Detune the guitar, turn the two screws a couple of full turns clockwise (i.e. deeper into the wood), retune the guitar.

Repeat until the guitar is in tune and the bed of the trem unit is parallel to the top of the body.

If you have strings, up to 10's you will need 3 springs. Over 10's you may need 4 springs to balance the trem out.

Ah, that's the problem, the strings are 10s are ten and it only has 2 springs. I wasn't sure what the old strings were, apparently they were 9s or 8s :oops:

Thanks very much greybeard, looks like i've gotta get another spring and turn those screws a bit.

With another spring, it may not be necessary to turn the screws, but 2 is not enough.