So i recently purchased a pack of Ernie Ball Skinny Top/ Heavy bottom guitar strings(10-52). After putting them all in i realized guitar sounded terrible, which i was expecting, so i tuned them standard and tried to play. Still sounds bad so i look around and see my bridge being pulled out by the strings with the springs holding it in. Ao i came here for help. My fault?
string too big? wats up? For setup i use a ibanez RG120, and the last strings i used were d'addario nickel wound heavy's, and they worked fine
When you change string gauges on a guitar with a floating (vibrato/whammy/trem) bridge, the trem spring tension needs to be readjusted to compensate for the change in string tension. Take off the rear spring cover and you should see a way to increase or decrease the spring tension, usually by tighening or loosening the screw(s) holding the anchoring claw for the springs.
Correct bridge position when strings are tuned to pitch is usually bridge plate parallel to the body. I recommend temporarily fixing the bridge in this position using wood or plastic wedges inserted at necessary between bridge and body, tuning and intonating the strings, then removing the blocks and adjusting the spring tension (from rear of guitar) to return the bridge to the correct, parallel position. Otherwise tuning, intonating and setting spring tension becomes an iterative (repeat until close enough) exercise. Saves a lot of trouble to perform the block/tune&intonate/unblock/retension/touch-up tuning just once through.
-=tension & release=-
What he said.
Rule of thumb...
The spring tension has to be equal as the string tension.
On the other hand you will need to adjust intonaton also when changing string sizes.
