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On a strat as each string comes off the bridge will descend until the baseplate contacts the body (unlike a recessed floyd, which will start to 'sink' below the body (so to speak)
Take your time, give everything a good clean, and then once you install a set of new strings, provided they are the same gauge, the tremolo should rise back up to its usual resting floating position.
IF you want the bridge to float higher, loosen the claw springs by 1/4 of a turn. The bridge will rise and the strings pitch fall. When you tighten the strings back up to pitch, with bridge will rise a little further. Enjoy the process, it's not rocket science, and you won't do any damage :-)
If you're really worried about it, just put a lollipop stick or two, folded cardboard etc under the back edge of the bridge to block it in place before you take the strings off.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Every time you really loosen the strings to do whatever, there is a high chance that you will break strings.
Also there won't be enough length of string left for you to loosen the strings significantly to do anything like fretwork in between string changes.
Good old conventional tuners hold on just as well - the 'waisted spindle' design is ingenious where successive wraps of the strings move towards the narrowest part of the post and tighten upon each other like the coils of a snake...
I quote:
'Modern tuners are designed with a concave radiused profile which is intended to enhance coil compression by causing each coil to seek the narrowest part of the radius as it tightens. Subsequent coils slide into place alongside and are forced into contact by the radius so that the string is clamped effectively on perhaps three or four sides as well as the inside surface of each coil. This means that a top E with four wraps is clamped tightly by self sustaining pressure over approximately a 100mm length. Beat that. Sperzel!''
take a look here (not my website)
http://www.edgeguitarservices.co.uk/rout_serv/restring/
...and if you dive bomb, then you might be better off with a Floyd-Rose jobbie...?
I have a few different sets and have never broken a string by loosening strings.
However:
With a locking tuner the string is 'held' at two points - and the entire string tension is concentrated at these points.
1. The locking point
2. The first 90° angle as the string emerges from the string hole and curves onto the post of the tuner.
With a conventional tuner, the string is held along a much longer length (3, 4 or 5 winds around the post).
So if you loosen the strings to do a fret polish or something (there often isn't enough slack); or take the neck off to do a truss rod adjustment.
...the top E, and sometimes the B have quite a tendency to break.
So if I have locking tuners, I would much, much prefer the truss rod adjustment to be located at the headstock end.
I no longer have any guitars without locking tuners, I love the speed and simplicity of string changes with locking tuners. Personally I would avoid fitting the Grovers with the rotating tops (rather than the thumbwheel on the back), they're not as quick to use, and I did have one that broke top 'e' strings - though in fairness Grover sent a replacement, and I've had no issues since. Never had any other problems with locking tuners.
As for string changes, if I'm doing a little cleaning on a Bigsby equipped guitar I'll sometimes leave the low 'e' on, clean one side of the board, put the top three strings on, then clean the other side - getting that first string on against the spring pressure can be awkward, whereas changing pre-bent strings with the spring compressed is really easy.
In contrast, with a properly done friction-compression wrap, the wrap provides a cushion, taking up most of the string tension, so that the section of the string going through the eye, once the compression and friction has built up in the wrap is relieved of a lot of the stress.
in my opinion of course.
How many times have you snapped a string in that situation?
You may think that intuitively that multiple wraps would allow a bit of movement and relieve the stress, but that's not so - the string almost always breaks where it flexes at the final take-off point on the last wrap, and which is not exactly at the lip of the hole even on a locking tuner - assuming the hole doesn't actually have a sharp edge.
If you have anything like 100mm of string on the post you have *far* too much wrap anyway! Except for the G on Fender-type guitars with no second tree.
I use the lock-wrap method mostly with only abut half a full turn on the post, and that's no more prone to breakage either.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I'm pretty sure I've broken just as many strings - proportionately, in reality actually far more since they're on the majority of guitars - with conventional tuners as locking ones. I certainly wouldn't list it as a major concern when working on a guitar.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein