How to Change the Strings on a Guitar with a Tremolo or Whammy Bar

Video Transcript

Hi, my name is Tim Ambrosuis. I'm a professional guitar tech. I'm going to show you how to change a string on your Floyd Rose tremolo. First what you need to do is loosen the lock nut. Most of them are going to have lock nuts, if not all, pretty sure all of them have them. Just take it off and it will make it a little bit easier. And then, push down on the tremolo and it will loosen the tension on the string for when you take it out and then there is a hex or Allen nut at the end of it that's going to loosen this graphite block in the saddle of the guitar. Then it's going to let the string go. So what we do is push down a little bit, loosen that, it's going to bring the block back and the string's just going to pop out. Just let it go. Take the string off. Then get the new string. With a Floyd Rose, what you need to do is clip off the ball end of the string. What I'm going to do is take it about an inch in, I'm going to bend it. I'm going to crimp it there, just like that. And then I'm going to clip it about at that point. You want to try and get it flat. Take that end of the string and put it in between the block and saddle. Get it in the center as much as you can and take your Allen wrench and tighten it back down. This is going to push that block into the saddle and lock it down. Tighten it as much as you need to until, you want to get it really tight. Then pull the string tight. Now they'll always give you a lot of extra string. On this guitar you want to measure off another post up. See we're doing the E string so you want to go up to the A string and just mark it off right near the post. Bring it back put it through the tuning machine. Right to where you marked it and then what I usually do is bend it up, like that, just in case the string gets loose somehow you have it marked. Then pull the string a little tight. Now you want the wraps to go down the post, underneath each other as you're winding it in. You want to make sure that they're all aiming the same way. They're all wrapping the same way and that they match. See all these are going on the inside and wrapped like that on the side of the headstock. So you want to make sure they all go in the same direction, make sure the wraps go underneath each other as you go. What you'll get is about two to three wraps on the post. That's exactly what you need. Tune it up to pitch. Bend the string a little bit up, that'll help get the wraps on the post tighter. Clip the string right at the post and get your lock nut. Tighten that on there and just tighten the lock nut back up and you're ready to go.

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