Changing string on a Bigsby Trem... Pain in the &*%$... How I managed it!

Big-G

So, a few days back, I came to change the strings on my Gretsch Electromatic Pro jet which has a Bigsby Trem fitted. This was the first time I ever had changed strings on a bigsby, and what a schlep! This is truly a job where you need 2 pairs of hands! Every time you try to wind on the string at the headstock, the ball end pops off the little peg at the bridge, and so it goes on and on.....

And so I came to see that the only way I was going to get anywhere with trying to restring this thing, was to 'get an extra set of hands' to hold the string on the trem's peg, whilst I worked at the headstock end... A good deal of searching around for something suitable, I eventually found the perfect solution.... Perhaps one of the most unlikely solutions came in the form of a spare battery for my old Blackberry (see, BB's are useful! ? )... It slipped into the gap between the guitar body and the trem perfectly, and held the string close enough to the trem's pole, to allow me to not have to worry about that end of the guitar, whilst I wound in the slack at the headstock!

So, for all you good folk struggling on in silence with you Bigsby's, trying to restring the swine's, go get your old mobile, and take the battery out, and see if it helps you out? It took me 2.5hrs to restring the Gretsch, with most of that time taken by the first 3 strings, before I started using the battery. Save yourselves a real headache, and grab a battery!

Anyone else have any other methods that make changing strings on a Bigsby based guitar easier?

Regards
G!

Attila

Or do one by one

Big-G

Attila Barath wrote Or do one by one

That was doing it one by one!! Hehe!

G!

AlanRatcliffe

They are a pain, but if you bend the ball end of the string into a semi-circle before fitting, it makes it a lot easier.

You also get something called a spoiler, which makes it very easy:
http://www.stewmac.com/shopby/item/4948

Big-G

Alan Ratcliffe wrote They are a pain, but if you bend the ball end of the string into a semi-circle before fitting, it makes it a lot easier.

You also get something called a spoiler, which makes it very easy:
http://www.stewmac.com/shopby/item/4948

Now that is genius! Although, with it being just a slot in piece, with no means of solidly attaching, I would question its ability to hold tuning well, since surely when moving the Trem, the string tension will change, so allowing the spoiler to move slightly before tension is reapplied? I dunno? just a thought?

Regards
G!

Danny-B

I have only two words: locking tuners.

singemonkey

I bend the ball-ends with pliers before fitting them. Then I have locking tuners.

But even if you don't have locking tuners, there's a stringing technique that EZ showed me that I can't believe I'd never seen before or since. A technique that involves pulling the string tight right from the beginning rather than winding the slack tight. Simply put, you attach the string to the tail piece and pull it tight towards the tuner. Without putting it through the hole, and still keeping the string under tension, you wind the string around the capstan. THEN you put the end through the hole and pull it tight (I use pliers for this to grip the string). The string now requires almost no winding at all to get to pitch and you never had to deal with a slack string. It's also much, much faster. And because it's under tension, like with locking tuners, your ball end will stay on the Bigsby.

Chocklit_Thunda

pull them tight at the ball ends on the little hooks
Capo them at the 12th fret or so
Pull the rest of the string through the tuner and tighten it enough
release capo and tune

8)

TomCat

Chocklit_Thunda wrote pull them tight at the ball ends on the little hooks
Capo them at the 12th fret or so
Pull the rest of the string through the tuner and tighten it enough
release capo and tune

8)

You are a genius.......Thanked