Help me fix my guitar?

Question

I just restrung it and now the bridge is all messed up. I have a floating bridge (wammy goes both ways), but I don't think that's the problem, since this happened to my old guitar too, which didn't have a floating bridge. The bridge comes more and more up as I tune the strings higher; it must be a pressure issue or something. It stops when the bridge goes as far as it's supposed to, but it still goes out of tune easily and I can't really use my wammy bar because it runs into the body of the guitar. My guitar store said they could fix it, but I figured I might as well try not to waste money.

Answer 1

It never hurts to learn to trust your luthier. On the other hand, it doesn't hurt to take a peek under the hood to see if one of the springs came loose either. The number one cause of the problem you are describing, is a loose spring on the whammy bar. You should never take your strings off all at once, because that releases the tension on those springs. There may be anywhere from three to five springs, but if one of them is disconnected, the whole mechanism gets loose as you described. Some of these are relatively easy to reconnect, but if it looks like a difficult job, then get to the shop and pay the sheckels to get it done right. Next time you change strings, do it one at a time and this should not be a problem for you.

Answer 2

Would you want to take the chance of further damaging your beloved instrument all for the sake of saving a few bucks? Because you aren't certain how you might correct the problem with your guitar the best option is to have a qualified guitar technician at the local music store do the job for you.

That way, the ordeal is painless to you, you'll spend maybe $20.00, and you'll be playing it very soon. Spend the money and have the job done right or risk further damage and incur more costlier repairs.

Answer 3

You should be able to "lock" the whammy, and set up the bridge first, then unlock it and make any fine adjustments necessary.

Good luck...