FUQ (eff -yu - cue) - FAQ's with an EDGE

Tagged As: How To Replace Electric Guitar String

Question:
I have an Ibanez rg270 and I bought new ernie ball strings to replace the old ones with. The thing is my guitar has so many widgets on it and I don't know what they all do so I have no idea where to begin in replacing the strings. There are screws on the bridge that were set accordingly by the store (some stick out more than others) and I don't know what they do so I don't want to mess with them, but I suspect that around that area is where I insert the strings. I know how to replace strings on an acoustic (and found many explanations w/pics on how to do so online, but no equivalent ones for the electric) but here I'm totally lost--where do I begin? A related question: my guitar also has screws before the first fret that are supposed to keep the guitar in tune longer. They don't do so for very long however, and once the guitar is out of tune I have to remove the screws in order to retune it (when the screws are on they press so hard on the strings that you can't tune it) and that's a pain. Is it better just to leave the screws off if you have an electric tuner and you don't mind tunning the guitar more frequently?

Answer:
I am not particularly familiar with your model of guitar but most electrics the strings are feed through the back of the guitar up through the bridge (look at the back of your guitar below the bridge if you see the little metal string end balls through holes in the back of the guitar body then that is the way yours is strung. Remove the strings one at a time disconnecting them from the tuning peg end first (or you can cut them with a wire cutter, after taking some of the tension off) push the old string down through the guitar body and run the new string up through the hole in the back of the guitar body in the same way the old one came out (look at the other strings if you forgot how that one came out they should all be fed the same way. Then you can continue just as you would with your acoustic guitar. Do not play with any of the adjusting screws on the bridge these are used to set the height of your action, and the ones on the back of the bridge affect your intonation. Ho