DGT SE Bridge- very tight - hard to remove strings?

[Townie53]

Hi - I finally rcv'd DGT SE. Great guitar! I broke a string after a few days and the broken end would not come out! I finally had to use a long allen wrench to get the broken end out of the guitar. Same thing happened when I changed the other strings. I called PRS today and they said the bridge is designed with the exact size of D'addario ball ends so that there's no room for any movement that might affect tuning. They suggested using a toothpick - I sure hope that doesn't break off in there, too! I own a few really nice guitars that stay perfectly in tune and have been playing professionally for 40 years. Have never had this problem. Very inconvenient in a live setting to need another tool handy for a quick string change. The tech I spoke to said this is an intentional design 'feature' not a flaw. Have any of you seen similar issue on this and/or other PRS guitars? Maybe I should spray some silicon or something in there so they slide out better? Thanks!

 

[garrett]

I think it's fairly common with steel trem blocks. I've experienced this with the SE/S2 bridge along with various Strats through the years. I use a little Allen wrench to push it out; the one used for saddle height adjustment. I always keep one of those wrenches in my gig kit anyway, so I don't consider it as being extra.

 

[Bill SAS 513]

Yeah, this has happened with other guitar-brand's bridges often...Just keep that allen wrench (Or another type of skinny poker) around for such occasions.

 

[Townie53]

Ok..a questionable design choice that seems easily remedied, but I will let it go and move on.

 

[garrett]

Ok..a questionable design choice that seems easily remedied, but I will let it go and move on.

Yep, a very long-standing questionable design that's been repeated by countless companies. This is part of why Fender created their Bullet strings in the 70's.

The Facts You Need About Fender Bullets Strings

How Fender's history of innovation translated to the world of strings.

www.fender.com

(emphasis added)

An effect of the ball-end design is that when bending a string, the wire in that small slack area bends slightly, allowing the ball-end to seat itself more closely against the bridge. Then, when "diving" the tremolo, tension on the bridge end of the string is briefly released, causing the slack area to attempt to spring back to its original un-bent position, only to "re-bend" when bending the string again. The problem is that when the string returns to tension, it might or might not be seated against the bridge exactly as it was before, which means there's a pretty good chance that it will be slightly out of tune. Another problem is that, on Stratocaster guitars, ball ends often get wedged in the tremolo block channels pretty tight, making them difficult to remove when changing strings.

 

[mookyshoots]

The Mann replacement blocks for SE/S2 bridges fix this issue.

 

[gush]

Just poke the broken string down through the saddle and push it out that way..

 

[Prs Mods too]

Hammers fix anything...

 

[Max Headroom]

Hammers fix anything...

Very true.
One of our company mottos is...
If you don't succeed at first... Try a bigger hammer!

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Very true.
One of our company mottos is...
If you don't succeed at first... Try a bigger hammer!

Also known as: “Don’t force it, use a bigger one!”

Yes, yes, I know TWSS