That's an interesting one, seeing t's the thinnest string...so it's NOT the string's fault in being "too fat," it's something with the slot at the tailpiece...
Next string change, what if you coated the ball end of the string with a little vaseline or something? You don't really want a spacer, any thing that's flexible will keep compressing and you'll have tuning issues...the string does need to be in there "tight." Just not "so tight."
As far as getting it out, I had a guitar once that didn't want to give up old strings, and I found using a thicker string and going in from the opposite end could often dislodge it...but I'm guessing if you've had to resort to pliers, you've exhausted possibilities like that already.
It's probably something, as Steve suggested, that could be fixed with some clever filing. Have you tried taking the whole tailpiece off and taking a look at what's going on underneath?
|