That's what I like about the vintage-style tuners I put on my '51. Makes it easy to remove strings and string them back up quickly.

I had the same thing happen the first time I put my Lace pups in my '51. Got it back together and the bridge was dead unless the grounds were partially defeated. Turned out that the leads got pinched somehow in the bridge pup cavity itself. Just resetting it fixed the problem. Took a call to Lace to get it figured out, though.