kh15 Posted July 10, 2005 Report Share Posted July 10, 2005 a couple years back a guy i knew at a local music store who was also thier tech was setting my strat up and since he knew i barely ever used my tremelo on the guitar he suggested that i just set the bridge all the way down to increase the sustain on the guitar , and i told him to go ahead and do it and and i love it. okay now to make a long story short he moved and i tried to do the same thing with my prs today and the front of the bridge is against the body but the back of it is still slightly raised? i would like to get it completly against the body, but how do i get the rear end of the bridge down??? _thanks guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perhellion Posted July 10, 2005 Report Share Posted July 10, 2005 Some people make a wood block for this, but the easiest way is usually to add springs. Loosen the claw, add springs, and tighten claw until the tremelo hits the body. Don't overdo it (I've heard too much spring pressure can crack the wood). For me, .011s have always been flush in the back with five springs and only moderate tightening of the claw screws. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stickmangumby Posted July 10, 2005 Report Share Posted July 10, 2005 That's good advice. What strings do you use? If you use .10s or thicker, you'll generally want all 5 springs in, and you will need to tighten the screws for the claw a little to have the bridge flat on the body. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted July 10, 2005 Report Share Posted July 10, 2005 none of my guitars use more than three springs...and that is including the ones with baritone strings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kh15 Posted July 10, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2005 i use 10's and have 4 springs on now so i will try to tighten the claw a bit to see it that works, thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kh15 Posted July 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2005 yea it worked a added another spring so i have 5 now and i tightend the claw and that brought that back right down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stickmangumby Posted July 11, 2005 Report Share Posted July 11, 2005 none of my guitars use more than three springs...and that is including the ones with baritone strings ← Do you have the bridge flat against the body? If so, I haven't seen that before. You learn a new thing every day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crvrotkvica Posted July 13, 2005 Report Share Posted July 13, 2005 I do not know anything about prs, I only played one cheepest once, but I have been setting strat`s for 10 people for Years and none of that guitars sounded better with titened tremolo and more then 2/3ds of those people asked me to do that and changed their mind after demonstration of sound in same conditions (Room+Amp). Sustain was slightly better on some but usually it was unchanged (Sometime even better with loosen). It`s floating tremolo and works best when floating. With tightened bridge Your string vibrates to the bridge and transfer vibrations to wood there. With loosen propperly (very important do not just turn out screws) the springs transfer vibrations more to the wood where they are connected with body. When You have it tight Strat sounds simillar to tele in some way, with loosen You have slight vibe in the sound like You have vibrato effect on amp turned just a little (I cannot hear that under heavy distortion, but I do not play strat with heavy distortion) sound is much more airy. Also some strats when they come from factory have slight decentered neck from the body direction. If so the sound of them is extremely dull and dampened. If You tight bridge on that guitar it sounds like anyone who hate strat will tell You. One thing that is much more usefull than tightening bridge is carefull removal of finish under bridge plate, but I do not do that on any vintage strats because if You are a little careless it can be vissible. My good friend sopped talking to me for a Year because of that Sorry for lenght Best regards to all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kh15 Posted July 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2005 I do not know anything about prs, I only played one cheepest once, but I have been setting strat`s for 10 people for Years and none of that guitars sounded better with titened tremolo and more then 2/3ds of those people asked me to do that and changed their mind after demonstration of sound in same conditions (Room+Amp). Sustain was slightly better on some but usually it was unchanged (Sometime even better with loosen). It`s floating tremolo and works best when floating. With tightened bridge Your string vibrates to the bridge and transfer vibrations to wood there. With loosen propperly (very important do not just turn out screws) the springs transfer vibrations more to the wood where they are connected with body. When You have it tight Strat sounds simillar to tele in some way, with loosen You have slight vibe in the sound like You have vibrato effect on amp turned just a little (I cannot hear that under heavy distortion, but I do not play strat with heavy distortion) sound is much more airy. Also some strats when they come from factory have slight decentered neck from the body direction. If so the sound of them is extremely dull and dampened. If You tight bridge on that guitar it sounds like anyone who hate strat will tell You. One thing that is much more usefull than tightening bridge is carefull removal of finish under bridge plate, but I do not do that on any vintage strats because if You are a little careless it can be vissible. My good friend sopped talking to me for a Year because of that Sorry for lenght Best regards to all ← i droped it and although i dont notice a major diffrence in sound i do notice a diffrence in sustain and i really love it even that much more now, i should have droped it 3 years ago when i got it! perhellion you said some people make a wood block for droping down a tremelo bridge, can you go more into that for me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kh15 Posted August 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2005 i just changed the string on my guitar for the first time since i dropped the bridge and the while in the process of changin strings the back of the trem raised up dramaticly and i had to screw the claw in even more to get it back flush whats going? what i did was losein the 6 screws in the front of the bridge and then i screwed in the claw intill the bridge was flush and then i simply screwed the 6 front screw back in intill the were snug with the bridge, thats right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer7440 Posted August 3, 2005 Report Share Posted August 3, 2005 People use little blocks of wood and shove them in between the trem block and the guitar body, on the back side of the guitar, so the trem can't move Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kh15 Posted August 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2005 and they leave the wood block in permentily? so thiers not a way to set it so its tight against the body and i stays like that no matter if you have strings on the guitar or not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddler68 Posted August 3, 2005 Report Share Posted August 3, 2005 What strings do you use? If you use .10s or thicker, you'll generally want all 5 springs in, and you will need to tighten the screws for the claw a little to have the bridge flat on the body. ← Do you mean the bridge plate is actually touching the wood surface or it is just parallel? Right now I've got a Strat bridge installed where the bridge plate sits about 1/32" off the body but perfectly parallel to the body. Is this the way it's supposed to be? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kh15 Posted August 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2005 yea toddler thats right but since i dont use my trem at all im looking to set my bridge down tight against the body making it somewhat of a hardtail. but for some reason when i changed strings the back end of the bridge popped up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egdeltar Posted August 3, 2005 Report Share Posted August 3, 2005 Ive always used only 3 springs....never had any problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kh15 Posted August 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 i just changed the string on my guitar for the first time since i dropped the bridge and the while in the process of changin strings the back of the trem raised up dramaticly and i had to screw the claw in even more to get it back flush whats going? what i did was losein the 6 screws in the front of the bridge and then i screwed in the claw intill the bridge was flush and then i simply screwed the 6 front screw back in intill the were snug with the bridge, thats right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perhellion Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 I don't know of any pics of the wood blocks, but basically, loosen or remove the strings and the springs, position the trem where you want it, examine the gap (bottom of the guitar) between the rear of the trem block and the wood of the body, and that's about how big the block should be. You may have to experiment with the size and shape of it, but if the block fits snugly, it should stay there (and ld the trem where you want it) no matter what strings you have on the guitar--or even with no strings. From the thread -- I have seen bridges which, when parallel to the body, had a like 1/16 inch gap below them. Could either pull these past parallel until the back touches, or could lower the whole trem (this could be as simple as screwing the post screws down (some modern Strat style two point bridges) or involve routing (Ibanez Roadstar) I think "float" might affect tone. But the solid way is not necessarily worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kh15 Posted August 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 oh okay so the block of wood is going to act as the springs for now on correct? take and leave the springs out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitarfrenzy Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 At the end of this post, about Strat tremelo, I explain how I like to setup a Strat tremelo to make it a fixed bridge against the body. It's basically what others have said. You can make a block wedge that will fit and do the same thing though. Whatever gets the job done and keeps the bridge from moving while playing bends etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kh15 Posted August 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2005 allright thats it, final straw! its getting a block!!!! brought her down to the local music store and told thier tech guy what was going on so he just tightned the claw even more and tightned down the front 6 screws more and i left happy as could be knowing that this thing wasent moving from now on. get home. pluged in. start playing and playing lead stuff i like to stretch alot! and next thing you know the back of the bridge is like 1.16th off the body. i was like damn! this is just crazy! so i took the strings off and that brought it back down, then put new ones on and tuned it up and the bridge is great now. its only when i stretch them to a higher note than they start off as thats when i think the bridge goes crazy. so the only thing left i guess is to block it. now whats the hardest wood i can buy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegarehanman Posted August 6, 2005 Report Share Posted August 6, 2005 Ebony or Ironwood wouldn't budge. Rock maple's pretty tough too, but not as dense as the first two. I've never blocked a tremolo though; you may be able to get away with something less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kh15 Posted August 17, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2005 i bought i 5th spring so now i have 5 springs in with the claw screw maxed and the 6 screws on the front are tight and when i put strings on it and tune it up to standard that back still raises, its raises very little but its enough to make me un-happy so with the back raised up like 2/64th and losend all 6 of the front screws up just a bit and that brought that bridge back down in the back for some reason? but then the front wasent 100% on the body? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksound Posted August 17, 2005 Report Share Posted August 17, 2005 I think that's probably as flat as it gets. For the trem to work it has to have at least a little wiggle room, and that's probably where you're running out of adjustment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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