Tuners and other questions
xtremehardy388
Posts: 2,759
My strat is great but it (along with m SG) needs new tuners. How does Mike keep his guitar in tune while using the whammy? He doesn't need the FR setup on the '59 yet he uses the whammy. I need to find some tuners for both guitars, or, if someone has some they're willing to part with (for a small price), I'd appreciate the help. Thanks a lot!
Grand Rapids '04, Detroit '06
JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy
JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy
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For one Mikes got a brilliant guitar tech. That guitar is very well intonated. It's probably also got some lubricant like Big Bends Nut Sauce or Guitar Grease at the nut and the bridge. Also Mike does not dive bomb the vibrato tailpiece as you can with a floyd rose, he simply bumps it a bit or grabs it enough to change the pitch then the springs pull it back taught, it does actually effect the tuning and either he tunes up between songs or his tech does off stage or he goes with it slightly out of tune and trys to fix it when he gets a chance in the song.
Like Paco says,,,, he doesn't! On stage in big shows, the guitar player maybe sending the guitar over to the tech and changing the guitar almost after every song. Then the tech is frantically retuning it and lubing it to get it ready to send it back.
Tuning problems actually don't usually start at the tuners, but the whammy the nut and the bridge. When you dive the bar, strings may hang up in the nut slots. When you dive the trem bar, the string tension is released and the string moves a little bit towards the tuners across the nut. It usually hangs up on the way back because the tension builds up when you let up on the bar again. The quickest way to fix it and check i that's your problem is to first,
Clean the slots out if there's any dirt in them.
Then take some regular pencil lead (Graphite) and shave it with a razor or a knife to a powder. Then take a little powder and put it in the nut slots and rub it on with a toothpick or something. Then blow the rest off, not onto your shirt. That makes the string slide nicely. Same with where the strings lay on the bridge saddles. Lube that too.
If that does it, then you're good to go until you run out of pencils! Also the graphite powder that you buy at an auto parts store that squirts into a lock to lube it, works great.
Otherwise, like Paco said,,, older Fender tremolos do tend to go out of tune and you may have to pull it back up a bit to get it back.
Cleaning all the moving parts on the trem helps, too. If your strings get a bit old, the corrode and stick a bit, too. Wipe them off after you play, and also if you detune enough to bop the string off the nut you can wipe them off there, too. Not every day, but exactly every once in a while!
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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7/9/06 LA 1
7/10/06 LA 2
10/21/06 Bridge 1
It might. If the tuners are cheap and the gears aren't tight, they can detune. The first thing is to make sure that the strings are wrapped on the posts right, too.
I always have a hard time explaining this on the net, but on a Strat, I put the string through the hole and leave about 2 1/2 inches (Two posts past the one you're stringing, then bend the string hard around the post so it locks, then wrap one wrap clockwise over the top of the hole, then that gives you about 3 wraps under the hole. Keep tension on while you're winding and don't let the windings overlap and that usually stays locked on pretty well.
Also, when you're tuning between songs, always tune down lower than the note you want and tune up to pitch. If you tune down, then you introduce slack in the gears and strings at the post.
Locking tuners are great, though, especially when you change strings a lot.
Whenever I change tuners on anything I have, I usually use lockers. Most of my guitars still have those winding things, though.
So, let's see, keep your nuts lubed and your slots clean, and keep a lot of tension on the ol' post.
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy
1) Fender puts these on some of the guitars: http://www.zacharyguitars.com/LockingTuners.htm
2) And these: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Fender-Schaller-Locking-Tuners?sku=361333
3) And finally these two for the tremolo:
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailpieces/Electric_guitar_tremolo_parts/Hipshot_Trem-Setter.html
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailpieces/Electric_guitar_tremolo_parts/Tremconverter.html
Cheers . . .
- Ian C.T. vom Saal
<b><font color="red">CONTACT ME HERE</font>: www.myspace.com/ianvomsaal</b>
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I'll do it again later.
Meanwhile part of it was locking tuners -- Listen to Ian.
The nut- Put the graphite in the the slot where the strings sit. Detune the string enough to pop it out of the slot, lube that groove, blow it off and put the string back in.
Oh man,,,,, :mad: I had a whole dissertation going that I was going to save,,,, and didn't. My computer only stays logged in for a few minutes on this board for some reason.
DOHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
But I'll be back!
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy
Ok, to get the best out of your tremolo;
1) Lube that nut, the bridge saddles, and don’t forget to clean off the undersides of the string tees on the headstock. They put some downward pull on the string at the nut to keep the strings in the slots and to transfer energy into the neck, which turns to tone. The strings move there, too.
Clean out the slots in the nut before you put the graphite in. Dust and corrosion and finger grease tend to collect and help to bind up the strings in the nut slot. Try some lighter fluid and q tips,,,, and you can take 1000 grade sandpaper and fold it, maybe run it through the slots to polish them, but don’t let it cut the slots deeper.
2) Make sure the strings are on right. I FINALLY found a diagram on the net to show how I put strings on. When you restring, cut a piece of old string and practice wrapping this way, so you don't mess up a new string, because there is a bit of a dexterity issue,,,, like poking the b string into your finger! If you do it this way,,,,and keep the string tight with your finger while you’re winding it onto the tuning posts, you’ll get the best out of the tuners that you have!:
http://www.uncletim.com/setup.htm
3) See how that works above, then another thing you can try is an extra spring on your tremolo block. Take off the plate on the back of the body and you’ll see the springs. If there are two springs, adding another one can stiffen the whole thing up. The added strength helps bring the block back to tune, too. You can buy a spring cheap.
You can adjust the whole tremolo, too, by loosening or tightening the screws at the front end of the bar that holds the springs. You generally start by adjusting it so that the whole metal bridge assembly is parallel to the guitar body. But then it’s a matter of preference from there.
So those are three ways that cost almost nothing.
A few other things that can help:
New locking tuners, like the Schallers above.
A new nut. If you like your Squier and the sound and playing of it, then consider having a bone nut put on. There are some other materials like corian and micarta,,,I like bone nuts, though. Have a pro do that if you’re new at it, because it’s an art. Any guitar I get to play, I put a bone nut on, if it doesn’t already have one. If that’s done right, then you’ll get a little more tone and power than with the stock plastic ones.
The http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,...converter.html thing from Stew Mac seems pretty good. I don’t have any on my guitars, but I put one on someone elses and it held pretty well. It has a different feel to it, but it DID go back to tume pretty well. It also adjusts to block the tremolo so it doesn’t move if you don't want the thing to move at all!
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy
whammy bars are for crappy VH cover bands.
JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy
and yeah, on the mustangs, they properly call it vibrato. it's funny.
as for getting tremolo with the bar, no. they are two distinct effects. tremolo being volume modulation and vibrato being pitch modulation.
whammy is sort of the term that got applied to those 80s metal-esque deep 2 or 3 tone divebombs with the bar. floyd rose bridges. things like that.
I find it mildly funny that Leo Fender put a "tremolo" on his guitars and a "vibrato" on his amps, when he surely knew this was essentially backwards.
Ha! Truer words were never spoken!
Vibrato is the change of pitch. Either with the bar, or like BB King wiggles those strings with his fingers.
Tremolo is volume modulation.
I’m not sure when I sold out to “the man” and started calling it a vibrato a tremolo! I think I got so sick of explaining that the Tremolo that’s on 84 billion Stratocasters is really a vibrato.
It would be a tremolo if you hooked it up to the volume knob,,,, which,,,,,,,, is giving me a good idea! How cool would that be to have a bar hooked up to the volume?
Gibson was calling theirs a vibrola, like on the SG’s
All in the marketing, I guess.
Bigsby calls them vibratos, though!
Maybe I’ll become pure of spirit again and call them Vibratos, or is that vibratoes?
Another thing on those Strat VIBRATOS, is that they can get hung up at the front edge where they’re screwed into the body.
If you’re really adventurous, you can take the whole thing off and look at the bottom of those 6 mounting holes. They should be beveled the same. You can bore them out with a counter bore on a drill. ,,, I forget which size,,,,, don’t do it until I look that up! That gives a nice even knife edge on the holes so that it rides against the screws smoothly. Sometimes they wear, and sometimes they’re made with holes that are straight drilled through the plate and that can cause them to hang up a little bit.
The other quick and dirty thing is to take the 4 middle screws right out and see what happens. Less friction, but probably less sustain, too. I've never seen a bridge fly off the body with only 2 screws, but be forewarned!
You know,,, I just saw my lonely Bigsby vibrato waiting to go on a Les Paul. Maybe I'll put it on my Taylor acoustic instead after all this talk!
I'll name it Acoust-r-emolo!
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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