How do you keep your trem in tune?

G

Guitaraxz

New member
Looking for ways to keep the tremolo in tune, I set up the whole guitar and did my best on the trem. Please let me know if you have any trick to help you keep the trem in tune. Without turning it into a Floyd, ha!
I Just set-up a Fender USA Strat, and these are all the steps:
First I straighten the neck, checking with Stews notched straight edge STEWMAC.COM : Notched Straightedge to make sure the neck is perfect before I start to level the frets.
Sorry, no pics of that! But I did get a pic of the truss rod work ha!
enderesandobrazo.jpg


Now I level the frets with Stews 6” rule (no pic) and fret rocker:
midiendotrastes.jpg

nivelandotrastes.jpg


Then I recrown, sand down, and polish the frets. I hadn’t thought of going to a forum so I missed a lot of photos, here is the polishing.
puliendotrastes.jpg



Now we get to the trem, my fav part of a Strat, first I sand down with 400, 600, n 1000. Then I use a Dremel n polish the bridge blades and post where they rock.
limpiandopostedetremolo.jpg

puliendotremolo.jpg


I aply LaBello lip stick to lubrícate the contact points.
aplicandolabelloenposte.jpg

aplicandolabelloentremolo.jpg

reinstalandoposteylimpiandoconaceite.jpg


Tighten up the tuners.
apretandomaquinaria.jpg


Clean the nut and lubrícate.
limpiandohuesoyaplicandolabello.jpg


Lubricate the tres and lift the 3d & 4th string tree, it was too low. I also wind the 5th n 6th strings upward to keep the angle as straight as possible, this helps! I swear to ya that trems will stay in tune better like this (IMHO). But please let me know how you do it!
levantandoarbolitode3a4acuerda.jpg

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Adjusting the radius on the bridge.
corrigiendoradiodepuente.jpg


Placing the height of the singlecoils, which height do you use?
alturadepastillas.jpg


Octaving the strings ofcourse.
octavando.jpg


Finished
guitarralista.jpg
 
Re: How do you keep your trem in tune?

i reckon with any non-locking trem you have to choose if it will stay in tune when you pull up, or dive. Its pretty much impossible to have both regardless of how well cut and lubricated the nut is.If you set it up so you can do crazy dives and it stays in tune, the thing will go out when you bend on strings. I bend far more often than use the trem to either pull up or dive. I set mine so that when i bend up it pulls the strings back in tune. That way, if i dive and something goes out, i can juts give a quick tug on the trem, or a quick bend on the string in question and its back in tune. This works on my strat and also on my 335 which has a bigsby.
I belive thats how eddie van halen did it too in the days before floyds.
Having said that...a well cut nut and lube is essential too.
 
Re: How do you keep your trem in tune?

Bfeeney said:
I just don't use the trem.
Click to expand...
:laugh2:
gibson175 said:
If you set it up so you can do crazy dives and it stays in tune, the thing will go out when you bend on strings.................. I set mine so that when i bend up it pulls the strings back in tune.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I know, i've tried to set it up so that I dive to set her in tune. But I always bend more than i dive too! So i set it up as you do as well, we have to compromise don't we.
I use chapstic as a nut lub, works fine.
Was just wondering if you guys had any voodoo chants or somthin.
 
Re: How do you keep your trem in tune?

Apart from drilling two holes through the trem and a wooden block between the body and two monster screws through all to fix it forever ages ago, I have no experience with anything like that. Your solution is much more elegant ;)
 
Re: How do you keep your trem in tune?

I go easy on the trem use when playing a strat. Usually only to add a bit of vibrato to chords. If I want to divebomb, pull up, or go crazy with the trem bar and stay in tune, I'd rather use a Floyd Rose or Kahler equipped Strat.

For guitars with a trem and no locking nut/tuners I try to keep the least amount of string around the tuner posts, even if it adds a bit more string angle at the nut. All the string wound around the tuner post takes some time to properly stretch and does so when using the trem bar.

What's with the 3-en-Uno oil? Putting lubricant oil on the trem post threads is a bad idea. Those screws tend to sometimes move around a little when using the trem. Getting lubricant in there would make it worse. That would take the whole unit out of tune. Just the Chapstick balm on the knife edges and contact points does the job.

For the pickup height, I set it by "feel" and it depends on the particular pickup. Tweak the height while playing until I'm happy with what I'm hearing. My strat single coils usually end very low, around 5-6mm for the neck p'up and 3.5-4mm for the bridge, both on the low E without fretting it. High e side is a bit higher.
The 10 and 1 peso coins are around 2mm and 1mm thick, right? I think that's too close to the strings for the neck pickup, although I've never used coins to set the p'up height.
 
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Re: How do you keep your trem in tune?

That's a lot of work man. And it's need to be redone again after some time. Why don't you use locking tuners? I use Sperzels and they keep my tuning pretty much stable.
 
Re: How do you keep your trem in tune?

Besides having quality hardware that's decently set up, you just need to know the limitations of whatever bridge you're using, be it a Strat trem, a Floyd, a PRS bridge, a Bigsby, a Jazzmaster... etc. I manage to keep my strat in great tune, despite the fact that it could probably use a new nut.
 
Re: How do you keep your trem in tune?

Thanks for the comments Ponykiller!
PonyKiller said:
What's with the 3-en-Uno oil? Putting lubricant oil on the trem post threads is a bad idea. Those screws tend to sometimes move around a little when using the trem. Getting lubricant in there would make it worse. That would take the whole unit out of tune. Just the Chapstick balm on the knife edges and contact points does the job.
.
Click to expand...
I just thought of keeping the threads clean, but from now on I'll only use it when it's getting rusty or too dirty, thanks.

PonyKiller said:
For the pickup height, I set it by "feel" and it depends on the particular pickup. Tweak the height while playing until I'm happy with what I'm hearing. My strat single coils usually end very low, around 5-6mm for the neck p'up and 3.5-4mm for the bridge, both on the low E without fretting it. High e side is a bit higher.
The 10 and 1 peso coins are around 2mm and 1mm thick, right? I think that's too close to the strings for the neck pickup, although I've never used coins to set the p'up height.
Click to expand...
The coins are aprox 1/8th and 1/16th, I use these for bridge and four 1 peso coins for neck (two per side) which is slightly more than 1/8th. I am fretting the strings at the highest fret when I measure, but will tryout your measurements. I use it only as a starting point, from here on I'll use my ears and nudge the mid & neck pups to balance the output.
I can get Humbuckers without a problem but have my doubts on singles, do you set them closer or farther than humbuckers?
 
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Re: How do you keep your trem in tune?

Thanks to all you members for your comments, this is a great forum. I will try out locking tuners and teflon nuts. i also have my Floyds and khalers, it's just that when I hear jeff beck i have to try and work on my trem! That guy is awsome on his trem work man.
 
Re: How do you keep your trem in tune?

Locking tuners are great - my strat deluxe has schallers.
But the killer feature imo is the Fender LSR roller nut that came installed with the guitar.

The nut has ball bearings for each string slot - fantastic because the string will never stick when you use the trem/bend etc. it just glides over the top of the ball bearings.

Get that LSR nut and i promise you (in addition to all the setup work you already do) it will be the icing on the cake.
 
Re: How do you keep your trem in tune?

Guitaraxz said:
Thanks for the comments Ponykiller!

I just thought of keeping the threads clean, but from now on I'll only use it when it's getting rusty or too dirty, thanks.
Click to expand...

That'll be OK. Just try to clean it before screwing down the post. This is really a problem that happens more often on Floyd Rose type bridges because of the heavy use. That's why Ibanez came up with the locking posts on the Edge trem.
It shouldn't be too bad at all on an Am. Std. Strat tremolo, only if yo go crazy on it but it'll go out of tune anyways haha.

Guitaraxz said:
The coins are aprox 1/8th and 1/16th, I use these for bridge and four 1 peso coins for neck (two per side) which is slightly more than 1/8th. I am fretting the strings at the highest fret when I measure, but will tryout your measurements. I use it only as a starting point, from here on I'll use my ears and nudge the mid & neck pups to balance the output.
I can get Humbuckers without a problem but have my doubts on singles, do you set them closer or farther than humbuckers?
Click to expand...

It really depends on the particular single coil. I set hotter/higher output singles lower and the vintage style ones a bit higher but it's all by ear so it all ends differently.

Traditional single coils with slug magnets should be set lower than humbuckers. The magnets of the single are a lot closer to the strings than the bar magnet under a humbucker. If you set them too close to the strings you'll get some weird sounding notes and sustain will suffer b/c of magnet pull.

There are some A2 pickups that can be set closer to the strings without problems.
 
Re: How do you keep your trem in tune?

People love my Strat and always comment on how solid it plays and how good it feels, etc

Its funny to me because i just tweak it until it feels "right" and play the hell out of it... no ritual or process or pesos required...
 
Re: How do you keep your trem in tune?

My recently-acquired G&L USA Legacy HB did not want to stay in tune once I put my heavier strings on it.

If you even looked at the trem, it went out of whack.

I've since corrected the problem pretty much entirely. It's rock-solid now.

Here is what I did:


  1. Filed the nut slots to more easily accept the thicker strings.
  2. Filed the string tree so that the strings won't bind there either.
  3. Lubricated the nut slots, string tree, and saddle slots where the strings contact with Big Bends Nut Sauce.
  4. Lubricated the bridge where the knife edges made contact with the bridge posts.
  5. Loosened and re-tightened the neck screws with the guitar under string tension to make sure the neck was seated fully into the body and wasn't shifting around.
I don't know which one or combination of those things made the difference, but my problem with tuning stability while using the trem has been solved completely.


Good luck!
 
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