How I made my strat stay in tune

S

SJ318

New member
Hi everyone.
I am posting this not out of ego, or bragging, I am posting this out of a deep sense of pride. I know I am opening myself to harsh criticism or even ridicule, but what I did works, and I can't help but see the millions of threads on this topic of strat style tuning.
So; please see my response #20 and #23 ( I am SJ318 ) to this thread;
"why won't the damn thing stay in tune?" in this guitar forum, first posted by
wolf5150. Keep an open mind as my strat stays in tune better than my non-trem giutars.
Sincerely, with respect,
Steve B.
 
Re: How I made my strat stay in tune

Dear bludave,
It is such a long explanation, and I don't know how to cut and paste ,so I thought it faster to just direct people there.
Sorry, but thanks for the response,
Steve B.
 
Re: How I made my strat stay in tune

Hi, I fixed my J.Beck model like this: (ps-long read)
1. smoothed out with small drill and round file where the string leaves the block on the way to the saddle.
2. smoothed out the bridge plate hole with drill so wide the string does not even touch the bridge plate.
Stay with me, please
3. I marked roller nut w/marker and only 1 or 2 of those tine ball bearings were even moving, but at least I now knew that even if the didn't move, they would be nice slick surfaces w/3&1 oil.
4. I took the lsr apart CAREFULLY and cleaned every thing w/ rub. alcohol.
I loosened the the little claws that hold them in place, as some of them were touching-I did this with the utmost CARE. I removed the foam backing as it was touching the string just behind the ball bearings. I don't care if it pings, mine doesn't by the way.
5. Locking tuning pegs-get Schaller, they are fast to use.
6. springs J.Beck style-2 outside 1 middle to the claw to make a fan or a V shape ( V is claw to block)
7. This part was very hair raising: I drilled some metal out of the hole in the block CAREFULLY so the ball end was a little closer to the block opening.
At this point I seat the springs evenly so when I pull up I get open G to b-flat, and open d to e and open top e to f.
Like carl verheyen but I didn't slant the claw.
I hope you are still there, almost done. The string now hits nothing on the way to the saddle-I have eliminated 2 hang up spots. oil the lsr with 3&1 oil.
bend the s##t out off them up as well as down. if you have locking pegs, unlock them and pull them tight again, re-lock.
My guitar stays in tune all the time. This works!!
No one believes me. On TGP some guy told me to get a life. Some comment for such an immense effort on my part. Heck, call me if you want, I don't know how to do this on web pages so you are welcome to.
Steve B.
I am dead serious
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Re: How I made my strat stay in tune

To vasshu,
Good point, and I thought of it after I already sent the reply. Yes, I unlocked the strings( I left some extra length on as I knew I would be possibly changing things) so w/no strings, the bridge decked itself and I looked VERY carefully with strong glasses on aligning the edge of the bridge plate and the treble side was right on but the base side needed about 1/2 turn.
I also forgot to mention I used the finest emery cloth, or 1800 grade sandpaper on all points touching except for the nut. In my case that meant only the saddles as the string no longer touched the block or the plate.
45 years ago an old timer told me to use the edge of a matchbook cover to fine polish everything. I was breaking high E strings alot and it worked. It was just course enough to fine polish any fine burrs.
Please don't laugh but on all my new saddles I give them a one time tuning till they break, one at a time, to protect the neck. This makes a slight groove so your string can naturally find the slot, and then i did the fine sanding. I also used a medium glue on top of all the saddles and saddle screws, nothing drastic, just wood glue, easy to remove if need be.
They have not moved for the last four months since I did all these mods. Also polished posts and float points on plate. 3 & 1 oil on everything.
Thanks for the remind,
Much love
Steve B.
 
Re: How I made my strat stay in tune

Dear whatsisname,
Thank you, I mean it.
Steve B.
p.s. I'm a really old guy and computers
are relatively new to me.
 
Re: How I made my strat stay in tune

If you want to convince people that you have the answer (and the answer might just apply to your guitar only and not someone else's guitar), then you need to post a video where you do 3 fret bends with a tuner so everyone can see where the tuning goes back to when the bends are released or something like that otherwise it's just another countless post from someone saying that they have no problems with no proof.
 
Re: How I made my strat stay in tune

To WhooHoo,
You are correct. However, I did remove two points of contact from the strings journey from ball end to tuning peg. The had some contact and the plate had a very strong brake angle with all the strings and especially the wound strings are easily caught up there. The lsr needed close careful adj. to the little claws, some of which, as I said were impeding any roll at all. The nut worked so much better cleaned in the manner I described, etc.
All I am saying is I have smoothed and removed all trouble spots I could without hurting the sound of my instrument. As a mental exercise I think these and all the rest of my "mods" make sense. I agree that my post is one of many, but I have never seen or heard any of these modifications before.
So I did my best to share it. Maybe it will help someone else. I can't prove it but I believe they bear some reflection. It does make sense on paper.
I remain happy with my work and still feel proud of it. So I will just shut up now unless anyone has a question they want to ask me.
I value and respect every one's input and thanks for taking the time to read, and transfer my ideas Mr. WhooHoo.
Much thanks for all responses,
Steve B.
 
Re: How I made my strat stay in tune

I forgot to add that i did the same procedure with my stock strat using the outmost 2 screws to float the bridge on and made a groove on the bridge plate and grooved the screws to match. I smoothed and grooved and lubricated the nut it came with, added Schaller lockers, and it too stays in tune.
Again, thanks,
Steve
 
Re: How I made my strat stay in tune

I think you have covered a lot of the main friction points in your very good post and minimized the tuning problems.

Another thing I've seen is to solder (tin) the wound string ends so that they don't get caught up.
 
Re: How I made my strat stay in tune

Yes, and I have a quick and reliable fix for that Mr. WhooHoo.
The night before a gig I put a dab of super glue on the wrap by the ball
end on each string and they STAY PUT.
Thank you for reading my post.
Yours,
Steve B. SJ318
 
Re: How I made my strat stay in tune

I don't have any problem keeping my 60th Anniversary Strat in tune. I have it set up just fine and I don't use the trem at all.
 
Re: How I made my strat stay in tune

To Bludave: a trip down memory lane:
I am 59.
I remember where I was when the Beatles first played on Ed Sullivans' show. I saw Three Dog Night get their asses handed to them by then almost unknown Led Zeppelin. Opened for Iron Butterfly who sucked beyond all belief, played with Eric Burden after he left (got fired) from War, but after a couple months he fired the whole band. He had a bad temper.
Opened for Bob Geldof & Boomtown Rats and Bob came out during sound check and just sat with me and chatted, a very nice man. Got booed off the stage opening for Devo, but I saw that coming as I was in a hard rock girl band called The Ronnie Lee Band in Seattle and the word "punk rock" was not yet in the lexicon of the English language.
I was honored to open for Harvey Mandel. He invited me to his motel to listen to the tapes i was making, but all he wanted to do was show me karate moves. He got me so stoned on some whitish looking pot that I couldn't even remember what a chord was, and he sat there, my hero, at the side of the stage, laughing his butt off at me.
Albert Collins shared some harsh tasting whiskey in the bathroom and asked me to join his band as rhythm guitarist, but was warned he replaced rhythm players every couple of weeks, but man, that was tempting.
Got tackled by Joan Jett where she lived in a crummy room off sunset with her smelly pet rat. Ronnie Lee use to play with her, i guess, but I never saw any proof of that claim, although Joan gave Ronnie a big bear hug and kiss when we went to visit her.
I'll leave with this: biggest gig-3,500 people with Bachman Turner Overdrive (who blazed jazz/rock licks in the dressing room only to go on stage to play 3 note solos.
Worst gig-2 people during happy hour in some crappy bar in Idaho.
Thanks, I got a million stories like that.
Sorry to get so off topic, couldn't help myself.
Thanks,
Steve B.
 
Re: How I made my strat stay in tune

why isn't there a tremblock with a thread inside the slots for the strings, so you can lock the string down from the block? that way, the string really won't slip!

or buy a super-vee :)
 
Re: How I made my strat stay in tune

I thought for sure that this thread was going to end with

"I put it in its case."
 
Re: How I made my strat stay in tune

To sosmething;

i think that was a joke on me, if so, I thought it was really funny without being
mean. that's hard to do.
I agree with the screw idea. I also have my eye on a super V for my other stop tail guitars, I also searched a while ago and got few threads and the youtube examples at that time were not enough to sell me, but I will do something like that.
Also whatsisname, I don't get the joke. It is on me I guess, or you just think my post sounds stupid, either way, fine with me.
To Kramer Guy, Everyone agrees not using a trem really solves a lot of trem problems
 
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