Adding a trem to my 12 string? DONE!

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Fri May 27, 2011 3:57 pm

Great job, Dragon. You might want to drill out that E octave hole a bit if that's where it's rubbing.

Bigsby makes a shorter spring for the B series, for use with lighter springs. They're about $6 and will get that handle down where you want it.

antisymmetric · Post by **antisymmetric** » Sun May 29, 2011 1:46 pm

SignoftheDragon wrote:That's kinda the point- I think the detune vs. in-tune could be a cool thing to mess about with.

Absolutely- I have an old semi with a long distance between the bridge and trem, it's fun to press on some of the strings with the side of your picking hand and send them out of tune. It sounds great, I tend to do that more on that guitar than I use the trem.

blackjackdavey · Post by **blackjackdavey** » Sun May 29, 2011 2:42 pm

Great job. That thing looks awesome. It'd be great to see a demo video.

skatebird · Post by **skatebird** » Fri Oct 14, 2016 7:10 am

Hi! Great to find this post. I recently tried more or less the same thing on a Jazzmaster copy, but with only three extra strings (for now at least):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-inbM3yJZQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.dropbox.com/s/41r77lrpwxt72 ... 5.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8qibph662klke ... 6.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0vyscr7161qcg ... 7.jpg?dl=0

I haven't used it properly yet. Do you have any recordings of your guitar?

SignoftheDragon · Post by **SignoftheDragon** » Fri Oct 14, 2016 9:06 am

That's awesome!

I actually sold the Schecter earlier this year on Reverb- the buyer seemed happy with it, and I haven't heard back from him since. I fell out of love with the pickups pretty quick, but have still been looking for an opportunity to try the trem-thing again. I had actually bought a nice Bigsby B3 trapeze unit to put on one of my Surfcasters, but there wasn't enough room behind the bridge to mount it.

Fast forward- my tinkerlust has taken this idea to a new project, and I am very happy with the results so far- here's a close-up of the bridge & trem interface:

The Venus XII has precious little room behind the bridge- restricting my trem options to either a Duesenberg or Teisco-style trem. The Teisco was cheaper, and looked cool enough too. The functionality is greatly improved over the Schecter/Bigsby setup since the trem-strings don't have to make any unnecessary turns between the trem unit and the bridge. It does a great slow-wave detune a-la-MBV effect just by keeping hold of the bar while strumming, and does perfect surf-style bends and still returns true with a little attention. I'm thinking about trying to find a softer spring so the tension can 'float' on the spring a bit more, rather than returning to the full extension length as a zero point.

Project thread here for more pics & stuff viewtopic.php?f=8&t=101278

skatebird · Post by **skatebird** » Fri Oct 14, 2016 9:32 am

Awesome! Great that you have continued with this idea

My next step is adding a pickup behind the bridge, to get som atonal shimmer added to the sound. I probably will change the Tone knob (never use it) to a separate volume for the new pickup.

I will record another video with some chord playing. As you said in your post, just holding the arm while strumming does "something" with the sound.

OffsetGuitars.com

Adding a trem to my 12 string? DONE!

Re: Adding a trem to my 12 string? DONE!

Re: Adding a trem to my 12 string?

Re: Adding a trem to my 12 string? DONE!

Re: Adding a trem to my 12 string? DONE!

Re: Adding a trem to my 12 string? DONE!

Re: Adding a trem to my 12 string? DONE!