Tremolo Mod

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
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SneakyT
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Tremolo Mod

Post by SneakyT » Sat Mar 02, 2013 9:51 pm

A lot of people complain that their foreign tremolo is not as smooth as the American ones. I have had mixed results with ones I’ve owned and I’ve narrowed down what the culprit was. It was the brass piece that holds the spring. It was causing the spring to bind.
If you have this one you are fine.
Image
The one that is the problem is this one.
Image
It may be nickel plated but it should still be made of brass as mine were.

So I decided I’d mod it to work. The first thing you need to do is remove the spring and brass end then thread the screw quite a way through the brass end. I did not take pictures of the process until after the mod was done so you’ll see the finished brass end in these pictures. Just use your imagination.
Image
Next take the screw end and tighten it into a drill (I’d use a corded one if possible). Then use a standard file to reshape the brass end.
Image
Before:
Image
After:
Image

It made a world of difference in two of my tremolos. One guitar I had already had the proper brass end and my modified ones are just as smooth as it is now. Sure you can buy the correct brass piece for about six bucks on ebay but six bucks saved is a good thing in my book.
Last edited by SneakyT on Tue Jul 22, 2014 12:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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jvmusic
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Re: Tremolo Mod

Post by jvmusic » Sun Mar 03, 2013 12:01 am

Awesome. That helps convince my choice in buying a CIJ/MIJ versus saving up for a 62 AVRI. Although I suck at work like that and don't have the means to do it so I'll have to just buy the part.

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SneakyT
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Re: Tremolo Mod

Post by SneakyT » Tue Mar 05, 2013 6:52 pm

With heavy use on the Bass VI I was able to get it to bind again so I ended up taking some more off to get it perfect. Still working great as pictured on the Jazzmaster though.

I'd really like a longer spring for the Bass VI. Any one have any Ideas of a source?
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maximee
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Re: Tremolo Mod

Post by maximee » Tue Mar 05, 2013 10:55 pm

Great idea! Thanks for posting this.
In some other thread I remember somebody mentioning where they got their springs from. I just can't remember who and in what thread.
Not exactly helpful... sorry 'bout that.

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bipedal
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Re: Tremolo Mod

Post by bipedal » Wed Mar 06, 2013 7:23 am

Neat -- thanks for posting. I never would have thought of this.

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Danley
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Re: Tremolo Mod

Post by Danley » Wed Mar 06, 2013 8:48 pm

I'll point something else out:

Flipping the spring over in my MIJ trem finally fixed this, after trying just about everything else (short of what you did, which is cool)...

Whether by accident or by design, one end of the spring was wider than the other.
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Stereordinary
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Re: Tremolo Mod

Post by Stereordinary » Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:00 pm

I always knew it had to be something simple like this. Glad to see someone dedicated their self to figuring it out and to good results. You get quite a few cool points for this.
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spacecadet
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Re: Tremolo Mod

Post by spacecadet » Wed Mar 06, 2013 10:16 pm

Just to add a little wrinkle, not *every* trem with the problem design is bad. I was curious to check my original CIJ trem (which I did replace) and it has that design... but I never had any problem with it. I replaced it because of the string spacing and because everybody said I'd like the AVRI trem better, and it was cheap. But functionally, my CIJ trem was fine. So I think maybe that design makes it more likely to bind up or whatever, but it isn't guaranteed - it's probably still down to the tolerances of the different parts and how they all fit together. But maybe those tolerances are smaller with that design.

Just saying this so people don't freak out and suddenly feel like they need to change this part even if their trem is working fine.

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SneakyT
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Re: Tremolo Mod

Post by SneakyT » Thu Apr 17, 2014 11:24 pm

After doing three Bass VI setups this week, every tremolo had this problem, so I thought I'd bump for those that have not seen it.
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maximee
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Re: Tremolo Mod

Post by maximee » Sat Apr 19, 2014 8:49 am

The 2012 MIJ Bass VI?

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huffyboy
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Re: Tremolo Mod

Post by huffyboy » Sun Apr 20, 2014 6:38 pm

Good info! Thanks

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antisymmetric
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Re: Tremolo Mod

Post by antisymmetric » Sun Apr 20, 2014 8:11 pm

Good heads-up, thanks. 8)
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SneakyT
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Re: Tremolo Mod

Post by SneakyT » Sun Apr 20, 2014 8:38 pm

maximee wrote:The 2012 MIJ Bass VI?
No, 2 Squiers and a pawnshop
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mercu80
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Re: Tremolo Mod

Post by mercu80 » Mon Aug 11, 2014 5:02 am

SneakyT wrote:A lot of people complain that their foreign tremolo is not as smooth as the American ones. I have had mixed results with ones I’ve owned and I’ve narrowed down what the culprit was. It was the brass piece that holds the spring. It was causing the spring to bind.
If you have this one you are fine.
Image
The one that is the problem is this one.
Image
It may be nickel plated but it should still be made of brass as mine were.

So I decided I’d mod it to work. The first thing you need to do is remove the spring and brass end then thread the screw quite a way through the brass end. I did not take pictures of the process until after the mod was done so you’ll see the finished brass end in these pictures. Just use your imagination.
Image
Next take the screw end and tighten it into a drill (I’d use a corded one if possible). Then use a standard file to reshape the brass end.
Image
Before:
Image
After:
Image

It made a world of difference in two of my tremolos. One guitar I had already had the proper brass end and my modified ones are just as smooth as it is now. Sure you can buy the correct brass piece for about six bucks on ebay but six bucks saved is a good thing in my book.
HI! I have a squier VI.....I would like to change the tremolo plate... is '62 reissue CIJ or AVRI Usa the same as a replacement in the squier? will they fit?
and...Should I wait to flip the bridge, mount new strings and set everything up..before to purchase a staytrem?
Thank you in advance for your help..

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SneakyT
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Re: Tremolo Mod

Post by SneakyT » Tue Aug 12, 2014 7:42 am

They are all interchangeable.
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