Hi everyone,
After breaking my (very) old string, I decided to replace all of them with a new pack of D'Addarios (EXL115). Being the ultimate noob I am, I got all the strings off first (I learned later on that replacing strings one by one is a much better idea). After replacing the strings I broke my high E again (I dunno why, it just seems it can't handle the tension, but then it won't be high E anyways.. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong there too) and replacing that, this time I started the tuning from the low E. By the time it got in tune (the other strings are still loose) the bridge way waaaay higher than the parallel position. I figured string tension was too great, but I'm too much of a coward to start screwing around with the springs before asking someone who actually knows this stuff. I've taken some pictures to give you guys some ideas on the current situation of my guitar, as I'm not so adept with the guitar terminology. A wholesome help, or even any small tips are appreciated! Thanks a lot

I've never had that problem quite so badly, but all I did was add more springs (I only had two in my strat when it was new).

As far s breaking the high E with D'Addario strings, that's the string I ALWAYS had problems with, when I used D'Addario's.

I'm sure others here will be able to help you more, but D'Addario high E's have always been a problem for me.

well....it sure is outta wack !

the spring claw looks ok....try starting from scratch.

loosen all of your strings bit by bit till your bridge is tilted back a little PAST level.
then , in very small increments....tune your strings to pitch.
try skipping around...tune the low E , then the high E ...bounce back and forth.

dont tune any 1 string all the way at 1 time...just tighten them little by little...take your time and it should be fine.

here is another point....if you changed brands of string, that can throw off your bridge alignment too !
i have seen that before...not all .009's are the same ( or any guage for that matter ) it dosent make sense to me, but i have seen it.








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Ok, check it out...

Adding more springs won't really fix the problem, and starting over again will have you spending hours trying to balance a 10lb. bowling ball on the head of a pin. Instead, try this...

Loosen your strings until they are floppy/ barely taut. Loosen the spring claw screws until you have about 3/4" from the top of the claw to the fwd edge of the spring cavity.

Get yourself a wedge-shaped piece of wood. Preferably about 2" at one end and 1/8" to 1/4" at the other (make sure it isn't wider than your spring cavity). Now, push that wedge in between your bridge counter weight and the aft side of your spring cavity. You can use your trem arm to help you. Push the wedge in until the edge of your bridge is parallel to the guitar body. If your guitar is set up right, it should be just above the body. After you set the wedge properly, be VERY careful not to touch it, bump it. jar it, etc.

Now tune your strings to pitch. You may even want to tune them a bit high, especially if they are new strings. Next, (this may be a bit tricky) you need to hold your guitar face up (so that the spring cavity and the wedge are facing down), and in short increments, tighten the spring claw screws. turn one a bit, then the other. Do this until the wedge falls out under its own weight. Once you do this, your bridge should look right again. Now you can fine tune to pitch with little or no re-adjustment tuning needed.

Hope that helps!

As far as the string breakage, try another brand of the same gauge, and if it still does it, then it's not the strings, it's your bridge or your nut, depending on where the break is happening. It is not uncommon for there to be a sharp edge on a brand new guitar that causes string breaks.








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Puddleglum wrote:

Ok, check it out...

Adding more springs won't really fix the problem, and starting over again will have you spending hours trying to balance a 10lb. bowling ball on the head of a pin. Instead, try this...

Loosen your strings until they are floppy/ barely taut. Loosen the spring claw screws until you have about 3/4" from the top of the claw to the fwd edge of the spring cavity.

Get yourself a wedge-shaped piece of wood. Preferably about 2" at one end and 1/8" to 1/4" at the other (make sure it isn't wider than your spring cavity). Now, push that wedge in between your bridge counter weight and the aft side of your spring cavity. You can use your trem arm to help you. Push the wedge in until the edge of your bridge is parallel to the guitar body. If your guitar is set up right, it should be just above the body. After you set the wedge properly, be VERY careful not to touch it, bump it. jar it, etc.

Now tune your strings to pitch. You may even want to tune them a bit high, especially if they are new strings. Next, (this may be a bit tricky) you need to hold your guitar face up (so that the spring cavity and the wedge are facing down), and in short increments, tighten the spring claw screws. turn one a bit, then the other. Do this until the wedge falls out under its own weight. Once you do this, your bridge should look right again. Now you can fine tune to pitch with little or no re-adjustment tuning needed.

Hope that helps!

As far as the string breakage, try another brand of the same gauge, and if it still does it, then it's not the strings, it's your bridge or your nut, depending on where the break is happening. It is not uncommon for there to be a sharp edge on a brand new guitar that causes string breaks.

very good way to simplify a tricky situation ....BRAVO my friend.
i need to keep a wedge or two on hand myself.








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.... Yet with strange aeons even death may die"


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[quote="chuck"]

Puddleglum wrote:

Ok, check it out...

Adding more springs won't really fix the problem, and starting over again will have you spending hours trying to balance a 10lb. bowling ball on the head of a pin. Instead, try this...

Loosen your strings until they are floppy/ barely taut. Loosen the spring claw screws until you have about 3/4" from the top of the claw to the fwd edge of the spring cavity.

Get yourself a wedge-shaped piece of wood. Preferably about 2" at one end and 1/8" to 1/4" at the other (make sure it isn't wider than your spring cavity). Now, push that wedge in between your bridge counter weight and the aft side of your spring cavity. You can use your trem arm to help you. Push the wedge in until the edge of your bridge is parallel to the guitar body. If your guitar is set up right, it should be just above the body. After you set the wedge properly, be VERY careful not to touch it, bump it. jar it, etc.

Now tune your strings to pitch. You may even want to tune them a bit high, especially if they are new strings. Next, (this may be a bit tricky) you need to hold your guitar face up (so that the spring cavity and the wedge are facing down), and in short increments, tighten the spring claw screws. turn one a bit, then the other. Do this until the wedge falls out under its own weight. Once you do this, your bridge should look right again. Now you can fine tune to pitch with little or no re-adjustment tuning needed.

Hope that helps!

As far as the string breakage, try another brand of the same gauge, and if it still does it, then it's not the strings, it's your bridge or your nut, depending on where the break is happening. It is not uncommon for there to be a sharp edge on a brand new guitar that causes string breaks.

Good job. I had the same problem rather be logical I spent quite some time adjusting it. It worked but allot of time went into it. Thats actually a great idea I would remember that.








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Thanks for the great tip Puddleglum,
I've tried doing that, but no matter how much i screw in the claw screws there isnt any tension to let the wedge go, it seems like what does is just stretch the strings the other way, and the wedge is still to tight, even to remove by hand. Is there a problem with my springs? I wouldn't think so because its the first time I've replaced the strings on this guitar and its not so old or has been used much, so I don't see how they got worn out. Any other suggestions? Right now my bridge is OK but the wedge is still in place between the bridge and the cavity.

terchon wrote:

Thanks for the great tip Puddleglum,
I've tried doing that, but no matter how much i screw in the claw screws there isnt any tension to let the wedge go, it seems like what does is just stretch the strings the other way, and the wedge is still to tight, even to remove by hand. Is there a problem with my springs? I wouldn't think so because its the first time I've replaced the strings on this guitar and its not so old or has been used much, so I don't see how they got worn out. Any other suggestions? Right now my bridge is OK but the wedge is still in place between the bridge and the cavity.

at this point it might be wise to take your guitar to a tech and have him do a complete set up .

then the next time you do a string change...use the wedge, or the old stand by of replacing the strings one at a time..








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.... Yet with strange aeons even death may die"


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with all modern Ibanez Tremolos you can loosen tension and remove all your strings at once , because it won't hit the body like some floyds, and because of where the screws are to hold the string... its totally cool.
this is a really easy fix...
you need to give the claw screws a couple of turns to the right."tightening" increasing tension.retune and repeat until its level with the body..if you go to far loosen..
very simple..








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They are my personal opinions.

Txguitarbuilder wrote:

with all modern Ibanez Tremolos you can loosen tension and remove all your strings at once , because it won't hit the body like some floyds, and because of where the screws are to hold the string... its totally cool.
this is a really easy fix...
you need to give the claw screws a couple of turns to the right."tightening" increasing tension.retune and repeat until its level with the body..if you go to far loosen..
very simple..

eh, i think you have to be careful with this. i did this on my ibanez and it worked the first few times. but then one day i was changing my strings and BAM the two screws holding the claw into the body striped out of the wood and pulled some chunks of wood with them. i think i had just done it to much or something... who knows

That first pic you had posted tells it all. Basically your bridge is flexed out all the way up. The bridge should be even with your guitar body.
I bought extra spings etc for different tensions etc. The way to solve it is hard to visualize. If you use a screw driver to loosen all the springs at once while
tuning and tweaking you will eventually get the right tension to string ratio. On my rose I actually took out 1 spring. I am using 2 now. And one side is actually
tighter than the other. But the bridge is even and flat with my guitar body. They are a pain in the ASS but once you know how they work inside and out, it inst too bad
at all. As for High E strings go. Those are usually the first to break on any setup I have ever had. Hope that helps some.








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terchon wrote:

Thanks for the great tip Puddleglum,
I've tried doing that, but no matter how much i screw in the claw screws there isnt any tension to let the wedge go, it seems like what does is just stretch the strings the other way, and the wedge is still to tight, even to remove by hand. Is there a problem with my springs? I wouldn't think so because its the first time I've replaced the strings on this guitar and its not so old or has been used much, so I don't see how they got worn out. Any other suggestions? Right now my bridge is OK but the wedge is still in place between the bridge and the cavity.

How many springs? 3? 4? If your tightening the spring claw screws evenly and nothing is happening, something is really wrong. Do you have the guitar face up like I suggested? Your guitar is at pitch, right? You didn't change the tuning to a lower tuning (not that it should make any big difference)? Take a measurement of the top edge of the spring claw to the top edge of the spring cavity. What is it? It should probably be anywhere from 3/4" to 1/2" normally.

You also may want to try out TxGuitarBuilder's suggestions too, he's more experienced than I am.








_________________
P.S. - Calli is an A-hole. But I can't help but love her.

yall are making this more complicated than it really is....
all you have to do is correctly counter the string tension with spring tension...thats it...
at pitch ..if you bridge is comming up too much.. you need more spring tension..and if your bridge is all the way back ...you need less.
you have to half ass tune in between every adjustment until your in the sweet spot and very slight adjustments will make alot of difference...


also.. if your trem claw came loose it has nothing to do with the way you sting it... if you think about it, there is less tension on the springs when the strings are off.








_________________
www.myspace.com/studiomojo
www.myspace.com/laststrikekaty
www.gsmmusic.com

None of these "opinions" are representative of Great Southern Music.
They are my personal opinions.

Txguitarbuilder wrote:

yall are making this more complicated than it really is....
all you have to do is correctly counter the string tension with spring tension...thats it...
at pitch ..if you bridge is comming up too much.. you need more spring tension..and if your bridge is all the way back ...you need less.
you have to half ass tune in between every adjustment until your in the sweet spot and very slight adjustments will make alot of difference...


also.. if your trem claw came loose it has nothing to do with the way you sting it... if you think about it, there is less tension on the springs when the strings are off.

BINGO ! ....you are so right my friend !
adjusting a floating bridge is indeed a pain in the butt , but its also very simple. the title says it all ...spring tension VS string tension.
it aint rocket science !








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.... Yet with strange aeons even death may die"


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I think we were all right in our own little minds.... somewhere. good luck on getting that floyd to purrr.


Joe








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