some help

Duff_Man

hey guys was wondering if you could give me a hand with something. i just got a american strat and i want to lock the bridge so when i rest my hand on it to pick it doesnt do the whammy thing! can anyone tell me how to do this?

Ancient1

You don't really want to do that.

Doctor J

Tighten the screws which pull the springs which provide the opposing force to the pull of the strings.

Ancient1

Duff Man, do you want to block the trem or set the bridge flush against the body?

Johnny Storm

Duff man ! Where's the pix of yer new guitar?


These are the screws Dr J is talking about:


Also it may help to detune the strings before you do what Dr J says.

Edited to add: If you are doing this to aid tuning stability, this should be the last thing on the list, IMHO.

Duff_Man

yeh i had thought of detuning the strings first! i just want the bridge to sit flush so it wont move when i rest my hand on it to pick. its iratatin me! how tight should i make them?

Doctor J

Tight enough that when you bend a string it doesn't pull the bridge up.

Ancient1

Ok, I initially thought you wanted to block the trem.

You just need to tighten the claws, that's all.

The normal (factory spec) distance between a strat bridge and the body is 1/8". That's almost flush, but not completely and it won't move (drastically) when you rest your palm on it.

Is this a new guitar? You should have gotten a setup booklet with it. Not that you really need it, but it can help if you haven't messed around with bridges before.

Quattroste

Hmmmm. I had this problem too when I first played my Strat. My solution was to NOT rest my hand on the bridge when picking. This has had 2 effects. 1)It has improved my picking ability. 2)It made me use my Eggle more when I wanted to pick AND rest my hand on the bridge!

Ancient1. The booklet! Come on.......... that's just wierd with all thoses measurements and tools and stuff.

Now yer all gettin to see why I play guitar mostly alone

Johnny Storm

Quattroste wrote:

.... My solution was to NOT rest my hand on the bridge when picking....

That makes sense. Also it seems to me that if the heel of your picking hand is far enough back on the bridge to make it move then the middle and ring fingers of your picking hand will be moving the vol knob at the same time :eek:

One of my strats has only 2 springs in it and even with that one my picking hand never moves the bridge. Or maybe its more accurate to say that accidently moving the bridge is the very least of my many playing problems.

Different strokes for different folks etc....

Karl Hungus

Johnny Storm wrote:

Different strokes for different folks etc....

Pickstrokes?

Johnny Storm

Karl Hungus wrote:

Pickstrokes?

I prefer to flog my whammy bar in the privacy of my own home.;)

Duff_Man

well i gave it a go and it went well! prefer it this way! read johnny was lookin for some pics so here they are...sorrry about the quality:P i threw in one of my sg too while i was at it as iv never posted any of it before!

http://www.photobox.ie/album/album_photo.html?c_photo=78624795&fit=1
http://www.photobox.ie/album/album_photo.html?c_photo=78624824&fit=1
http://www.photobox.ie/album/album_photo.html?c_photo=78624776&fit=1
http://www.photobox.ie/album/album_photo.html?c_photo=78624774&fit=1
http://www.photobox.ie/album/album_photo.html?c_photo=78624773&fit=1
http://www.photobox.ie/album/album_photo.html?c_photo=78624772&fit=1

Johnny Storm

Duff man. Cant see your pics. Can you make your album public or something?

Duff_Man

there we go made it public! didnt know i had to do that!

Quattroste

Nice Guitars Duff Man. Never played an SG, but If I was to, it would look like that one

Johnny Storm

Yeah! Very nice SG and nice wood grain in your Strat too. Enjoy 'em!

Duff_Man

the pic doesnt really do the strat any justice! you have to see it to really see it if u get me:P but yeh the sg is a sexy beast! one of the best guitars iv ever played!

LundiMardi

how hard do you rest your hand on the bridge??? Cos i did it to and it never resulted in any 'whammy thing'..