Urgent help needed JS100

sham69

Hi All,
Bought an Ibanez Joe Satriani 100 model from Thomann.de, got it delivered yesterday and its the business. Problem is I never had a guitar with a tremolo system before and tried to change the strings (as the ones on it must have been there at least a year). Anyway to cut a long story short I took all the strings off and the tremolo kind of snapped and is not parallel with the body?
Is this normal? I rang a friend who advised me to bring it in to a shop and get them to string and tune it. Is it really that tricky to do? I feel like such an amateur and have been playing guitar 17 years.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers.
Sham...

Quattroste

When you restring it the tension of the strings should pull the trem back into place. Make sure you use the same guage strings or you may need to make adjustments to the trem springs.

Doctor J

Check the instrument resources sticky, there are several guides to setting up guitars, one of which goes into detail about setting up an Ibanez with a trem. It should make everything clear.

With floating trems (ie ones you can pull back as well as push down), the strings provide force pulling the trem forwards and the springs in the back provide equal force in the opposite direction. If you put heavier gauge strings on it, there is now more force pulling the trem forwards and the trem will be at an angle where the back of it (where the fine tuners are) sticks up, you then need to tighten the claw which holds the springs in the back of the body. If you've put on lighter strings and there is now more force being applied by the springs than the strings, so the trem is being pulled back into the cavity and the fine tuners are too low. You then need to loosen the claw and lessesn the spring tension.

sham69

cheers for the advice,
I don't know what gauge strings were on it but I put ernie ball extra slinky's
with the E being 008, I did some messing around with the Allan keys at the tremolo and at the back with the tremolo springs. I am afraid I will do damage as I have no experience of tremolo guitars. I might drop it in to music maker to be on the safe side.
Many thanks for the replies.

Den_M

Don't worry about the noise when the trem snapped back in place, same happened me when I first changed the strings.

Doctor J

You don't need to go to music maker. Read this

http://www.ibanezrules.com/tech/grunge/grunge_7.htm

sham69

cheers Doc.
Might give it a go when I get home.
Does it matter that its and edge pro tremolo and not a floyd rose?
I assume the principals are the same.
Thanks Again.

Doctor J

They're much of a muchness, one is a revised version of the other. Have a look anyway, if you're not sure about adjusting it yourself then bring it in to a shop, but if you understand the principle of how the trem works it'll really help you in the future. There's nothing to be scared of, just take it slow and you'll be grand.

Oh yeah, we're gonna need some pics of that guitar, rules is rules man

sham69

Cheers Doc.
Will take a few pics of it when I get it sorted.
Thanks again for the help.

sham69

Hi All,
Quick update for yiz, decided to bring the guitar into town on Saturday morning. First went in to Music Maker, they don't do tunings on Saturday's and when I asked could I leave it there till Monday they refused saying that it wouldnt be insured over the weekend. I then went to perfect pitch a few doors away, young guy behind the counter looked a bit confused when I told him what I wanted i.e re-strung and tuned. He said they could do it, gave me a receipt etc and told me it would be a week. Got a call from him 20 mins later while I was still in town and he said that they took a look at it and that it was too complexed for them and that no one in the shop had ever dealt with a similar tremolo before and I would have to take it back. I then decided to give it a go myself, seemed to be getting on ok when 1 string snapped then another and then another, so I have broken 3 strings. I am going to bring it in to musicmaker tomorrow and get them to do it.
Really didnt think it would be so much hassle.
Thanks again for all the advice.

Doctor J

Unless you get to watch them do it you're going to be going through this every time you need strings changed. It's very simple to do yourself if you just read up on it and take it slowly and it'll stand you in better stead in the long run.

sham69

I know doc, I was thinking that myself.
One of my mates told me the best way to do it would have been to change
each string individually rather than taking the whole lot off.
I am not sure if using the 008 strings are causing a problem i.e too light or
if I just made a bags of it. I did try and just when I thought I was getting somewhere i.e tremolo parallel with body the strings snapped.
I know what ur saying and ur right but I might ask them in Music Maker for a bit of advice.
Thanks again for the help, I feel a bit stupid not being able to do it.

Doctor J

Don't be feeling stupid man, it's just something you really have to do yourself to fully understand, I think. If you're using 8's I get the feeling you'll be restringing an awful lot

Just read up on it and give it a shot yourself, I reckon. Take it slowly and you'll get the hang of it. Here's some more links

http://www.blues4kids.com/special_promotions/jackson%20page/jackson_floyd_howto.htm
http://www.floydrose.com/originaltremolo.html
http://www.simonlees.co.uk/settingupyourguitar.htm#3

sham69

Thanks Again Doc for all your help and patience.
I will try it again but I reckon I will spend a fortune on strings!!!!
I might get a set of 9's on my way home and try them.
Thanks Again.

sham69

Hi Doc.
Good news, managed to get the guitar re-strung and tuned.
Did it myself, one problem though, there is a little plate that looks like a hair clip that is under the tremolo and it came lose and I can't get it back on?
It doesnt seem to have any effect on the string but would rather get it back.
Any ideas.
Thanks again for all your help, feel good after getting it done on my own.
Cheers.

Doctor J

Do you have a pic?

sham69

Of the guitar or the plate thats missing?
I will take one when I get home and upload it tomorrow.
Spent nearly 3 hours last night getting it right.

Doctor J

Yeah a pic of the bit that's out and a pic of the underside of the trem. Look on the bright side, next time you do it it won't take 30 minutes and soon you'll be able to do it in a flash.

sham69

Cheers Again, happy I got it done but a bit concerned that the plate fell out.
Its underneath the end of the springs at the back of the guitar there are two screws holding a big metal block and the plates seem to lock under this.
I will take a pic tonight and put it up tomorrow.
Thanks Doc.
Just need to buy a decent overdrive pedal and a crybaby wah and I am sorted.

-=al=-

i remember the first time i changed the strings on a floating trem, it was a disaster!

but there really simple inventions in the way they work once u know what ur doing

http://www.jemsite.com - has some cool tech sections too

xanthor

sham69 wrote:

Hi All,
Got a call from him 20 mins later while I was still in town and he said that they took a look at it and that it was too complexed for them and that no one in the shop had ever dealt with a similar tremolo before and I would have to take it back. .

Not sure if Music Maker were being straight with you or if they decided they were too busy to look after it......

....but a guitar shop that doesen't know how to set up a Floyd is laughable.
It's not like it's some new fangled gadgetry; they've been around about 20 years.

-=al=-

They gota be taking the piss! but everytime im in there i notice different people behind the desk, maybe there was no tech people in, or they were on lunch... but i hardly ever see them fixing up guitars in there, musician usually have guitars been worked on all the time