tremelo

kennier

lads, betraying my complete ignorance here but it's my first geetar with a tremelo...anyway here's the problem (maybe) - if i play a low E then play a high E on the 12 fret and bend up say 2 tones, the low E will drop by about 1/2 tone or so 'cos the bridge is lifting slightly....should this happen or do I just need to do a bit of tweaking? 1 hour 23 minutes 'till happy time

feylya

Yes, it happens because when you bend a string, you're adding more energy into the strings, making the tension higher which will pull the bridge up slightly.

Giblet

This usually happens with a floating trem, the only way to lessen the effect is to add more springs to make the trem tighter. Then you would have to set up the saddle heights and mess with the spring claw on the back. You would barely notice it unless you were specifically looking for it.

Doctor J

Yep, this is how it goes with a floating trem (or vibrato unit as Eoin would have us believe ) The height of the back of the trem is goverened by the tension of the strings vs the tension of the springs. When you bend a string you increase the tension on the string side so the bridge moves towards the strings. To counteract this, the only real way to stop it is to tighten the springs so the bridge rests on the body of the guitar and then tighten them a little more. You will lose the ablility to pull notes sharp on the trem, all you are really doing is increasing the tension of the springs so that it is greater than the tension of the strings + string bend.

kennier

That's what I thought but just had this 'oh sh*t' moment - you know where you get that cold bead of sweat when you think you've been done :eek: . Then the logic kicked in...almost!

Doctor J

Blame Newton's Third Law Of Motion

Eoin Madsen

Doctor J wrote:

trem (or vibrato unit as Eoin would have us believe )

You know I'm right.

It wasn't me!

Blame the funky Chinese takeaway...

Johnny Storm

Here's a quote from an interesting (but VERY detailed) article called "Guitar Tuning nightmares explained"


"Floating Bridges are like the anti-Christ if you are a stickler for tuning. Bend one string sharp, and all the others go flat. If one string goes flat by itself, the act of sharping it back up to correct pitch will cause all the other strings to go flat. Rest your hand on the bridge to mute 'em slightly and go "chunk chunk chunk," and they all go very sharp. (You can hear this on many, many thrash metal records.) Break one string, and all the others instantly go so sharp that you have to stop the song. For solos, it's cool. Dive-bombing, man... zowee. But for actual chords and rhythm playing, it's the closest you can get to a guitar that is actually, literally untunable. (At least, for more than a few seconds at a time.) I will usually wedge something under the bridge to fix it in place long enough for us to cut all the rhythm tracks. "

kennier

Interesting stuff...never would have believed you could write so much about tuning!

fish-head

Why wouldnt you be a "stickler for tuning"? Playing in tune is important to ANY musician in a band!

Johnny Storm

I'm a great believer in the expression "it's close enough for rock'n'roll".

Karl Hungus

I think that's rubbish tbh. The Edge Pro on my Ibanez is a ****ing hugely stable trem, and it tunes perfectly, as does the Floyd on my BC Rich Virgin. Now if only I can get to try out a Kahler.

fish-head

Johnny Storm wrote:

I'm a great believer in the expression "it's close enough for rock'n'roll".

I'm a great believer in "Get off the stage you tone deaf bastard!"

Johnny Storm

fish-head wrote:

I'm a great believer in "Get off the stage you tone deaf bastard!"

Good one.