"blocking" or "fixing" down Mustang trem

[analogsystem]

Hey duders,

so I was kind of thinking of trying my Mustang as a "hard tail" for a while. I have never used a bar on it, except for recording psychedelic overdubs because it goes so out of tune. I want this think to be as stable as possible. I do like to grab the tailpiece and give it a nice wiggle once in a while but I am willing to give this up for stability.

Anyway, I tried searching the forum but couldn't find anything on this. What's the best way to fix the trem down. Washers? Fit some kind of block in there? There must be a way to get it to be bolted in place right?

I will also be filing the nut a tad and replacing the tuners as I think these are both contributing to my tuning instabilities.

thanks!

[robert(original)]

mad mike had a good way of doing it where he just put in some washers under the bar(above the plate) and tighted it as far as it would go, and i think that pretty much solved the problem and turned it into a hard tail without messing too much up in the end.

[robroe]

[analogsystem]

Well.....reading the fine print there, I should say I already use 12's.

I also don't see how this is "random" as I am asking a legitimate question on a forum dedicated to spreading knowledge about this very kind of gear. Perhaps somebody else is interested. Sorry that gear questions in the forum about short scale guitars is annoying to you.

Also.....if you really don't want "spam" or whatever you see as frivolous "random" stuff all over this forum, you might want to think about not posting giant pics in threads. Thats pretty off topic stuff. I asked a question and got a fast, accurate response from somebody. That information (this thread) is now less concise because of your post and my response (this post). Thanks dude.

[Justin J]

perhaps you can replace the springs with those trem-locking devices people put on strats?

[robroe]

no, its not meant like that. its supposed to be funny. you must have missed my post about being on vacation in the pub. im just posting this in any random thread i find about peoples guitars not staying in tune.


heres the thing. back around 1998 we all were new to the game on js.com and we all tried all this wacky shit to our guitars to soup them up. locking this, floating that, some weird metals were used, iCY got on this kick about putting bone all over every thing, i got on this kick about pickup covers having to have no holes in them...actually i don't think iCY ever grew out of putting bells and whistles all over his guitars. heres my point. back then we did all the hard work of fucking our guitars up and doing all this shit to them only to finally realize in the end its just like fighting the guitar. don't fight the guitar. play the guitar. if its got a plastic nut, its probably for the same reason 98% percent of all guitars have plastic nuts. because they work. if the jaguar has a jaguar bridge on it, and not a mustang bridge, its probably for a reason. if you put a buzz stop on your jazzmaster you are gay because you don't need it, just set it up correctly. mustangs dont need washers, they don't need tuneomatics, they dont need bone, graphite, or titanum nuts, they dont need racing stripe stickers from stripestore.com. you don't need to jam blocks of wood in the back of your strat either while im at it. they were designed to accept 5 springs so you wouldn't have to jam wood in it.



seriously though, if you are having this many problems keeping your gutiar in tune, take it to a professional and have it set up. there is no reason you cant tune up a mustang in the morning, and play it all day without it going out of tune. no bullshit. i do it every day.

the .13 strings is just a joke anyway. its just the size i prefer. the whole thing is a friendly joke.

[robert(original)]

i got my j.s. to stay in tune like a champ,
my friend has a 69 re-issue compstang and the other day when i was playing i used the trem once and it went right out of tune and he turned to me and said something like " you can't go all the way down!"
i said bullshit i do it all the time, you need to let me set this thing up. he is weird tho, for some reason he never wants me to set up his gear, he loves the pg i made for him, and he likes the way i have my stuff setup but he prefers to have this other guy (who knows NOTHING about the fender style floating bridges) set it up.
that was a rant, im sorry.
but inline with what rob said, you are probly better off just setting it up really well.

[analogsystem]

Yeah.....I am wondering if its the tuners or the nut more than the bridge.....and its not that bad.....but I am picky about that kind of stuff having been a tune-o-matic and stop-bar user the majority of my life. But it's also nice to always be tweaking and trying stuff.

Rob, sorry about harshing on you, I didn't know you were joking. I just see some "in-club" mentality on certain forums once in a while that is really counter-productive all of our insatiable lust for gear knowledge

[astro]

Isn't there a thread somewhere on the forum that shows how to do a proper mustang setup? I tried searching and couldn't find it, but I know it exists somewhere, 'cause I used it when I first got my mustang. A proper setup will do wonders to your 'stang, and you won't need to change anything or add bolts or anything like that.

Now that I know how to do a proper setup, my 'stangs stay in tune, the bridges are stable, I can dive bomb all day long with no worries. I did change the tuners on my '69 reissue to white button Klusons, but this was an entirely cosmetic change, with functionality remaining the same.

Does somebody less n00b than myself have a link to the setup thread?

[analogsystem]

I thought that was in the WIKI, which doesn't seem to be working right now.

[fuckoffsetguitars.com]

mustangs dont need no washers or ugly bits of metal jammed in tight places.
it needs to be set up right,when it is it will stay in tune perfectly for ages man.

dont like trem? dont use the reverb handle then.

[analogsystem]

Well thanks to everybody who offered advice....I think it's set up pretty nice, and I'd like to use the trem, I just thought it might be worth a try to see if taking it out of the mix made an appreciable difference. As soon as I get some extra money I think I will replace the tuners as they seem really crappy. They are 70s "f" tuners.

[fuckoffsetguitars.com]

F tuners are cool, some of mine broke and thats the only reason i replaced them.
keep teh F tuners man.

[purplehaze19x]

All i do is wrap electrical tape around the bridge post to where it fits snug in the thimbles, and string it with 10's and its always in tune. seriously. no washers, no added nuts, bolts, welds.. nothing.

[iCEByTes]

Blocking :
Method 1 : Soak washer
Method 2 : Nail or screw


pros : Work
Cons : don´t stop at all

Locking :
Method 1 : reverse down the bridge
Method 2 : i did one time ...

Method 3 : like my method by using screws internal and screwing on guitar before

Pros : works better than nails or soak method
Cons : I´ts stick the Stop-Tail high








I gave you better idea , the rock out way , Mad-mike guide how make an Mustang tremolo rock shit out :
http://www.jag-stang.com/forum/viewtopi ... =1&t=14552

put sum oil like singer at bridge saddles too

it´s rock and works very nice and better than locking or stopping
see how high tremolo my jag-stang get


it´s works even better whit graphite nut or any flexible nut like brass or bone

[TieDye]

I saw a video or two on YouTube the other night about setting up the trem. Go find it. It was great.

[TieDye]

Here's the link, I had it saved: