Dumb Question Time...

[Troubleman]

So after a long hiatus from Ibanez guitars, and guitars with locking trems in general, I bought a JS1000BP a few weeks ago. I promptly sent it off to my tech to have a Tremol-no installed, string gauge bumped up to .010s, and a general master setup (Obi-Wan John Thurston is THE MAN). Anywho, when I got it back sans trem cover I took a look under the hood. THINGS HAVE A-CHANGED in locking trem world. Somebody wanna explain with the red plastic do-hickies are under the trem block. I mean - I used to have an Ibanez 540S-LTD and changed strings all the time. But ya had to clip the ball ends off. This thing.... the ball end seems to be wound and snaked through whatever that thing is.... I've read that the new Edge trem can be used with or without ball ends on the strings. Any opinions from you guys would be appreciated. BTW, this guitar now ROCKS. Tremol-no seems to have added sustain, and I can comfortably rest my palm on the bridge without accidentially doing an up trem. I can lock the whole thing out if I wanna do dropped-D tuning too. Cool!

Peace,

jb

[Ferrous Lepidoptera]

You don't have to cut off the ball ends because you can open up the slot enough to cram them in there -- BUT, when the string breaks, it can be tough to get it back out, and, it can be tough to get the ball end to sit in the plastic doohickeys right. A lot of people find it simpler to just ignore all that and cut the ball ends off like a normal human being and do it in the same old regular way.

[Troubleman]

Thanks - I think I'll do just that....

jb