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Edge Pro - problem with trem claw screws

6K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  Shredie 
#1 ·
Hi to all,
I need some help or advice with my Edge Pro setup.

I have a IBZ RG2550 with Edge Pro. I calibrated the guitar to D (D-G-C-F-A-D) with regular 0.10 strings.
The Edge tail was raised way too high so I tightened the trem claw screws. * (I will come back to this later)
Also I lowered a little bit the trem posts because the strings were a bit high.
Now, the edge knife (the black rectangle pressed into the side of the baseplate) is parallel to the guitar body and its almost hide under the trem cavity. Action feels ok.

* Back to the trem claw screws adjustment:
to keep the knife edge parallel to the body I had to tight the claw screws almost all the way.
I forgot to mention, the trem has 3 springs, in this position: I I I

The thing is I want to change strings to Ernie Ball Skinny top Heavy Bottom hybrids (0.10 .013 .017 .030 .042 .052) and I guess the Edge tail will raise again so I will have to adjust even more the claw screws and I'm affraid beacuse of the tension it will make on the trem and onto the neck, and also I'm not sure the screws will have enough space left to adjust correctly.

It this normal to happend? I'm doing something wrong? I didnt want to use 4 springs because the trem will be too stiff and I use the trem a lot, Satriani style.

Thanks in advance for your help, and please excuse my bad English, my native language is Spanish, I'm from Argentina.
 
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#3 · (Edited)
For setups, I highly recommend studying the information available on Rich Harris' website Ibanez Rules.

Here's a link to the technical section:

http://www.ibanezrules.com/tech/setup/index.htm

Study this and make sure you read every word. This guy knows what he is talking about and it helped me incredibly when setting up my Floyd equipped RG's.

The one thing that I learned with the Floyd system is that there is a fine balance to setting the knife edge parallel to the body and keeping your guitar in tune. I usually have to set the trem claw, tune the guitar and usually repeat the process until the trem is parallel and guitar is tuned to proper pitch. Also remember to fully stretch your strings before you do ANY adjustments.

I can pretty well guarantee that if you have the trem claw screws all the way in and then retune your guitar, you will probably be backing them out again. They should stick out about 1/2" or so. I use standard tuning with 9-42 strings, so a dropped tuning with 10-52 should be close to that.

Hope this helps.
 
#8 ·
Thanks again for your help!
Rich: your site has been such a great help for me. I sent you a few emails years ago and you always replied kindly and helpfully. Thanks!

This weekend I will try adding a 4th spring (I can't find higher tension springs in my country...) and recalibrate if necessary.

I wonder about this: ok, I use heavier gauge strings (0.10...0.52) so this put more tension on the Edge and make it raise its tail. So far its logical for this to happend.
BUT if I tune the guitar to D (DGCFAD, not drop D) why this didn't compensate the heavier strings gauge with the soft tension of the D tunning?
I expected the Edge to raise a little, but not this much.
Can someone please explain this to me?

I'm sorry again about my crappy English.

Thank you all again!
 
#9 ·
When I set up guitars with 9-42 strings, I generally have very close to 7mm from the edge of the cavity route to the leading edge of the spring claw. Of course this varies from guitar to guitar. I've definitely set up guitars with 10-46 strings and gotten away with three springs. It doesn't matter if you totally back the claw up against the edge of the route as long as you get the bridge level.
 
#10 ·
Just an update:

I did calibrate the guitar this weekend.
Didn't need to add a 4th spring, I just put the 3 springs in /I\

The trem is in dead neutral angle now, but the trem claw is not even, I guess because of the strings gauge difference (1,2,3 are 0.10's and 4,5 and 6 are 0.11's'). Screws are not to deep into the body.

After doing that, I lowered the bridge height to get the lower action possible without the buzzing.
I wish I could lower the bridge a little more, just 0.1 mm will be perfect but I think the bridge will be too low and there may be fret buzz.

I still didn't measure the neck relief, string height on the low E, and the high E at the last fret but it feels ok and fast. I think the neck bow is the standard, is not perfectly straight. It looks like a even bow throughout the whole neck.
I will update in a few days with the exact measures.

PS: I couldn't left some pics (in case someone find it helpful and in case something is wrong with the setup you can correct me). I guess I need more posts to public the links or pics, so I will update this later.
 
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