Ever Reshape (Bend) an Edge tremolo arm?

[CrossingStar]

Ever Reshape (Bend) an Edge tremolo arm?
I have an arm for a tremolo made by Gotoh (not an Edge arm) and I have a feeling it's hollow like I've read the Edge arms are. I'm wondering if anyone has succesfully bent an Edge arm without snapping it. By heating it up for instance. Because I want to bend this Gotoh arm but my gut says I'll just snap it if I use plain force.

[Dee]

I think you'd snap it too. I have snapped one accidentally (not by bending, just whammy abuse) and I'm surprised how easily it broke. With heat, though, maybe it'd work.

[C.Thep]

I snapped edge bars twice. It makes you very angry doesn't it? i bet heat could work. I used a torch to bend some metal rods a cm thick to make a chain one time. blacksmithing sure is time consuming.

[CrossingStar]

Well I held it over a gas burner then bent the part where it does that almost 90° bend, near the end you insert. Made it stick out away from the guitar more. Then I tried heating and bending where the bar does that slight bend outward, in the middle kind of. That wouldn't budge. I didn't want to use too much force because it is better than it was, just not perfect.

[Rich]

The bars bend easy but there's a trick to bending them. Clamp in the right spot and bend a little at a time.

[CrossingStar]

Again I tred heating it, bending it... nothing. I braced it as good as I could and used a 15 lb. dumbbell, pounded it carefully and it did bend out from the mid-point of the arm, like I wanted. Pretty close to the Edge arm shape now. Maybe it wasn't hollow.

[Rich]

The bar is not hollow, and no heat is necessary.

[sniperfrommars1]

Originally Posted by Rich

The bars bend easy but there's a trick to bending them. Clamp in the right spot and bend a little at a time.

I hate to bother you cause i know your busy, but would you mind showing us a few pictures of the spot, and where to bend at rich? This is something I really wanna know how to do, and dont have a few dozen bars laying around to snap

[Rich]

The spot is where you want it to bend.

[C.Thep]

Gee Wilikers, you must need strong fingers.

[chef21]

I have bent mine, just wrap it with a rag and insert it into a vise and tighten it firmly. Like Rich said the spot is where you want to bend it, so have the area you want to bend stick out just pass the end of the vice. You can bend it by hand or with a few taps with a rubber mallet. Very hard to do free handed, but lock it down with a vice, and it like butter. chef21

[steve]

I use a B&D WorkMate bench/vice - locking the bar into the tube-grabbing 'V'-shaped part of the vice/top just like Rich said - RIGHT where you want to support it for the bend. Make sure you're supporting fully ABOVE the bushing reliefs, as that's a weak spot in the metal, being so much narrower, and having right angle cuts lathed in.
Applying gradual, careful pressure will do this without heat... I don't say this lightly, as I've done it time and time again. I add some height to all of my Edge-series bars this way, and I always include a spare in each guitar's case, already pre-bent and ready to go.

[GilkyBear]

Originally Posted by Rich

The bars bend easy but there's a trick to bending them. Clamp in the right spot and bend a little at a time.

Rich, fer Chrissakes, is there ANYTHING you don't know about Ibanez guitars!!

[stratoskier]

I've also bent several trem arms to suit my preference. I did it in a slightly different way. Instead of a vice, I took a short length of dowell rod (about 6" long and maybe 1" in diameter) and drilled a hole into the end of it just large enough in diameter to stick the trem arm in. Then I inserted the arm into the hole down to where I wanted to bend and gently bent it.

The advantage of the hole-in-wood deal is that it supports the arm all the way around and also provides something long to hold onto as you bend the arm. Also, if you're bending the angle down near the threads you want to be VERY careful to not bung up the threads (not an issue with pop-in Edge arms)-- wood is pretty forgiving in that regard.

Bert