Help.. Tuning problem

JBA.com · #1 12-08-2002, 01:48 PM

First I would like to thank you guys for such an awesome site with great information. I purchased a 2002 JEM VSBL 2 months ago. Great guitar but it will never stay in tune. I went through Rich's and the Jemsite tech section and made sure that the strings were stretched, everything is tightened including the screw inside the post. What happens is that I will get the guitar in tune and soon as i play the guitar it will go sharp then I can touch the whammy bar and it seems that the neutral postion keeps changing. I am thinking that maybe the posts are bad so I thought I would install a tremsetter however when I looked at the 3 spring setup I noticed that the screws are turned aleady as tight as possible to get the tremolo in the position it is supposed to maintain. What do I do now except kick myself for not buying the guitar from Rich in the first place.

steeda · #2 12-08-2002, 02:43 PM

I don't mean to hijack, but is your handle of any relation to JBA in San Diego? I'm a customer

sniperfrommars1 · #3 12-08-2002, 04:07 PM

Youve got either bad post, or knife edges most likely, especially since you checked to see that everything is tight. I wonder what vai does for new edge trems since most seem to be bad these days

JBA.com · #4 12-08-2002, 04:47 PM

Thank you for some of the feedback. As for my handle I actually typed in the wrong thing but I'm not in San Diego. If the posts are bad, will the tremsetter help and where can I purchase new posts.

sniperfrommars1 · #5 12-08-2002, 06:35 PM

if the post are bad the tremsetter will help, but also will increase the string tension and the feel of the trem. I suggest you solve the problem rather than relying on the tremsetter itself

Rich · #6 12-08-2002, 09:00 PM

All VSBL's are late 01's or 02's and all have the new posts. I have run into 2 bad set of new posts, both were on guitars in the 0208000 range. Besides the knife edges, I'd be more concerned with your claw screwed all the way in. You have 10's on this?

JBA.com · #7 12-08-2002, 10:43 PM

Rich,
Thank you for responding. My guitar number is 204750 and I string it with .09 D'Addario XL's. When I looked at the trem posts they seem to have a nice V shape to them and the knife edges don't seem to be to wide. I am at a loss?

yurich · #8 12-08-2002, 11:02 PM

maybe the springs are too weak and not only cause the claw to be screwed all the way in, but also affect tuning stability...just a thought

Rich · #9 12-08-2002, 11:16 PM

The likelyhood it's springs on a new guitar is very remote.

If you've got 3 springs and XL120's there's no way your claw should be screwed in all the way. I doubt your trem angle is correct which could be part of the problem.

The V should not be a true V, where the \ / meet there needs to be a nice U shape for the knives to ride in. Even with this I haven't met a knife I didn't have to file to get as close to a true float as possible.

Merlin_ · #10 12-09-2002, 05:57 AM

I'd take another close look at the knife edges.
I bought a brand new 7vwh a couple of weeks ago, and had to file them a bit. Weren't really
that much too wide, but needed rounding.
Actually I don't think I quite filed them enough so I might need to get the tools back out....

JBA.com · #11 12-09-2002, 06:27 PM

Thank you for the suggestions. I take another look at the knife edges and see if I can improve them a bit