UV Trem plate changeout - Encountered a glitch.

[bob oakman]

I had a somewhat unique problem while changing out the trem plate on my UV777PBK and I thought it may be helpful to share. This may be old news to some….

I got a bare trem plate to replace the original, which seemed to have soft knife edges. Now looking back it may be defective trem posts that are the culprit, but that’s another topic…

Everything was going well. I removed the saddles and all the related parts, the block and springs from the old trem. I discovered and managed to change all the plastic retaining rings under the fine tuner screws without loosing one and I was getting ready to put the trem back in the guitar, but was unable to thread the screws that hold the saddles to the trem plate. That was because there is a plate underneath, screwed to the bottom of the trem plate by 3 small, brass screws. This plate has the threaded holes to screw the saddles to.

Well, the little brass screws were glued in with Lock tight or something. I couldn’t get them out. *Got a bigger screwdriver and applied more pressure. I broke 2 of the three and must now find, the probably hard-to-find, little guys somewhere.

If I attempt this operation in the future I was thinking of applying a little heat, not enough to tarnish the trem, just enough to loosen up the gunk that locks the screws in.

NOTE: I am putting a Cosmo Chrome plate on her. It may look interesting with the Chrome saddles.

[jemsite]

Hi Bob... spoke to Gregory about this but forgot to post.

those 3 screws *should* come right off... i easily removed them off a spare trem while chatting on the phone *The 3 screws hold in the plate that secures the saddle intonation screws.

if you can't find the screws in a hurry drop me an email and i can take them back off and ship them to you along with a smaller screwdriver. :biggrin: ...glen

[nuno]

...that's what i call friendship... *sniff*

[pri0531]

Hey Bob
Did u use a electric driver on that trem plate or just your massive muscle power?
Out,GP

[bob oakman]

Greg, I used a hand held, but applied very little pressure. They are very small and brass is soft, so it was a snap to snap ‘em.

Glen, Someone on the assembly must have had some spare time on their hands when my trem came down the line. Not only did the screws in question have Lock-tight or some gray colored bonding substance on them, the arm holder also had it on the threads inside the plate. It was a major pain to get out. I just about broke it as well.

Strange.