Hi there,
Wow, that's a lot of latent hostility and headbashing peeps, not everybody has 30+ years of experience setting up floating trems like I do, or are corksniffing Ibanez tech geniuses 🤣
Don't you think that there's already enough bickering and contrarianism going on everywhere else on the net and IRL these days?
I haven't posted much here in the decade since I joined. I never needed to, but I have been lurking in the background, and I always remembered this forum as a place of helpfulness, positiveness, tolerance and respect.
I sincerely hope it's still the case.
If you want to help this guy out, then fine, please do, but if you're posting just to vent your frustration we'd actually be better off if you abstained.
Now, to the OP, you seem to have an attitude problem too.
Don't ask for advice if you're not prepared to graciously accept it.
You're then of course free to implement it or not.
Otherwise you might as well preface your questions with: "help, I need someone to confirm my bias about...".
By the way, it's a bad idea to bash Rich here, especially when undeserved, as he has personally helped most of us out, at one moment or another.
Anyway, if your bridge set up suits you and you're happy with it, fine by me, just let it be. I've seen worse, it looks like you still can pull up on it a bit.
Too much positive tilt is even worse, IMHE.
But you can make sure that the trem knife edge inserts are perfectly parallel to the guitar body, as by four-decades-old universal consensus that's the optimal setup for tuning stability and sustain.
Have a look at the attached photo.
This particular trem has a slight negative (backwards) tilt too, but much less, it's almost on point to my eye.
I want you to know that even if it looks like black magic at first, it isn't that difficult to learn to adjust your trem yourself.
All you need is just a little patience, an essential requirement for long-term sanity retention when dealing with floating terms.
The trick is to be methodical and adjust the spring claw screws by small increments at first, 1/8-1/4 of a turn per screw max, always keep track of how much you've tightened or loosened them from the starting point in case you need to reset it, and always tune the guitar to pitch after each adjustment.
With experience you'll eventually develop a feeling for it, so you'll be making larger adjustments in one go and be a little less strict with the tuning in between each step.
Since Rich's perfectly serviceable how-to doesn't seem to suit you, which baffles me, there are dozens of good videos on YT that you can watch.
Anyway, here is my own condensed version of the detailed steps, noob friendly as requested:
1) First check the trem cavity backplate to see if you have access to the spring screws.
Some Ibbies have 2 slots in the backplate to access them directly, so maybe you won't need to take the backplate off. Otherwise take the 6 screws off and open it up.
2) Unlock the nut screws, set all the micro-tuners on the trem at the same height (unscrew them about 2/3 out) and tune your guitar up at the headstock.
3) In your particular case, since you want the trem to tilt slightly more forward, unscrew both spring tension screws about 1/4 of a turn, maybe even less depending on how close to the right setting you already are.
(For those who need it to tilt backwards it's the opposite, screw them in 1/4 of a turn.)
A small adjustment can go a long way!
If your trem is already almost at the proper angle, with the knife inserts almost perfectly parallel to the body, adjusting just one of the screws 1/8 of a turn might be enough.
4) Tune your guitar up at the headstock again. It will take 2-3 tuning passes to get there, be patient, it's normal.
5) Check the angle of the dangle of the trem knife edges, and if necessary adjust a little more, or if you went too far turn the screws back in 1/8 of a turn.
6) It's essential to completely retune your guitar to pitch at the headstock between each adjustment when you're a noob to this, trust me. Yes, it's tedious, but that's how it must be done if you want to avoid another trip to the guitar tech.
7) When you're happy with the trem angle, re-lock your nut, put the backplate back on if you took it off, and give your guitar a final good tune with the micro-tuners.
Voilà, it can be tedious but it's not so difficult after all.
Ciao.