Help needed for tremolo...

[Mio+Azunyan Fanboy]

Hi all, i recently got myself a ibanez S420 and i love the guitar. However since last night, i noticed that was some kind of clicking sound coming from the locking nut when i did a pull up with the ZR tremolo. It does not happen all the time, only occasionally. However, the guitar does not go out of tune when the clicking happens. This is my first double locking tremolo guitar thus i have zero experience with this kind of stuff...

Any idea what the problem is? Could this signify a serious issue such as a problem with the truss rod? (please forgive me being so paranoid)

Thanks in advance!

 

[relinquish69]

maybe the screws on your locking nut are not tight. I'm talking about the 2 screws that mount the locking nut onto the neck.

if that does not solve the problem, the sound might be coming from the neck pocket area. if that's the case, the neck screw holes are loose and needs filling up.

all these are my assumptions because I can only tell what's wrong by holding the physical guitar. they are good assumptions though .

 

[Mio+Azunyan Fanboy]

Hi bro, thanks for the reply! I tightened the screws as per your suggestion and BINGO, it did the job!!!

However, now i have a new problem. Haiz...... When the tremolo arm is not parallel to the bridge and i do a pull up, there is loud clicking sound coming from the corresponding side of the bridge. This only happens at one side of the bridge and to specific, it is the left side. The alingment of the arm to the bridge and neck is something like the following diagram in which the two horizontal lines represent the end of the neck and bridge respectively and the slash in the middle represents the tremolo arm... Sorry for the failed illustration _
/
_

I knew a floating bridge would cause a bit of a hassle, but not this much

Thanks in advance!

 

[relinquish69]

tricky. if the block is not hitting the trem plate, I really don't know what it is.

is the sound coming from the bridge or the neck pocket?

if it's from the bridge, I don't know.

if it's from the neck pocket, its the sound of the neck rubbing on the body.

sounds complicated. you might want to bring it down to a repair store if it really bothers you.

 

[Mio+Azunyan Fanboy]

Hey bro, thanks for your help! Brought it down to get checked up and it turned out that the nut mounting the bridge to the guitar's body was loose. Thus i thought that after the nut was tightened, all my tremolo-related problems would come to a happy end

But now i realise that when i pull up, i can only increase the pitch by up to a maximum of 6 frets before the bridge hits the body cavity. Before that, i could pull up much further. However, now i can push down the tremolo bar all the way down without hitting the body cavity at all (much much further than before)

Sigh, how much more problems will these floating tremolo give me??? Could it be that the entire tremolo system on my guitar is defective?

Thanks in advance!

 

[subversion]

I own the S420. No issues.

 

[relinquish69]

is the bridge parallel to the surface? in any case, why didn't you get the tech to solve everything?

 

[Mio+Azunyan Fanboy]

Thanks everyone for your help! Hehehe guess i was overly happy that there wasn't anymore clicking sound thus i failed to realise the "pulling up" problem... Sigh floating bridges are quite a hassle apparently... What do you guys think, is it just a case of a bad set-up or a faulty unit?

Sub, how far can you raise the guitar's pitch by pulling up the whammy bar before the bridge comes into contact with the body cavity?

Thanks alot in advance!

P.S. Sub, i love your blog!!! Have been a loyal follower of your blog for quite a long time!!! Thanks for all the tremendous effort you have put in to keep feeding your followers with all those delightful entries of yours! Cheers mate!

 

[faekildare]

6 frets is actually pretty far to pull up. Some of mine can only pull up to one and a half tone before fretting out.
If it's really an issue that you can't pull up enough, just shim the neck and increase the action of the bridge.

 

[Mio+Azunyan Fanboy]

Thanks for the reply! Can you define what you mean by "fretting out"? Also when you said that you are able to pull up to a maximum of one and a half tone, what bridge is that?

Thanks in advance!

 

[relinquish69]

I've not heard of faulty units as of yet.

Bring down for a setup. Ask the tech what he is doing and learn from there. A lot of these terms sound like fretting out & shim the neck alien to you now right?

Btw, don't spend time experimenting. It wouldn't help if you don't know what you are doing. You have to understand the purpose of doing those setups and whether it's necessary.

 

[Mio+Azunyan Fanboy]

Thanks for the reply! Yup you are right, how much i know about the terminologies of tremolo systems is equivalent to what a pig knows about a sunday. Let's say if i bring it down to a tech for a setup, will they allow me to sit through and watch the process and ask them questions? Hehehe i am one of those types who are bursting with questions

Btw are there any good resources on the internet on the zr tremolo? Found many on the other tremolo systems but not much on the zr

Thanks in advance!

 

[faekildare]

One tone and a half = 3 frets. (one fret = one semi tone)

It's an Original Edge.

Bridge has nothing to do with how much you can pull up BTW.

 

[faekildare]

Thanks for the reply! Yup you are right, how much i know about the terminologies of tremolo systems is equivalent to what a pig knows about a sunday. Let's say if i bring it down to a tech for a setup, will they allow me to sit through and watch the process and ask them questions? Hehehe i am one of those types who are bursting with questions

Btw are there any good resources on the internet on the zr tremolo? Found many on the other tremolo systems but not much on the zr

Thanks in advance!

Bring it down to Beez. Not only will he set it up in front of you, he will also explain to you what he is doing.

 

[Mio+Azunyan Fanboy]

Thanks for all your help ppl! It has been of great assistance to a newbie like me

I have seen much good feedback about Beez in this forum

What is the general cost of doing a full guitar setup for a floyd rose style bridge from a reputable guitar tech?

And can i specify what i want in the guitar setup? (eg. the height of the string action, the height of the bridge, etc...) Or is it a one-off thing where the tech decides by himself what is to be done with the guitar? To sum it up, do i have a say in the setting-up process?

Thanks alot in advance!

 

[faekildare]

Beez will set it up till you are happy with the guitar. He is a player too and he understand that different people have diff preference. As for price, you gotta check with him. A good price point is around 50 to 70.