Valentine Trem knocking sound

[coreytree]

Hi Everyone.

I'm new to the forum, fortunate to have just landed a particularly resonant new Valentine Tremelo. What an expressive and articulate guitar. The one thing that's bothersome is that the trem knocks loudly and annoyingly on the body when returning to it's rest position (there's the down side of all that resonance). Anyone else have this issue or any thoughts on how to reduce this? I'm also going to email support to see what they say, but wanted to throw this out there for everyone as well. I'll let you know what support says.

 

[tbonesullivan]

Do you slowly bring back the tremolo to rest, or do you just let it go? It's going to make a noise if you just let it go, unless you have it set floating.

You could probably put some felt under it to help cushion it.

 

[coreytree]

Do you slowly bring back the tremolo to rest, or do you just let it go?
...You could probably put some felt under it to help cushion it.

Thanks, tbonesullivan. I was also thinking about felt, rubber or silicone - any sort of thin, stiff dampening pad - as a solution. Whatever I might try would need to be stiff or the pitch could vary when the trim comes to rest - not what anyone would want. The guitar is so dang resonant that it makes a knocking sound regardless of how I bring the trim back to rest. I never just "let it go" - it's always a carefully controlled use to get the pitch changes needed.

FWIW, I also have an EVH Wolfgang and it knocks just a bit sometimes when the trim is returned, but it's no way this loud. My Strat is silent in this regard. On both of those other guitars, I use 11's, a lot of springs and a very stiff trem. The Valentine springs are as it came from San Luis Obispo.

 

[Fro]

Loosen the trem claw to where it just keeps the trem decked.

 

[coreytree]

Loosen the trem claw to where it just keeps the trem decked.

Genius, and I'm sure this is the way it's meant to work. This I will try for sure. Waiting to hear back from their support folks and I'm wondering if this is what they'll also suggest. I'll be sure to post whatever they say.