Question Changing tunings on JP6

[allenk732]

So I'm working on selling/ trading my Axis to get a JP model. I just love the neck on the JP too much and can't stand not having one...

My question is, how difficult is it to change tunings with that floating trem? I play alot of E standard stuff but also so D standard and dropped C. What needs to be adjusted to do this without throwing the trem all out of whack?

 

[YandasMusic]

Whenever you change your tuning or string gauge, the tension on the floating bridge is going to change causing it to tilt one way or the other. To counter this, you need adjust the springs that counter balance bridge found in the back of the guitar. If drop your tuning, you will need to loosen those springs. If you raise your tuning, you will need to tighten them.

It isn't really hard to make the necessary adjustments, but it is time consuming and involves a little trial and error. Doing this Every once in awhile isn't a big deal but will be very irritating if you are constantly changing turnings back and forth. You can forget about trying to change tunnings in the middle of a live show, it just isn't going to happen.

If you don't really use the floating trem, you can probably get a "tremol-no" or some sort tremolo blocking system. This makes it so you can't pull up on the trem, only dive with it. This would allow you to switch up your tunings much easier.

 

[DarthV]

Keep the axis for D & drop C and use the JP in E. Welcome to GAS! =)

 

[allenk732]

Thank you for the info yandas! Darth, if I could afford to keep both I would do it in a heartbeat.

 

[orion_21]

Stupid question maybe, but anyone try the digitech Drop or the pitch fork? I heard the lag is still a bit too much to really be usefull...

 

[Firesource]

You can just use a few pieces of wood to block the trem, and then it will be as solid as a hard tail!

 

[acwild]

Get the pin version Tremol-No. I use drop D tunings on my JP without issues with this device. The Pitch Fork won't sound as good. At least it doesn't for me.

 

[DarthV]

Get the pin version Tremol-No. I use drop D tunings on my JP without issues with this device. The Pitch Fork won't sound as good. At least it doesn't for me.

Not sure how well the tremol-no can handle going from E to drop C, that's a pretty decent change in overall string tension. Not to mention, those strings are going to feel pretty strange at one tuning or another. Guess there may be a custom string set that could work for the OP.

 

[allenk732]

I've used the 52-10 heavy lights in the past and they work really well for d standard and drop c

 

[Rachmaninoff]

You can just use a few pieces of wood to block the trem, and then it will be as solid as a hard tail!

This.

 

[Hiza22]

Stupid question maybe, but anyone try the digitech Drop or the pitch fork? I heard the lag is still a bit too much to really be usefull...

I have a Whammy DT (the right-hand side of this pedal is the droptune you're talking about) and two guitars:

- a JP6 in drop D
- a JP7 in standard tuning

I'm using the DT on a regular basis to drop by 1/2 or 1 step. For this, I didn't notice any lag whatsoever while playing things like Symphony X, Versailles or Dream Theater. The tone is preserved enough that I don't hear any alteration, and the pedal works for single notes as well as full chords (that last point is important... I tested other devices like the Morpheus or the droptune function of a Pod HD, both did a very bad job with full chords).

I played with lower settings, but don't have any serious, long term experience with them. It sounded fine, but a little on the artificial side when I went lower than 2 steps.

As for the first question in this thread, I had to make that kind of settings recently (on the JP7 because I just bought it second-hand, on the JP6 in order to get it to drop D) and it was my first time. It was surprisingly easy, it just requires some patience because you're playing with several settings that more or less depend on each other, so it's trial and errors as another poster said. Those settings are:

1) Two screws inside the back of the guitars. Alternate between tuning the guitar and acting on those screws until the bridge is parallel to the body AND the guitar is in tune.

2) The truss rod. If you're making large changes, or if your guitar isn't properly setup, you may end up with too low or too high action. If that happens, loosen the strings a bit, give a 1/4 of a turn on the truss rod and let the guitar rest for the night. Be delicate with that, never overdo it.

3) When the bridge is horizontal and the truss rod to your liking, check the intonation with the screws at the bottom of the bridge. This is a small setting that doesn't affect the previous two.

All in all, with the JP6, going in drop D took me less that 15 minutes and I didn't even change the string gauge. On the JP7, where I had to go over everything and the previous owner seemingly used *very* light string gauge (the bridge was at 30° when I installed 10-56 strings), I took me two hours, plus the time for the truss rod to settle.