Help! Having some tuning and whammy bar issues with JPX

[straycat113]

Hey your teacher is probably a hell of a player but that does not make him one hell of a tech. You stated you mostly play stoptails so I really would not want to start learning how to do a set up on such an expensive instrument. I am sure even if you are in a one horse town there is a qualified tech. My JP is the only guitar I own that floats because I love the Trem and can keep my hand on the bridge with pressure and not have the notes go flat or sharp.lol But if you enjoy 9s just have it set up by a pro so you are totally satisfied and know everything is right. Then go buy a $50 beater on ebay and learn how to work on guitars if you so choose.

 

[Mephistofes]

Hey your teacher is probably a hell of a player but that does not make him one hell of a tech. You stated you mostly play stoptails so I really would not want to start learning how to do a set up on such an expensive instrument. I am sure even if you are in a one horse town there is a qualified tech. My JP is the only guitar I own that floats because I love the Trem and can keep my hand on the bridge with pressure and not have the notes go flat or sharp.lol But if you enjoy 9s just have it set up by a pro so you are totally satisfied and know everything is right. Then go buy a $50 beater on ebay and learn how to work on guitars if you so choose.

If you read my first post on this page, you'd know that I already set it up how I like it and it's staying in tune very nicely so far. So of course I want to be able to adjust the guitar so that I'm comfortable with it. If I would ignore it, the problems wouldn't go away. I'm really glad that I didn't have to put 0.10's back on the guitar. A big thanks goes to Glen as he linked that video for me.

 

[CHill]

OK new skool kids. Before there was the internet, there were libraries that contained things called bks...boks...books and in these books contained usable information on doing things, such as, guitar set up and maintenance. Since we now live in the gimme now era, here are some ideas:
- Youtube.com "guitar tremolo set up", "guitar set up", "guitar string change"
- eHow.com "guitar tremolo set up", "guitar set up", "guitar string change"
- Google.com "guitar tremolo set up", "guitar set up", "guitar string change"

Have a little patience, learn something new about setting up your guitar, get some basic tools and change those strings. Good luck!!

 

[YtseJam77]

Haha, people on this forum would probably snub my teacher for being 'useless' - a lot of teachers just have a different approach. Teachers who know a lot about everything guitar and every single genre are pretty hard to come by, unfortunately :/

That said, I'm looking for a new teacher, and you probably should too - if you have a JPX and your teacher doesn't know about floating trems and all that, I doubt he's the right teacher for you. That is unless you like to learn stuff to broaden your knowledge of music on the guitar - which is what I (sort of have to) do - then stick with him.

 

[ProtoChicken]

Haha, people on this forum would probably snub my teacher for being 'useless' - a lot of teachers just have a different approach. Teachers who know a lot about everything guitar and every single genre are pretty hard to come by, unfortunately :/

That said, I'm looking for a new teacher, and you probably should too - if you have a JPX and your teacher doesn't know about floating trems and all that, I doubt he's the right teacher for you. That is unless you like to learn stuff to broaden your knowledge of music on the guitar - which is what I (sort of have to) do - then stick with him.

You should probably get in your time machine and tell him all that.

 

[aleclee]

My teacher told me to tune the strings up so the action would be higher.

I won't necessarily fault the guy for not understanding how to set up a guitar but I'll think less of him for giving advice when he's pretty clearly clueless.

 

[whitestrat]

They are not very commonly used either.

Really? I swear they were as common as peanut butter about 15 years ago. Heck, there was even a slightly more complicated version called a Floyd Rose or something.

Look. Floating trems are very simple to understand. Guitars are also very simple to understand. The one thing you need to remember is "Tension". There must always be a tension balance. In the case of a floating trem, the tension is controlled by 3 things: The neck, the strings, the springs. In the case of a fixed bridge, its the neck and the strings.

When you did all your preliminary adjustments, you missed out the neck tension. Because you reduced the tension in the strings by moving one gauge down, you reduced the tension on the neck. The tension in the springs was correctly adjusted from the back. But what you forgot, was to maintain the neck tension, which reduces once you drop a gauge.

That's something any guitarist who has any clue about setups should know. It's nothing to do with the bridge type.

 

[Astrofreq]

.....reminds me of the time I tried to fix my own plumbing.............

A little Kaopectate never hurts.