Help! Having some tuning and whammy bar issues with JPX

[Mephistofes]

When I first got the guitar, I changed the set of 10 strings to 0.9's and so I had to adjust the bridge from the back of the guitar. The bridge is now in level with the guitar, but the action was too low. Strings from low E to G were buzzing, especially E and A. My teacher told me to tune the strings up so the action would be higher. The low E was and is still buzzing a little bit, no biggie, but it doesn't hold the tuning very well. Some of the strings start to get lower or higher in tune and the next string follows the next string. When you're playing alone, you sometimes don't hear that it's not in tune, because all of the strings are starting to get up or down. I don't know what will do. Should I tune all the strings down to the normal when the strings start buzzing and then adjust the saddles higher so they wouldn't buzz? I really wouldn't like to mess up the setup on this guitar or anything though.

Also, I noticed that when I adjusted the guitar and you're moving the whammy bar up and down, it hits the cavity or something, which causes some noice and kind of annoys me. The whammy also moves slower now than with the 10's. That's not a big problem however.
The guitar was setup prefectly with the 10's and I'd really like to get that same setup with 0.9's, because I don't enjoy playing with 10's.

 

[andynpeters]

I guess you know the answer.....take it to a proper man & pay him his money to set it up properly. As you say, it was perfect before.......reminds me of the time I tried to fix my own plumbing.............

 

[Mephistofes]

I guess you know the answer.....take it to a proper man & pay him his money to set it up properly. As you say, it was perfect before.......reminds me of the time I tried to fix my own plumbing.............

I'd do that of course, but I live in a small town and I don't know any guitar techs nearby. At the moment I'm thinking about putting 10's back in the guitar. I'll wait for more responses though.

 

[shredhed]

I play .009 strings but on my JP6 I'm leaving it setup with .010s.

I've been setting guitars up for years but I figure, it's already perfect so why change.

 

[the24thfret]

Unfortunately, there is basically nothing any of us on the forum can do for you. We'd need to see the guitar in person to diagnose your setup issues. I also recommend finding a tech or at least a friend who knows how to setup guitars really well.

 

[Dizzy]

Mate, from reading your posts, it's obvious neither you or your guitar teacher have the faintest understanding of how a guitar setup works - both his and your suggestions are cringeable / embarrassing.

Save your guitar, and save yourself a sh!tload of frustration : get your axe out of that little town ASAP to someone who knows what they're doing.

Sorry to be blunt, but it has to be said.

 

[the24thfret]

Mate, neither you or your guitar teacher have the faintest understanding of how a guitar setup works - both his and your suggestions are embarrassing.

Save your guitar, and save yourself a sh!tload of frustration : get your axe out of that little town ASAP to someone who knows what they're doing.

Sorry to be blunt, but it has to be said.

Aussies are blunt. I prefer to use a bit softer language

 

[Mephistofes]

Mate, from reading your posts, it's obvious neither you or your guitar teacher have the faintest understanding of how a guitar setup works - both his and your suggestions are cringeable / embarrassing.

Save your guitar, and save yourself a sh!tload of frustration : get your axe out of that little town ASAP to someone who knows what they're doing.

Sorry to be blunt, but it has to be said.

Well, you aren't helping a lot. I have only played hardtail guitars until now, so I had no idea how the floating trem works. It's definitely me who doesn't know much about these type of technical things. I'm still very young so I've still got lots of things to learn.

Shredhead: You are correct, but I don't like playing with 10's as much as with 0.9's because my hands are very sensitive. But I might just put a set of 10's back on it to save the trouble.

 

[the24thfret]

Again, I recommend finding someone who knows what they're doing. Can't be too hard, even in a small town. A guitar buddy. You'll inevitably have issues in the future as you continue to play, so it can only help to have someone to work with.

 

[John C]

Well, you aren't helping a lot. I have only played hardtail guitars until now, so I had no idea how the floating trem works. It's definitely me who doesn't know much about these type of technical things. I'm still very young so I've still got lots of things to learn.

Shredhead: You are correct, but I don't like playing with 10's as much as with 0.9's because my hands are very sensitive. But I might just put a set of 10's back on it to save the trouble.

Mephistofes - if I'm reading your first post correctly when you put the .009s on the guitar the bridge went out of alignment. You then adjusted the springs to put the bridge back into alignment, but now your action and tuning is off.

I hate to tell you this but since you did make adjustments to the trem springs just putting .010s back on the guitar won't bring it back to where it was because you made changes. I would suggest trying to find the best tech close to you - preferably one with experience working on EBMMs - and have them set it up properly for you with .009s.

In all honesty I've never been able to get with floating trems; like you I learned on fixed bridge guitars. While I like the sound and feel of a guitar with a trem all of mine have always been set to only drop pitch (like the factory set-up on my Silo Special) - which works for how I use the trem.

 

[MikeVt]

Or call EBMM customer service. I got stuck moving to 9s on my first JP and ended up sending it out to EBMM. They did a bang up job. Mind you, they'll likely charge you for it since it's not warranty work, but you'll know it was done right.

Mike

 

[Mephistofes]

Thanks guys, but I live all the way in Europe, Finland so sending it out to EBMM is out of the question. I think I'm going to have to take it to my teacher to see it or ask him where is the nearest tech around here. Since floating trems aren't common, it might be hard to find someone to fix it.

John: If I adjusted the springs and the strings back to how they were, isn't it possible to get it back to how it was with 0.10's? It would be very easy to do that if that would work.

 

[GWDavis28]

Dude check here. Ernie Ball Music Man Media Gallery

Drew talks about making adjustments to the truss rod. Maybe it will help. Drew is an engineer @ EBMM.

Glenn |B)

 

[jamminjim]

maybe try this place/info



Finland
F-Musiikki Oy
Kaisaniemenkatu 7
00100 Helsinki,
Finland
Tel +358 9 618511
www-f-musiikki.fi
[email protected]

 

[Mephistofes]

Dude check here. Ernie Ball Music Man Media Gallery

Drew talks about making adjustments to the truss rod. Maybe it will help. Drew is an engineer @ EBMM.

Glenn |B)

Thanks a lot. Definitely the most helpful post yet. I believe this is the problem. The truss rod is setup for 0.10's at the moment and when I changed to 0.09's, it went down. I wasn't quite sure what the truss rod was before. Now I know for sure. I'll give it a try.

EDIT: And I also think that the whammy bar problem might be solved by lowering the bridge a bit by turning the springs behind the guitar.

 

[azazael]

You dont have a music shop nearby? Are you kidding me?

Get your guitar to someone before you and you're idiot of a guitar teacher do some serious damage to it.

Sorry to be so blunt but i just dont want to hear the guitar has been damaged.
Its a nice guitar even if i think the threads about it here have jumped the shark.


Please for the love of God, Allah, Buddha, Vishnu or whoever you hold dear get it to someone who knows what they are doing. It really will not be that difficult and I am pretty sure there will be guitar shops there with someone who at least knows what they are doing.

Also based on what you said... find a new guitar teacher.

 

[John C]

If you remember how it was adjusted you could get it back as close to original as possible. Looks like others have pointed you to the EBMM videos.

You said you were in Finland; maybe EBMM's Customer Service could point you to the closest tech to you who has done work on EBMM guitars.

Good luck!

 

[Mephistofes]

I tweaked the truss rod and tuned the guitar the way it's supposed to be now. The action feels very nice and there's almost no buzzing at all. It should hold the tuning now. I also lowered the bridge. It didn't cure much of the noise that it made when pulling it up and down, but at least it is faster to move now when it doesn't have as much tension on it. The cavity noise doesn't bother me when I'm playing through an amp though. I'll find someone who can fix that as well, not me however, haha. The people that acted negatively against my teacher, well, you don't know how's he like and you really don't expect just anyone to know much about floating trems. He's a very good player and supportive at all times. Mistakes happen for everyone.

 

[azazael]

I tweaked the truss rod and tuned the guitar the way it's supposed to be now. The action feels very nice and there's almost no buzzing at all. It should hold the tuning now. I also lowered the bridge. It didn't cure much of the noise that it made when pulling it up and down, but at least it is faster to move now when it doesn't have as much tension on it. The cavity noise doesn't bother me when I'm playing through an amp though. I'll find someone who can fix that as well, not me however, haha. The people that acted negatively against my teacher, well, you don't know how's he like and you really don't expect just anyone to know much about floating trems. He's a very good player and supportive at all times. Mistakes happen for everyone.

You are talking like floating trems are a new thing...

 

[Mephistofes]

You are talking like floating trems are a new thing...

I'm saying that not everyone has had experience with them. They are not very commonly used either.