I wanna do no floating on my Luke

[hayman2020]

Hi Everyone,
Yes, I too love those EB MM guitars. I'm new to the forum, but I've been lurking for a while waiting for a few questions that I have to be answered. Unfortunately, I haven't seen them come up for discussion, so I registered to ask. My first question has to do with the floating trem on my Luke. It drives me nuts. If I use alot of delay, I get chorus type effects from pitch fluctuation. I know from playing other EB MM guitars that the Vintage Trem is just about the best (if not THE best) one made, but those guitars were all set up to only lower the pitch of the strings. How do I set mine up NOT to float. What do I tighten? Do I need to add springs? How are the "non-floating" trems set up at the factory. Since I'm not too familiar with "strat-type" trems, and I'm not too comfortable working on guitar "inerds," I need someone I know I can trust to tell me what to do. thank you in advance.

Regards,
Rob

 

[Raz]

Hi Everyone,
Yes, I too love those EB MM guitars. I'm new to the forum, but I've been lurking for a while waiting for a few questions that I have to be answered. Unfortunately, I haven't seen them come up for discussion, so I registered to ask. My first question has to do with the floating trem on my Luke. It drives me nuts. If I use alot of delay, I get chorus type effects from pitch fluctuation. I know from playing other EB MM guitars that the Vintage Trem is just about the best (if not THE best) one made, but those guitars were all set up to only lower the pitch of the strings. How do I set mine up NOT to float. What do I tighten? Do I need to add springs? How are the "non-floating" trems set up at the factory. Since I'm not too familiar with "strat-type" trems, and I'm not too comfortable working on guitar "inerds," I need someone I know I can trust to tell me what to do. thank you in advance.

Regards,
Rob

I thought the Luke had the 'Vintage Trem'...anyway if it does, simply de-tune or ease off the tension on your strings then tighten the screws that hold the spring claw to the body on the underside of the guitar. What I suggest is that you do this in steps, tuning and tightening...cause if you just tighten, then tune you may find that you have either over tightened the screws, or haven't tightened them enough...normally i believe these guitars leave the shop with the bridge resting on the body, or in the non-float position, however if you increased the string gauge then this will infact increase the tension on the springs and raise the bridge...Oh I forgot, if you're tightening all the way and still the bridge floats then add another spring. I also prefer the springs in the straight or parallel position over the V-shaped position.

 

[Ali]

Lukes leave the factory with the trem floating. In theory they should all leave the factory with the same set up as Mr. Lukather himself.

 

[Raz]

Lukes leave the factory with the trem floating. In theory they should all leave the factory with the same set up as Mr. Lukather himself.

OK my mistake, however I believe the rest of my tale still applies

 

[hayman2020]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I'm sorry to seem so ignorant, but my experience with guitar set-up work like this is very limited, and I think I need a little more specific help. (For some reason I have no problem tinkering with any metal parts on guitars, but I get stressed out if any wood screws are involved.) Anyway, before I open up the back of my Luke, I'd like to know exactly what I should do to tighten the trem down. More importantly, I'd like to know what I could possibly irreversibly mess up. Do I first just tighten the claw screws, and then only add a spring if this isn't good enough? How many turns does it take to make a difference? How do i know when (or if) I've "overtightened" the scews? If I "over-tighten" the screws that hold the claw to the body, what are the consequences? (Does the spring tension just get too strong for comfortable treming, or is there permanent damage possible?).
Again, thanks for the help and I apologize for being so cautious.

Rob

 

[Raz]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I'm sorry to seem so ignorant, but my experience with guitar set-up work like this is very limited, and I think I need a little more specific help. (For some reason I have no problem tinkering with any metal parts on guitars, but I get stressed out if any wood screws are involved.) Anyway, before I open up the back of my Luke, I'd like to know exactly what I should do to tighten the trem down. More importantly, I'd like to know what I could possibly irreversibly mess up. Do I first just tighten the claw screws, and then only add a spring if this isn't good enough? How many turns does it take to make a difference? How do i know when (or if) I've "overtightened" the scews? If I "over-tighten" the screws that hold the claw to the body, what are the consequences? (Does the spring tension just get too strong for comfortable treming, or is there permanent damage possible?).
Again, thanks for the help and I apologize for being so cautious.

Rob

If you're that nervous take and post some pictures of the bridge, so that we can see how much it floats and then take some pictures of the spring area so that we can see how much room there is to tighten, how many springs there are and what postition...if you can't take pictures then perhaps you can measure and describe everything for us. But there is no need to worry cause, tightening the claw screws is a relatively slow process in that it's effect on the bridge will not be instantaneous...for each full turn, the bridge will move only a little bit...so if you have an inch or so of space between the claw and the body of the guitar, then I would try and tighten away. If you are very close, then I would loosen the screws, and add a spring, but please let us know the details...

 

[yesandno]

What I did with my Luke was basically, as the other poster says, to keep tightening the claw screws and then retuning the guitar to pitch till the back of the bridge saddle plate rests against the body and then for good measure I tighten it up a tad more from there. The other thing I did that the others didn't mention was that even though the back of the bridge plate lies flat, you may find the front (the part that levers against the posts) still elevated from the body. If you want the whole plate resting on the body then you need to make fine adjustments by screwing down both posts little by little and checking how it rests on both the low E side and the high E side. You'll need to strike a balance because even the ever so slightest turn of one or the other post will affect how the bridge plate rests against the body on either side. In other words, not only will the low E side post affect how the plate rests against the body, but so will the high E side post....and vice versa.
Hope this helps.
Jon

 

[kbaim]

I have 2 of mine tightened so you can do a step and a half bend, and the bridge won't come up. And short saddle screws so the palm doesn't get chewed up when muting.

The third one has the trem blocked, so that bridge ain't going nowhere.

 

[Ali]

When I gave my Luke to a local tech to set up, he did this to it and I hated it with a passion. The whammy bar also seemed to stick out at an excessive distance from the strings as well. Had to return it to the original set up myself (I only put it in to get rid of some fret buzz )

Only downside to having it floating from my point of view is the increased need to lube the nut or it can go out of pitch on up pulls. But I do like wiggling my bar and lubricating my nuts

(Sorry, it's Keith's influence... )

 

[kbaim]

My least favorite thing about floating trem is when you wanna rest your hand on the bridge, everything goes warbly sharp.

No sound good.

 

[yesandno]

Ali, in the case of the bar being too far away from the body, what I do is bend the bar a bit. I'll put mine in a vise using a couple of small blocks of wood so as not to get teeth marks and give it a few yanks. I suppose you could do the same with a couple of vise grips.
Until recently, I always had bridges float and wasn't concerned with out of tune notes during bending. What did get my goat was the whole instrument going out of tune when I popped a string, especially now that I'm in a serious band. So now I don't float....that could change in the future.
Jon

 

[Ali]

Sorry, just couldn't do that to my Luke!!!

And I play out of tune and out of time all the time anyway...somehow I get away with it most of the time

I can see the advantage but I haven't had a string go pop in years so I guess I'm fairly easy on the guitar. Have to have those up-pulls so I can do the silly Vai stuff