Help! JP13 Bridge not adjusted after restringing

[erickpeniche]

Hi everyone, this is my first post. My name is Erick and I own a MM JP13 6 string. I have almost 1 year with this guitar and this is the first time I change all the strings with this guitar. I went and blocked the bridge before removing all the strings, then performed a complete cleaning with a maintenance kit and proceeded to put new strings back. I kept the original gauges of the strings. I use the Ernie Ball RPS Slinkys as seen in the picture. After tuning the guitar my bridged is not adjusted anymore. Please refer to the picture to see how it is after tuning the new strings. Am I doing something wrong? I thought that if I use the same string gauges, the bridge tension should remain the same. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

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[DrKev]

Welcome to the forum!

Physics can't lie - if you didn't change anything else on the guitar, and you are tuned to the same pitch as before, the new string gauge must be different (lighter strings were on there before).

Easy to fix...

1) Detune the strings part way (not necessary to detune completely).
2) Tighten the two big screws in the back of the guitar.
3) Retune the strings.
4) Check if the bridge is level with the guitar top when correctly tuned.

Repeat 1 - 4 as necessary. It may take a little time but be patient. Make sure you use the correct size screw driver for the job.

If when you are done the action feels a little high, you may need to tighten the truss rod a little.

 

[fbecir]

Hello Erick

The factory strings are indeed 10-46 (JP13 | Guitars | Ernie Ball Music Man) but if you bought the guitar second hand, the previous owner has certainly changed the setup and put lighter strings (9-46 or 9-42).
Do what Kevin told you, he knows the job !
Good luck and take your time

 

[erickpeniche]

Welcome to the forum!

Physics can't lie - if you didn't change anything else on the guitar, and you are tuned to the same pitch as before, the new string gauge must be different (lighter strings were on there before).

Easy to fix...

1) Detune the strings part way (not necessary to detune completely).
2) Tighten the two big screws in the back of the guitar.
3) Retune the strings.
4) Check if the bridge is level with the guitar top when correctly tuned.

Repeat 1 - 4 as necessary. It may take a little time but be patient. Make sure you use the correct size screw driver for the job.

If when you are done the action feels a little high, you may need to tighten the truss rod a little.

Thanks for the instructions Kevin! I've tried this for several hours and I just gave up for today... Im starting to worry. Maybe there is something I missed or I did wrong, maybe I cut the strings too short or I dont know. Here is some extra info:

I bought the guitar new at Guitar Center. So I guess it came with factory strings (10 - 46). I've always used standard tuning (EADGBE).

Here is a picture of the screws before starting to tightening them:

Another view:

Theres no much room to tighten the screws, so I tried it by tightening both of the screws 2 full turns (I put a mark with a sharpie in both screws so I can know when a full turn is over).
And here is the view after tightening the screws 2 full turns:

And after tuning the strings, the bridge looks like this:

I've double checked that I put the correct strings in the right order, it has happened before that I messed up... but not this time. Any other advice?

Thanks



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[DrKev]

Clearly you have almost no more room to tighten the claw screws as the claw is almost all the way back. The only way to get more pull is to add another spring.

Of course if you like the way the guitar plays and feels now, you could leave it. The Luke guitar is set at the factory to float with the bridge angled just like your is now.

 

[tekwerk]

Add a third spring in the middle. Move the two outside springs to the outside teeth of the term claw. My guess is that the guitar had 9's on it. De-tune the guitar. Add the third spring(should be in the envelope in the case) and then loosen the term claw a bit. Re-tune and start again. I know it can be a pain, but once you get it locked in it will be fine.
Maddi

 

[Rick C]

Happy New Year folks; I'm a bit late joining in. I am surprised to see that the middle spring is missing with stock string sizes and agree that adding the extra spring should make all the difference. I also strongly suspect that the strings on the guitar were lighter than the ones you replaced them with; this is the only explanation for the extreme forward motion of the bridge.

I can guarantee you that the extreme forward position will have a significant impact on action; when you add a spring and tweak the claw screws to flatten the bridge the action will drop a lot.

As Maddi and DrKev have stated, you must be patient; this can't be stressed enough; the floating tremolo makes all the difference. It took over a week for my Majesty to get happy when I went with lighter strings (Regular Slinky to Extra) and removed the middle spring; I just left the rear cover off for a while as I had to make tweaks to the truss rod, the saddle screws and the claw screws multiple times to get the guitar to settle down. I found that just dropping a single string's saddle for better action could result in enough of a drop in overall tension that the other strings would go out of tune and the bridge would pull back just a little. This requires multiple tweaks at a time and patience.

A constant room temperature also helps; I leave my Majesty to condition to room temperature when I move it from cooler to warmer rooms in the house. When it's cold it buzzes!

Floating bridges are super sensitive; on my guitar I can't simply drop the bottom E to D without having to retune the other strings. Also, and you may have found this already, simply tuning from the bottom to the top as with a "normal" guitar doesn't always work; by the time you've got a happy top E the extra tension has dropped the lower strings. When I tune-up I bounce around the 6 strings almost at random, deliberately tuning the first strings I do high, knowing that they will drop. Owners of 12 string guitars are very familiar with this procedure.

One more thing, I would not leave the bridge like it is. I do not know this for a fact, but I have to wonder if the stresses around the contact points with the posts is affected when the bridge is pulled this far forward. There was an earlier thread, a month or two ago, showing a bridge that was deformed at the post contact point.

Good luck!