Majesty 6 Stability

[mikeller]

Sometimes new guitars need played a bit for things to loosen up. Not to mention setups can change a bit when an instrument is shipped from factory to retailer.

I have never had a bit of trouble with my Majesty returning in tune. No tremolo is ever going to return every string to proper pitch every time, but they can certainly be adjusted to return very very close.

Myself, like I think I mentioned here earlier - I put a very small drop of Tri-Flow in every nut slot, and on each saddle with every string change, then work the trem a bit and dab off any (if any) excess. I also periodically drop a small drop on the trem posts. If I have a "catchy" nut slot, then a little Big Bends Nut Sauce.

 

[Rick C]

I also do all my own set-up; it's not rocket science. I dropped from the Regular Slinkies it came with to Extra Slinky because that's what I'm used to and the fun began. It took several weeks for the guitar to settle down. I had to remove one spring, adjust the claw and back off the truss rod to end up with a flat neck without buzz. I have not suffered from the out of tune problem described above; this is my first floating tremolo guitar and I was very surprised how good it was going back in tune after a big dive.

 

[SeamusAM]

I too had a lot of tuning instability (esp. the dang G...always a problem it seems) and I put some of the Big Bends Nut Sauce on just the nut and it really helped.

In the end though, I ended up "blocking" the trem on my Majesty as I'm just not really a "trem user" anyway...for the rare times I need to "dive bomb" for recording or something, I have an Ibanez Prestige with one of their Lo-Pro trems that was given to me awhile back that I can use. (Though technically I could still dive on the Majesty...it's just blocked from pulling up).

I will say though that after "blocking" the Majesty's trem, the thing stays in tune better than any other guitar in my arsenal!

Hey, just wondering, how did you go about blocking the tremolo? I'm thinking about blocking mine, as I don't have much use for the tremolo and it's more of a bother to me, but don't know which method would be best.

 

[JamieCrain]

Blocking the trem is an extreme solution for this problem. Why have a majesty and not use the trem? It's an integral part of the instrument, you'd be better off getting a guitar with a fixed bridge.

If the problem persists with the G string, check the other strings for problems. Tuning stability often caused by other strings affecting the tension. Also if you want to rule out nut and machine head issues, try clamping all strings near the nut (to simulate locking nut) and diving the trem. If it returns on tune, you know the problem is up the headstock end and vice versa.

 

[Konstantin]

damage to the plate in contact with the ground screws

 

[DrKev]

Ouch! That's some serious wear and tear.

Something like that will of course affect the bridges ability to smoothly return to the correct position. That will affect *all* strings, not just the G-string. Of course all the strings won't go out of tune the same amount. On standard 9-42 electric guitar sets with unwound G-strings, the the low-E string will go out of tune most, followed by the A and G strings and then the D and B strings and the high-E least. (You can check and see what happens on your own guitar with an accurate tuner by tuning up and then detuning a little via the trem or springs, and note which strings do what). If somebody has a tuning issue and only one string goes out of tune, my guess is that it's not due to this.

 

[Etudica]

Wow, yeah that needs to be addressed. You say you haven't been rough on the trem while you've owned it... was it new or used? Also curious what the posts look like. I'd suspect they need replacing too.

 

[Konstantin]

I am the first owner and I do not often use the tremolo. It is strange, but the tremolo works correctly. The only remark is that there is no flutter effect.

I'll try to order a new tremolo's plate and new screws.

 

[DrKev]

Konstantin, you bought the guitar six months ago? Where do you live and where did you buy the guitar? This is quite possibly a warranty repair issue.

 

[Konstantin]

I live in Ukraine. My brother bought guitar at the shop and send me it when he was in the USA last year.
I think it was a Yandas Music & Pro Audio but I'm not sure

 

[DrKev]

OK. A warranty from a US store is only valid within the United States. That means you may probably have to return the guitar to the store at your own cost to have them fix this. Ask your brother where he bought it.

Options:

Contact the store and ask them what your options are.
Contact the Ukrainian distributors and see of they can be of assistance - Музыкальные инструменты YAMAHA, звуковое и световое оборудование…
Contact Music Man customer service directly - Contact | Ernie Ball Music Man

 

[Rick C]

Konstantin: the pictures show most abnormal wear. Is it possible that your tremolo was set-up so that it was leaning far back into the body instead of flat? It's the only way I can conceive that using the trem to drop could cause such extreme stress around the trem pole slots. It may also explain your lack of stability. My Majesty is now about 4 months old and other than the worn-off black chrome, the tremolo components are as new. Of note, this is my first floating trem and I don't use it a lot (yet!).

As stated in an earlier post in this thread, a simple change of strings took a lot of tweaking and time to get the guitar to settle down. Getting the trem to sit flat with the body is critical.

 

[Rick C]

A response to this subject in response to a private message: No YouTube vids or other sources used for my set-ups (I'm sure there's a lot of good stuff out there)

In summary, my brand new Majesty 6 arrived about 3.5 months ago fitted with relatively heavy EB Regular Slinky strings. Out of the box, the trem was flat to the body, intonation was perfect, neck was flat (no relief at all), action was OK but a little higher than I'm used to and the guitar played perfectly. The strings were just a little too heavy for me. My main squeeze for the last 27 years has been a Les Paul Custom that has always had Super Slinkies or even lighter on it; the Majesty was simply harder for me to play my way.

About 8 weeks ago, I put on a set of Super Slinkies. I started by replacing the strings to see what would happen to the neck and tremolo. At regular tuning, the tremolo was leaning backwards in a bad way due to the drop in string tension; enough to warrant removing the middle of the three springs installed and making a small adjustment of the claw to get the trem flat again to the body.

I re-tuned the strings but about one tone higher than normal pitch (just a little more stretching for the new strings) and left the guitar for several hours for the neck to settle with the back plate still off in case any further trem adjustments were required. I plugged in, re-tuned to regular pitch and started with the action adjustment. The neck was still flat; no relief at all. This surprised me. I tweaked the saddle heights to drop the action to my preference but there was some buzzing; most of it was at the head end on the second fret. The neck was too flat; I loosened the truss rod about a quarter of a turn and immediately the buzzing was better so I dropped the saddles further to my action happy place and the buzzing came back. Another quarter turn loose on the truss rod fixed this. The guitar played great.

I went away for a week and left the guitar standing in its case. When I plugged it in, the buzzing had returned just a little up at the second fret (with the string pushed on the first fret, the second buzzed). About an eighth of a turn on the truss rod fixed this.

The neck has now got a microscopic forward relief; just enough to play low action without buzzing on light strings; set-up is now pretty much identical to the Les Paul. With a capo on the 12th fret all six strings are almost flat to the neck back to the head, with the tiniest of a gap above the frets.

I hope this is helpful. Remember to make moves one at a time and keep them relatively small. Also, sometimes leave the guitar for an hour or so to settle. The number of trem springs used and the adjustment of the claw screws are the tools for setting the trem flat with the body. An additional 7th string just makes it a little harder to set right.

 

[fstrat76]

Just an update: The same issue is still occurring, everything perfectly balanced, set to factory specs, used triflow, everything. A couple techs did look briefly at the issue and the problem appears to be at the saddle. The saddle replacement process is a little more involved and I have not had the time to take it in or perform myself.

Interesting note: my bridge plate looks similar to what Konstantin posted. Like I said before, I rarely used my trem also until recently but noticed wear at the pivot points, albeit not as bad as what Konstantin posted. Plus, I am only having the G and E go out of tune. We are pretty sure the issue is at the saddle. I also noticed that the saddle, it is intonated properly, looks offset going into the trem block, thus creating two possible contact or bind points, one on the saddle itself, and the other on the edge of trem block hole.

Anyway, more tweaking to come, but I think the saddle replacement will need to take place.

 

[flaze]

I had the same issue of the Konstantin, but with my JP12 Sledge. Just solved when I bought a new bridge. Now it's a very stable bridge with a ultra high precision.