Help! Silo Maintenance and loss of sustain

[Siddius]

Long time, no post.


2 things:

My guitar tech was supposed to have tightened the vibrato springs to the point where it was essentially a hard tail with dipping capabilities. It does sit on the body, but it rises just a little bit when I bend- THE WHOLE REASON I WANTED IT LYING ON THE BODY!!! It has been too long to take it back to him.
So, will the intonation or anything go out of whack if I screw in the plate in the back? Is there a better way to tighten the tension? I am already in recording mode, so I don't want to do anything that isn't a relatively quick fix.

Secondly (and more importantly), I've lost a good amount of sustain on my Silo. It doesn't seem as though it has lost any sustain unplugged, so I am wondering if it might be in the electronics. Anyone have any ideas? Non electronic tips for increasing sustain are also appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[DrKev]

My guitar tech was supposed to have tightened the vibrato springs to the point where it was essentially a hard tail with dipping capabilities. It does sit on the body, but it rises just a little bit when I bend- THE WHOLE REASON I WANTED IT LYING ON THE BODY!!! It has been too long to take it back to him.
So, will the intonation or anything go out of whack if I screw in the plate in the back? Is there a better way to tighten the tension? I am already in recording mode, so I don't want to do anything that isn't a relatively quick fix.

Just tighten the spring claw screws until it doesn't move when you bend. It's dead easy, nothing can go wrong or out of whack when the bridge is already sitting on the guitar top when you don't bend.

Secondly (and more importantly), I've lost a good amount of sustain on my Silo. It doesn't seem as though it has lost any sustain unplugged, so I am wondering if it might be in the electronics. Anyone have any ideas? Non electronic tips for increasing sustain are also appreciated.

Strings are strings and pickups are just a type of simple microphone. The electronics are basic and cannot effect sustain on their own. With compression and/or distortion we can add sustain but no change to the electronics in a guitar can take it away. Maybe the pickups are lower than before and your output has dropped a little which your ears are interpreting as a drop in sustain through an OD pedal or amp distortion? Grab an appropriate size screwdriver and find out! If your bridge was floating before changing to hard tail can make a change to the tone, although generally people report more sustain, not less when hard-tailing a trem. But honestly, if your sustain is unchanged acoustically, I see no reason why it would be changed plugged-in unless you have also changed something else in your amp/effects chain.

 

[beej]

One thing I've always done to block a trem is to wedge/tape a piece of wood inside the cavity, between the trem and the wall. Easy to do/undo.

 

[Siddius]

Thanks Dr. Kev! I'll mess around with pickup height, but I don't really run any OD pedals and I run through a Kemper, so the amp has been 100% consistent. I thought that I might have heard that some aspect of the electronics could have caused a drop of output (pretty close to sustain), so I was wondering if there was anything small in the electronics to try before I potentially swap pickups.

 

[Gio_Force_One]

One thing I've always done to block a trem is to wedge/tape a piece of wood inside the cavity, between the trem and the wall. Easy to do/undo.

I'm not a big fan of floating trems and in my morse with the the Floyd i had a piece of wood put in that they use spray adhesive to keep in and he said in an just knock it out if I want to change it back. The sustain I thought was Better when the piece of wood was added.

 

[Flash Gordon]

If you have a floating trem and it is pulled back all the way, your strings are probably no longer resting in the saddles properly because the trem is at the wrong angle. The floating Floyd on a silo is designed to sit level with the body deck.

If this is the case, you need to level your trem out and block it from the back cavity like mentioned above, or order one of these: Tremol-No™. It will work on Floyd or standard trems.

 

[Eilif]

I'm not sure this is the case. The tremelo on a Silhouette does not float*, but the one on a Luke does, and aren't they the same tremelo bridge?

*I mean as it comes from the factory. It can be set up to float.

If you have a floating trem and it is pulled back all the way, your strings are probably no longer resting in the saddles properly because the trem is at the wrong angle.

 

[DrKev]

Yes, the Luke is the same MM vintage bridge as all the others, and it functions perfectly, floated or not. The string tension and angles involved are more than enough the ensure the strings are firmly seated on the saddle whether the bridge is floated or not.

 

[Flash Gordon]

I'm not sure this is the case. The tremelo on a Silhouette does not float*, but the one on a Luke does, and aren't they the same tremelo bridge?

*I mean as it comes from the factory. It can be set up to float.

My comment was attached to A thought noted in my comment that this could be a Floyd trem guitar. I'm still under the impression that this could be a standard silo (not a silo special), which means he could have a floating Floyd Rose tremolo. The original poster did not specifically point out which type of bridge we are talking about in the post ; nor is it found in his signature . Therefore my comment is appropriate for the information provided from the original poster thus far.

Siddius, can you advise what type of bridge is on your guitar ?

 

[Dead-Eye]

A 2014 Silhouette will have the vintage trem from the factory.

 

[Flash Gordon]

A 2014 Silhouette will have the vintage trem from the factory.

So there are no silhouettes with floyds from the factory in 2014?

 

[Dead-Eye]

I think that special run of HH Floyd Silos was over by 2014, and as a regular production model there haven't been any in a long time.

 

[DrKev]

Yes, it was a very short run. As for regular production, that has to be almost 20 years. I'm thinking '96 or '97. Any Silhouette experts out there to confirm?

 

[Flash Gordon]

Yes, it was a very short run. As for regular production, that has to be almost 20 years. I'm thinking '96 or '97. Any Silhouette experts out there to confirm?

Well then perhaps my '96 silo in Trans Teal with a floating Floyd is more rare than I thought! I had assumed it was an ongoing order-able option. Thanks for bringing this to my attention/apologies for my lack of 411.