Question trem spring muting

[sanderhermans]

What is a good way to mute the springs of your tremolo? I find that both in my al and my luke the springs tend to ring out for a significant period of time. Especially noticeable when doing fast palm muting and stuff like that. Both trems are set up floating (luke style)
The thing is that i used to be all about stop tails untill i tried my first ebmm trem guitar. And now i love to have a trem. The musicman trems are just so stable and they seem to make the guitar even more resonant. Only down side to me is the ringing the springs do...

 

[BrickGlass]

Noiseless springs from fu-tone.com. The fu stands for Floyd Upgrades and not the other fu, haha. They are amazing and work perfectly. I hate the problem you describe and have had it on a couple of guitars. Not anymore. Be aware you may need to file off the coating where the spring contacts the bridge block and the screw claw though. I had all kinds of weird grounding problems before I learned that trick. Multiple guitars were humming really loud and it was because the coating on the springs messes up the ground somehow. Easy to fix in about 30 seconds with a file. Great investment and it will solve your problem without stuffing cotton or foam inside the springs, which is another option.

 

[sanderhermans]

Ordered a few sets. They are pretty cheap. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Monster212]

another trick is get some cotton balls and put them put them under the springs and on the sides.... works good..

 

[xjbebop]

I've used a piece of soft foam stuffed under them. works great, doesn't effect anything else and costs nothing...

 

[sanderhermans]

I know about the foam tricks and have used this myself in the past but i wouldnt want annything to get stuck in between the springs and affect tuning stability.... i dont know if it will but for the few bucks this costs, ill go with the safest option....

 

[Tollywood]

I love those springs...I put them on my ebmm trems as well as my floyd roses. Here is what they look like:

 

[dt89]

This is the cheapest and most efficient way I've seen. I muted all 5 of my EBMM guitars for only a couple bucks.

 

[ksandvik]

Steve Vai just pushed tissue paper into the springs...

 

[MJM]

I've done it to all of my guitars as well.. a little cotton inside the spring. To be honest, I'm completely shocked that there isn't an engineering solution that guitar builders haven't incorporated into the design.. Yes, clearly I know playing style varies greatly between players, but.. it certainly has been an issue for me forever.. Anyway, like others have said, lots of ways to quiet them..

 

[steevo]

Steve Vai just pushed tissue paper into the springs...

Ive done this, if its good enough for steve vai then its good enough for me. Works a treat

 

[Rachmaninoff]

This is the cheapest and most efficient way I've seen. I muted all 5 of my EBMM guitars for only a couple bucks.

Yep, I do that on all my guitars, for years. It just works.

 

[Lou]

+1 for the tubing method

 

[Etudica]

I've used many things in the past from foam to cotton balls to heat shrink tubes, but lately I decided to try plasti-dip on some springs... works great and looks great too.

 

[luiscesaripad]

Could someone post a photo about this, please? I am really confused about how to do it.
Thank you so much!

 

[sanderhermans]

Could someone post a photo about this, please? I am really confused about how to do it.
Thank you so much!

100's of youtube examples for putting foam and such inside of the springs. Plasti dip is just a spray you put on. Foam inside the trem cavity is pretty straight foreward, just put it in there.

 

[Benji Peterson]

I've always used shoelace. Run them through the strings and cut them off at the ends. Works every time!

 

[sanderhermans]

Noiseless springs from fu-tone.com. The fu stands for Floyd Upgrades and not the other fu, haha. They are amazing and work perfectly. I hate the problem you describe and have had it on a couple of guitars. Not anymore. Be aware you may need to file off the coating where the spring contacts the bridge block and the screw claw though. I had all kinds of weird grounding problems before I learned that trick. Multiple guitars were humming really loud and it was because the coating on the springs messes up the ground somehow. Easy to fix in about 30 seconds with a file. Great investment and it will solve your problem without stuffing cotton or foam inside the springs, which is another option.

Thanks again for the great tip. Fitted the new springs and they work great. And altough all of the"diy" suggestions here should work fine, these replacement springs work great and look more alegant and dureable than using foam and such.

 

[BrickGlass]

Yeah, I've done the foam, cotton, tubing methods. Did that for years and years. Noiseless Springs from Floyd Upgrades are the winner.

 

[Bob123]

Rubber tubing doesnt work very well.


I own "noiseless springs". I also figured you could simply heat shrink your springs. Coming from someone that has access to both, I can tell you both methods are completely the same noise reduction (almost zero... even when fluttering). All my springs get heat shrink now, and there's never been a reason for me to buy noiseless springs any more.