Whammy Bar Woes

[ace]

Long story short-- I just bought a LUKE guitar and it is a wonderful instrument. but it seems everytime I use the whammy bar my guitar will not stay in tune. My past guitars have had locking trems:whereas, this one has locking tuners. Please could anyone help with my whammy woes?



Thanks in Advance!



ACE

 

[bluebullet]

if you are wrapping the strings around the tuners like normal tuners that might be the problem with locking tuners you dont wrap them just pull them through and lock it down. also when you change strings take a pencil and rub the tip in the nut slots to get some graphite in there to help the strings slide. hope this helps and if it doesnt someone who knows more than me will be along shortly.

 

[Raz]

Long story short-- I just bought a LUKE guitar and it is a wonderful instrument. but it seems everytime I use the whammy bar my guitar will not stay in tune. My past guitars have had locking trems:whereas, this one has locking tuners. Please could anyone help with my whammy woes?



Thanks in Advance!



ACE

Not trying to sound smart or anything, but are the tuners locked?

 

[bluebullet]

i didnt think about that one

 

[brentrocks]

i used to have a strat w/ the LSR/locking tuners...and when i tried to use the trem on that guitar, after playing my floyd guitars.....it would always got out of tune.

later i found out that those systems would not take the abuse that a floyd would and stay in tune!! it is more of a vabrato (spell?) than a whammy bar.

 

[slukather]

Long story short-- I just bought a LUKE guitar and it is a wonderful instrument. but it seems everytime I use the whammy bar my guitar will not stay in tune. My past guitars have had locking trems:whereas, this one has locking tuners. Please could anyone help with my whammy woes?



Thanks in Advance!



ACE

Thats strange, l can beat my whammy bar around like a 2 buck hooker and it doesn't go out of tune. I've heard rubbing pencil into the nut works (as bluebullet suggested). Try stretching your string when you change them.

Scott.

 

[jazzbo jim]

My experience and that of several respected players and techs have been that unless it's a Floyd, it won't come back bang on in tune.
You can get it CLOSE, but not bang on.
TRY:
Lock the tuners tight!
Use graphite of teflon radio shack sells a precision lube applicator filled with teflon synthetic lube.
Stretch out the srings.
Check for ANY burrs, obstructions, foreign matter etc at the pivot points
Check the the saddles to make sure they do not shimmy or shift (ie no play) in the depressed position.
A little lube on saddle (where string breaks over) and trem block (where ball end of string bears against sustain block)
Try to identify which string(s) is/are coming up (invariably) sharp and give it a little tug or bend after extreme whammies to "pull" it back into tune.
or
Install a Floyd..