Floating tremolo installation for a guitar with a glued in neck joint

Generally speaking, it is a bit harder to install a floating tremolo bridge in a guitar with a set or a guitar with a set-in neck as opposed to the conventional bolt-on neck. If the initial installation is done correctly then there should be no little problems popping up after the installation is complete to annoy you.When installing the tremolo you will have to consider whether the existing “neck angle”, or the angle of the neck to the guitar when viewing the guitar side-on, is sufficient to work with the height of the new tremolo bridge if it is installed (a good working relationship between the bridge height and the neck angle ensures the strings are close to the finger board). Important aspects of guitar set-up that should be considered are whether the bridge will allow good action and sufficient tremolo downpull while allowing adjustment in future.A common occurrence when a tremolo bridge is mounted on a recessed or set-necked guitar is that the tremolo block must be filed down so that it does not stick out of the back of the guitar body. The spring holes will then need to be reworked with a drill at the correct angles to keep the springs.With a bolt-on neck these problems can generally be overcome quite quickly by shimming the neck of the guitar. With set-neck instrument the problems should be able to be overcome easily by a well- experienced repairman.

The difference between a regular tremolo and a trans tremolo

Developed by Ned Steinberger in 1984, the Trans Trem differs to a normal tremolo device in that it shifts the pitch of the note played by each string upwards or downwards by the same amount, allowing the harmony between the strings to be preserved. This contrasts to the normal tremolo effect where harmony is lost as the notes played by each string change pitch by a different extent. For example, the low E string will change pitch markedly more than the high E string will. Another difference between the Trans Trem
and normal tremolo systems is that the Trans Trem has the ability to change string pits by set semitone intervals; in effect capo-ing the guitar several frets up or down depending on the position of the bar.

By cwrguitars | November 7, 2011

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