Jazzmaster trem bar questions

[Wavedash]

1. What advantage does having the bar bent at an angle do?
2. How can I get my bar to stay put? right now it just swivels around loosely.

[aliendawg]

Saving it for future reference

[mackerelmint]

There are a couple ways to get the bar to stay put. But some people swear you can just push it in until it "pops" in more deeply, and that it then stays where you put it. I've had no luck at all with that, personally. Another way is to buy a staytrem. The cheap way is to put a little piece of rubber thing over the collet under the trem and then clamp it down with a tiny lil hose clamp. There's a thread somewhere on the board about doing that. It's a few years old, but worth finding.

[UlricvonCatalyst]

I believe the Kevin Shields method involves wrapping plumber's tape round the bottom of the arm before jamming it in the collet.

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

Just a personal point of view/attempt to explain.
If you bend your arm into a different angle you could bend it further, easier and without making contact to the knobs (those can be quite annoying, when you want to "wipe" the bar aside and they stand in the way).
But you probably have to take the arm off if you put it in your case/bag!

I had problems with my Japanese trem too. It wouldn't fall out, but it wouldn't stay in place either.
So I bent two bars out of a metal rod at my father's workshop, one for me and one for a friend and his Jazzmaster (fitting the colour of the mastery bridge, we both just installed).
He lost his and my original wouldn't fit either (I guess the angle was too low).

Result: his trem is working perfectly smooth.
Mine is working too, but if I hit it too hard it sounds/feels like as If the bottom of the arm would hit the wood...

[aliendawg]

There are a couple ways to get the bar to stay put. But some people swear you can just push it in until it "pops" in more deeply, and that it then stays where you put it. I've had no luck at all with that, personally. Another way is to buy a staytrem. The cheap way is to put a little piece of rubber thing over the collet under the trem and then clamp it down with a tiny lil hose clamp. There's a thread somewhere on the board about doing that. It's a few years old, but worth finding.

http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... =7&t=68870

That's the thread. But I'm having a hard time understanding it without the pictures

[bluenote23]

I use nylon thread to keep my bar from moving. You can use fishing line or the threads from nylon packing string. You take a couple of strands (you need to experiment with the number but I use two), cut them to about 2 inch length and then insert them with the bar as you push it into the hole.

This is similar to using plumber's tape but the thread lasts a lot longer.

[aliendawg]

So you don't need to wrap the bar in it?

[bluenote23]

So you don't need to wrap the bar in it?

If this is in reference to my post, then no, you don't wrap the bar like you would with plumber's tape. You just jam the bar in with the threads and because they squish up between the edge of the bar and the sides of the hole, they hold the bar in place. Being nylon, they are pretty resistant and flexible so moving the bar does not break them up or disintegrate the strands (which is what happens with plumber's tape).

[aliendawg]

So you don't need to wrap the bar in it?

If this is in reference to my post, then no, you don't wrap the bar like you would with plumber's tape. You just jam the bar in with the threads and because they squish up between the edge of the bar and the sides of the hole, they hold the bar in place. Being nylon, they are pretty resistant and flexible so moving the bar does not break them up or disintegrate the strands (which is what happens with plumber's tape).

Nice! Thank you, man!

[hwestman]

I bent the part of the bar going into the collet. This made it stay in place better and also put in in contact with the top of the collet making it less wobbly.

However, it never turned out perfectly - I was always fiddling with it, pushing it in to make it stick... so eventually I got a Staytrem arm which made it more or less perfect.