Tremolo sticks sharp

[Gevalt]

My Squier and Fender AVRI tremolo units stick sharp after the slightest pull-up.
I've troubleshot every part of my Bass VI, and the knife-edge jumps on the pivot-point 1-2mm.
I've filed the offending area on my Squier trem, but I couldn't fix it. I even ground the angled static pivot points to a sharp point like Mastery did. No luck.

Any advice on how to fix this?

[Telliot]

If I understand you correctly, I've experienced this before on a Warmoth Jazzmaster body with and AVRI trem. The problem in my case turned out not to be the hardware at all, but the routing in the body, which was too tight. I opened up the tremolo hole and it worked like a champ after that.

[Gevalt]

Thanks for the great suggestion. I've done that, and it did remove the clicking sound!

Upon closer inspection today in the sunlight, I see that the knife-edge is still so curvy, I must file it more, to make the bend as close to a right-angle as I can to contain the pivot. I barely scratched the surface in my first filing attempt. I believe this will fix it, but we'll see...

[Telliot]

Can you take a couple pics so I have a better idea what you mean by 'knife edge'?

[adamrobertt]

There is no "knife-edge" on an offset tremolo - that's not how they work. What you're describing is a component of certain Stratocaster tremolos which work on a knife-edge fulcrum. I'm not sure which part of the trem you're talking about, maybe a photo would help?

[Gevalt]

Sorry, I meant to say knife-plate, as per '65 manual. It's the piece the strings go into that see-saws on an internal plate.

My Squier and AVRI trems are curvy like this, and the static plate that it wiggles on, always ends up on one side or the other of the centre of that pivotal curve.

The mastery has a finer right-angle going on there, sort of "blocking" the two pieces in place.

I ground that thing to a point like they did, and it didn't change. It's the knife-plate.

This is only my theory, and I want to know what you guys think before I go ape with a file I'll have to buy. Every other part works fine, and I modded all of those to be sure that nothing else stuck or caught. Is this a tuning issue with all Fender trems?

[adamrobertt]

I haven't experienced or heard of this issue. That bottom internal plate moving side to side would imply to me that the screws aren't tight enough or there's something wrong with the unit.

Edit: But are you saying that the top plate is moving? I don't see how that could be possible since it's screwed to the body... also it'd be difficult to imagine a scenario where the moving plate would end up moving side to side, either. Not sure what to say.

[Gevalt]

Sorry, no. I meant to say that the thing moves as intended, but the stop-point is either here, or there, on each side of the curve.

[Hyphen Nation]

Are you sure the back of the route for the trem are squared off, and not rounded? I know this is a common point of friction/rub.

[adamrobertt]

Yeah, the only thing that really makes sense to me would be that the unit must be rubbing on the inside of the cavity. I've never even heard of an AVRI unit being defective in this way although I'm sure it's possible.

[Gevalt]

Ok, thanks for all the insight and optimism. I'll go at the corners again just to be sure.

[LHR]

Of course, you should be sure to check the nut slots to make sure that any string is not binding there. You did check that, right?

[fisonic]

Forgive me for what might be obvious questions, but what hasn't yet been established in this thread.

1/ Is the trem properly adjusted? If the trem spring is not set just so, then tuning stability can suffer.
2/ Could the spring be binding in the cone-shaped spring retainer? If it doesn't seat properly the tining would go sharp.
3/ What is your bridge setup. Is it stock, fixed, floating. Have you taped the posts, are the posts sitting free in the middle of the thimbles with space around them? All these can have an impact.

Just to add. All tremolos have points of friction, which means that they will never return perfectly to pitch in both directions. If well set up, the difference will be barely detectable or only detectable with a tuner. A simple bump down on the arm should bring everything back to tune. A little lubrication on the spring retainer & pivot point can all help to reduce friction.
It's how far out it goes that really defines what is acceptable & what isn't. If it's a couple of tenths of a cent, then it's probably ok. You will never get "perfection".

[spacecadet]

Yeah, I'd be really careful filing down parts of the trem - you're as likely to make things worse as the opposite, and there's no way to put back metal that you've filed off.

I assume you must have gone through this site since one of your pics comes from it: http://www.webrocker.de/jaguar/2007/05/ ... lo-system/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But yeah, to start with you need to establish that your trem and bridge are both set up properly.

Honestly, if adjusting what you have doesn't work, before going and cutting wood and metal I'd probably just try some different trem parts. The entire trem unit is not very expensive, but you can get the individual plates for very cheap. My guess is that if you do have a problem, it's actually the bend in the bottom plate that's causing things to bind a bit - that's fairly common in these because that bend is not very consistent from one guitar to the next. Those plates are like $20 new if you want to just try another one. But if you've filed your knife edge down too much, then you might need a whole new unit - that's the one part I don't think you can easily get separately. (Maybe someone here would sell you one.)

You could also be binding at the string ends - some JM trems have the holes drilled a little too low. See if the string ends are touching the plate when you use the trem.

On my AVRI, I have both of these issues to a minor but sometimes noticeable degree - I've thought about replacing the trem but just haven't gotten around to it. The AVRI trem I bought separately for my CIJ has no problems. Both are Fender-made trems, just from different years.