New MIJ Mustang - trem questions

[MechaBulletBill]

This is beyond me, the whole unit is creaking when I move the bar and I can't get the treble side of the tailpiece low enough.

[spacecadet]

This is beyond me, the whole unit is creaking when I move the bar and I can't get the treble side of the tailpiece low enough.

That actually sounds like your arm is scraping along the plate. I only have a US Mustang but on mine, it's very easy to push the arm in too far and have it scrape the plate. Is that also possible on the MIJ's?

[MechaBulletBill]

That actually sounds like your arm is scraping along the plate. I only have a US Mustang but on mine, it's very easy to push the arm in too far and have it scrape the plate. Is that also possible on the MIJ's?

It's not that, I've made sure the arm isn't touching the plate and won't without some serious effort. The noise is coming from the posts on the knife edge, I think.

[Danley]

...All just sounds strange, at this point I'd try to pick up a new trem, preferably vintage... But before I did that, I'd want to take all of it apart, put it back together, and start from scratch. That can occasionally help many problems, with a lot of things.

Sometimes (like with my Squier) you just get a bad trem unit.

[Mechanical Birds]

There doesn't seem to be near the amount of info for mustangs out there as for Jaguars and jazzmasters, which is a shame. My buddy has an MIJ thing I might buy but it doesn't have a trem arm and it stresses me out because I know NOTHING about these guitars. If I find a mustang trem arm that says "for mij" mustang are they pretty universal or do I have to worry about different models fitting different?

[MKR]

There doesn't seem to be near the amount of info for mustangs out there as for Jaguars and jazzmasters, which is a shame. My buddy has an MIJ thing I might buy but it doesn't have a trem arm and it stresses me out because I know NOTHING about these guitars. If I find a mustang trem arm that says "for mij" mustang are they pretty universal or do I have to worry about different models fitting different?

i think mustang trem arms are all pretty universal, but don't quote me on it. they're not threaded, they just have to be able to go into a hole. My MIJ jagstang didn't come with a trem arm, so i actually used a spare JM one i had lying around. I ended up sawing it on both ends and bending it a bit and now you can't tell the difference between it and a regular mustang arm.

the one thing that's pretty important is to make sure the grub screw is still in the trem system. It's a little black, allen key adjusted screw that sits in the cigar tube thing on the end where the trem arm goes.

[MechaBulletBill]

There doesn't seem to be near the amount of info for mustangs out there as for Jaguars and jazzmasters, which is a shame.

I think it's because there's historically few stang players that use the whammy, when MBV, Sonic Youth and the entire surf scene in the 60s rely heavily on the jazz/jag trem for their sound. Where are the Ty Segall/Fuzz fans hoping to copy their stang whammy tricks?

[MechaBulletBill]

OK, I've just got it back from a proper setup. Not my usual guy, and not cheap, but his reputation preceded him and he seemed to know his stuff from chatting to him. He cut the nut for my strings and made sure the pivot points were proplerly seated/aligned.

Anyway, it's all now functioning as it should. Trem returns to pitch, cigar tube is good and low. Two issues remain, though he wasn't concerned about them. The trem still creaks in use, and it sounds like the springs inside creaking. It's not loud enough to be picked up by the pickups and normal volume, but it is loud unplugged. The top E is also catching on the intonation screw a little bit, but as long as everything is working ok (it is), I think I can say I'm happy.