Hagstrom Tremar Tremolo

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Mechanical Birds
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Hagstrom Tremar Tremolo

Post by Mechanical Birds » Fri Jun 15, 2018 7:53 pm

Ok got a real pile of fuck here.

I bought this sweet Univox Badazz off I HNB about a month or two back. These guitars are equipped with the trem mentioned in the thread title, but this specific example was missing the collet/arm. After about two weeks of wrangling around with 10 or 15 different people through emails I was able to purchase a re-issue version of the Tremar from Guild (excellent customer service by the way!).

So I get the thing in the mail and I am pretty dumbfounded at how it functions. I always wanted to use a guitar with this tremolo because I can’t live without the Offset Vibrato and by all accounts that I could find (barely any, despite the ridiculous number of specific models and brands that used this dumb fucking piece of kit), it functioned much in the same way/looked really similar. The arm doesn’t seem to move freely at all, and is in fact ridiculously stiff, so it seems it’ll be impossible to use it how I intend as it seems like much more of a “find your position and leave it there” thing as opposed to what I need, which is to hold it while I’m actually playing.

It included a small Allen wrench but surprisingly, there’s nothing to adjust on the thing. I’m just trying to find out if it’s possible for me to loosen the arm a little so it’ll function a little more in the realm of what I need it to do.

Please god, can anyone help me here?

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otis
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Re: Hagstrom Tremar Tremolo

Post by otis » Mon Jun 18, 2018 12:21 pm

there should be an adjustable spring with an allen screw next to where the trem goes in. No detailed picture, but you can see it on my blue Hagstrom.
Once set up, the trem works on mine, but the guitar goes out of tune to easily with trem use.
Image

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Re: Hagstrom Tremar Tremolo

Post by Mechanical Birds » Tue Jun 19, 2018 5:50 am

Wanna make sure I’m being clear - I want the arm to swing back and forth like any other guitar tremolo. Not talking about in and out/activating the trem, I’m talking about being able to hold the arm while I strum but it barely moves.

Can I adjust this?

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otis
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Re: Hagstrom Tremar Tremolo

Post by otis » Tue Jun 19, 2018 1:08 pm

I'm sorry, I thought you talked about the tension on the spring.
No idea if you can adjust the movement of the trem arm. Mine is very loose, but I never had the mechanism off the trem plate.

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Re: Hagstrom Tremar Tremolo

Post by Mechanical Birds » Tue Jun 19, 2018 3:16 pm

No apologies necessary thanks for the reply, I just wish I could find out why this stupid thing is so tight

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Re: Hagstrom Tremar Tremolo

Post by Mechanical Birds » Fri Jul 16, 2021 3:21 pm

Finally got an actual guitar to play with one of these things (my OP guitar never panned out and was traded), one of the new Guild Thunderbirds, but am not having the best time with it for the same reasons. I like holding the arm while I play and it’s impossible with these things because the arm and it’s housing are so tight. It’s one of those *set the bar where you can deal with it and maybe tap it every once in a while* things, while I basically wanna be able to Kevin Shields the fucker.

Anybody have experience with this? There aren’t a lot of adjust menu points but it seems like something that by default you should be able to set and adjust to taste. Is this possible or am I stuck with it as is?

I really wish they’d have done a version with the offset vibrato because it would make this guitar perfect. I literally got the arm yesterday after getting the guitar ~2 months ago and surprisingly I was playing it all the time without the trem and still liked it. I’ve seen pictures of them at the prototype stage they were sending out on the road with people and a few had the offset trem but eventually they settled on keeping the original thing and getting them reissued. That’s cool, I like that they cared about making it as authentic as possible, but this Hagstrom thing is kind of dogshit, especially when I’m used to/overwhelmingly prefer the offset vibrato.

Any tips on how to make this vibrato less stupid and more comfortable would
Be greatly appreciated :)

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cksmith
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Re: Hagstrom Tremar Tremolo

Post by cksmith » Sat Apr 02, 2022 8:55 am

I realize this post is from a few years ago but did you ever solve this problem? I’m on my second hag h-ii and cannot for the life of me figure out how to loosen the trem arm enough to be able to glide with it.

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Re: Hagstrom Tremar Tremolo

Post by Mechanical Birds » Sun Apr 03, 2022 12:09 am

Not really by any method, but at this point it swings a lot better than it used to. There’s a tiny bit of resistance so it feels nice, but mostly it does what I want it to do. I assume it’s just from playing it a lot.

Still love that guild though and would wholeheartedly recommend them to anyone even remotely interested in it for any reason because it’s incredible.

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