Finally Done!

I essentially did what I planned, though it took a few tries and I ended up drilling out one of the holes and replacing with a dowel a few times :-( Very painful. However I finally have the guitar together and that stupid Trem King is but a painful memory. As always, it was a big learning experience and I emerged knowing a lot more about how to install this trem, and also how to set it up. Just so I don't forget, I want to record a few things about that.

• The "blade" should be parallel to the guitar body.  To get it right, install the bridge with springs, string up and tune up. If it's not parallel to the body, tighten or loosen the springs a little, then retune and see how it looks.  Repeat as needed
• String height is adjusted using only the two posts, not the saddle heights. Remember that they have internal locks that are opened/closed using a small hex wrench inserted from the top.  The warmoth site has a nice illustration of this.

 

• Adjust the saddles so they are at their lowest position.  Then raise B, A a bit higher than the E and G, D a bit higher than the B,A, so  as to match the neck's curvature.  It's really a little bit! I calculated that for a 16 inch  neck (which is the final radius of the Warmoth compound) that the differences are around 1/64 inch!
• Now adjust the height of the posts so that the strings are the height you want above the fretboard
• Hmm, at some point we have to check the neck and adjust relief to taste
• The bar has female threads, so screw it in.  It doesn't seem necessary to tighten the screw to keep the bar functioning nicely.

Planning the Installation

1. Lay straight edge along neck, draw line on tape on body near bridge hole
2. Measure 12 15/32 " from bottom of 12th fret and mark.
3. Join points (2) with a straight line; check distances from 12th fret along line Mark midpoint between points (2) on line 3.
4. Measure left and right 27mm (per spec of VS100N).  

Drill on (5).

Tale of a Trem King

Some time ago, I decided I wanted to replace the GFS trem I'd used for my original project with a Trem King. It seemed like a great design and I'd read rave reviews from someone I respect. Since I'd always felt that the GFS was crappy, despite its working fine, I paid to have someone install it. I soon realized I'd made a huge mistake. First, I didn't like the way it felt, and second it made me feel like the guitar was less my own work. Perhaps the latter influenced the former; it's hard to say. But leaving that aside, I never liked the feeling of the Trem King. It seems very unresponsive and I can't get a nice shimmer, which is really my main use of a trem anyway. I can't remember what I was thinking at the time, but maybe I thought the Trem King would be my ticket to Jeff Beck land. Not only do I dislike the Trem King's function as a trem, but it seems the tuning stability is poor. It's really completely turned me off using that guitar, of which I had been so proud.

I found a few interesting posts on Ty Quinn's blog, Strung Out? Fret Not! Ty's first post was a review of the Trem King after installation, and the second described the process of ripping it out and putting in a nice 2-point trem. Ty was very responsive to my email, and very helpful. It's interesting to read the posts on the blog, particularly those from the Trem King guys, who were of course quite concerned by what they read. It appears they have a new version that fixes various problems, and I think it is quite likely that the one I have is the old version. Whether that's true or not, I've decided to get rid of it and replace it with a nice Gotoh/Wilkison VS100N from stewmac.

Since I had some trouble last time I installed one of these, I'm going to be extra careful, and my next post will be about how I'll measure and drill the holes for the ferrules.