|
|
Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member
Joined: 5/27/2008
Posts: 27
Location: Algarve, Portugal
|
Hi guys, I need your wizdom on the ZR Tremolo. I have a S320WB for 2 years now and it has been an amazing experience. I bought it to have a 2nd guitar for live use and she has been my main guitar for the past months. I loved the fact that even though playing in E, I could detune the E string into D and have a perfect Drop D in seconds without it affecting the tuning on the rest of the strings. A perfect sweet spot, where not one single string would go out of tune! What happened is that while changing strings, I must have turned accidentally the string tension wheel. Where? towards the (+) ou the (-) I have no freaking idea!! What happens is that if I want to detune from E to Drop D, the other string go higher on the pitch. So I bring E to D and all the others go up!! I use 0.09 gauge allways. What should I do to tune the string tension and have it on the "sweet spot" again? :) Here you have a photo of where exactly is the string tension marker.  
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Moderator
Joined: 11/30/2009
Posts: 1,377
Location: Bensalem, PA
|
Hey, sorry to hear about that. If you could, try taking a picture of your trem system from the top side. So I can get an idea of what angle you have it at. Sounds like a couple tweaks will get you back to where you need to be.
Factory Measurements/String Gauges
Official Parts and Apparel Store
Replacement Parts Guide
Warranty Service Centers
Set Up and Maintenence Guide
Ibanez Catalogs 1950's-Present
Megatrons Trem GuideGuitar/Bass/Electronics Manuals
|
|
Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member
Joined: 5/27/2008
Posts: 27
Location: Algarve, Portugal
|
I sure hope that I am able to perform those tweaks correctly.
|
|
Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member
Joined: 5/27/2008
Posts: 27
Location: Algarve, Portugal
|
Hey, here are the pictures. I´ll try to lower it down a bit + will come back with the point of the situation.     Thank you Ricardo
|
|
Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member
Joined: 7/13/2010
Posts: 28
|
That looks about right, but check this out (if you haven't already) http://resources.ibanez.com/resourceservicehost/images/Ibanez/web/support/manuals/guitar2009.pdfDepending on your language (english page 23) I talks about how to adjust the tension. Not sure I've gotten it perfect on mine but I found it useful.
|
|
Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member
Joined: 5/27/2008
Posts: 27
Location: Algarve, Portugal
|
should I unlock the nut before doing any ajustments on the tension wheel? I know that it is advised that the bridge stays paralel to the body (on most guitars). The thing is that the S is carved back. Should the bridge, in this case, be aligned/paralel to the body? or should it be aligned by the strings?
|
|
Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member
Joined: 7/13/2010
Posts: 28
|
Yeah, because the strings are either going to tighten or loosen quite a bit
|
|
Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member
Joined: 5/27/2008
Posts: 27
Location: Algarve, Portugal
|
what about the alignment of the bridge? should it be aligned with the body or with the strings?
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 8/27/2006
Posts: 5,269
Location: United Kingdom
|
You just need to loosen the thumbwheel in the "-" direction so that the sustain block is pushing a little harder against the ZPS bar (the bar that goes behind the sustain block and has the two outer springs attached to it) so that it's almost pushing the bar out of the two black plastic slots that both ends sit in. Not too far though (experiment). The idea is that when you detune your string, the four springs will try and pull the trem block backwards, but the two outer ones immediately come to a stop in those two black plastic slots. At this point, you only have two springs trying to pull the trem backwards (the center ones). This causes a sudden reduction in spring pull and the trem stops wanting to move back so much. The trick is to find the balancing point where the whole trem is just about switching between using two springs and four. If the sustain block isn't pressing firmly against the bar the outer springs attach to, you'll find the trem pulls the strings sharp when detuning your E string (it moves backwards by a fixed amount, just like all Floating trems do when you detune one string). Have it pushing too hard against the bar, you'll find that all four springs are still pulling on the sustain block when you detune your E string, again, causing the other strings to go sharp (the sustain block moves by the same distance as if it was only two springs.... as mentioned above). The trick is to get the sustain block pressing against that rear bar as strongly as you can without actually moving the bar. The point at which the trem is on the very edge of switching between two springs and four. So that in standard tuning, it's the slightly higher pressure of four springs, but as you start to detune your E string, it switches to the slightly lower tension of two springs, reducing the amount of movement of the sustain block. Which in turn, reduces the amount of movement of the trem as you switch from Standard tuning to Drop D.
Beginners Guide to Chord TheoryBeginners Guide to ScalesS Reviews Useful Diagrams
|
|
Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member
Joined: 5/27/2008
Posts: 27
Location: Algarve, Portugal
|
Thank you Ouija, I've opened up the back and kind of understood "the way of the ZR Trem"  .... Its not easy  but i'm getting there. If you take a look at the pictures I post in the begining of the topic, you´ll see that the base of the tremolo is not paralel to the body, but is paralel to the strings. I'm guessing that is the way to do it, because if Im going to spin the wheel towards the -, the tremolo will raise. I´m starting to think that, in order to being able to use 2 tuning with the same guitar, and change between them in a matter of seconds, I cannot have the tremolo aligned with the body...not even paralell.
|
|
Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member
Joined: 5/27/2008
Posts: 27
Location: Algarve, Portugal
|
I noticed last night when trying to reach that point between springs... that in order to get there the tremolo level would have to stay a bit high. This because I had the block from the inside springs making a tad more pressure agains the bar from the outer springs. I just left it to rest and went to sleep. This morning it was doing doing more pressure to the block than last night...and the bridge level was between the level of the body and the level of the strings. Looked perfect. I'll give a few more hours and see how it goes.
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 8/27/2006
Posts: 5,269
Location: United Kingdom
|
It's not as important to get the ZR trem parallel with the body as it is with a knife edged trem. With a knife edged trem, you want those knife edges to be pushing up against the body studs at a 90 degree angle for it to rock back and forwards properly and to make the trem as responsive as possible. The ZR doesn't have knife edges so doesn't require the angle to be that precise. As long as it's in the region of being parallel a few millimetres forwards or backwards makes no difference.
Beginners Guide to Chord TheoryBeginners Guide to ScalesS Reviews Useful Diagrams
|
|
Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member
Joined: 5/27/2008
Posts: 27
Location: Algarve, Portugal
|
Ouija, That was all I wanted to hear Awsome. I'll finish the job now. Thank you so much guys
|
|
|
Guest |
