Bridge Problems

OK i unscrewed teh 2 screws after loosening the strings so my bridge would sit like its supposed to. I got it sitting flat and started retuning the strings, but the bridge strated lifting up again. I tried again and completely took teh screws out this time. Screwed them in partially and teh same thing happened.

Anyone have a clue what the problem could be?? If your wondering what i am talkign about you can look at my pics in teh members westones thread.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Cause now my precious guitar is unplayable Well maybe not unplayable but definately waaaaaaaaayyyyyyy out of tune.

Don't panic, brother, what is happening is that the trem claw inside the rectangular plate on the back will need to be adjusted as well!! You'll probably need to tighten the 2 screws that hold the claw into the body to balance the pull of the strings on the bridge; dead easy just a little fiddly!


So, to summarise you have the string tension pulling the bridge up at the back and the trem claw (which is the funny shaped piece of steel that the springs go to from the bottom of the bridge block) pulling the back of the bridge down via the springs. Opinions differ as to the number of springs needed for decent tuning stability but 3 would be about right; any less and it's really wobbly! I have 3 on all of my trem guitars and find that OK...

corsair wrote:Don't panic, brother, what is happening is that the trem claw inside the rectangular plate on the back will need to be adjusted as well!! You'll probably need to tighten the 2 screws that hold the claw into the body to balance the pull of the strings on the bridge; dead easy just a little fiddly!


So, to summarise you have the string tension pulling the bridge up at the back and the trem claw (which is the funny shaped piece of steel that the springs go to from the bottom of the bridge block) pulling the back of the bridge down via the springs. Opinions differ as to the number of springs needed for decent tuning stability but 3 would be about right; any less and it's really wobbly! I have 3 on all of my trem guitars and find that OK...

i thought that that may be teh case but wasn't 100% on it. My trem claw only has 2 springs on it.

thanks bro your very helpful.

...no worries!! I think you could probably do with at least one more spring there, eh!!

AHA i fixed it. And its marvelous. Now to get it intonated. Btw corsair, it had 3 springs, i must have been thinking of the 2 screws securing the trem claw. lol. And i just took $1000 out of my 4O1k, now if only i could think of somethign to do with the extra 400 im gonna have .

Get another Westone?

Just a thought, though.

Thats certainly a thought. Got a new amp today, tuned the guitar and played some. Much to teh dismay of my neighbors i might add. It is awesome. I love this guitar.

Your neighbors should be honored that you brought the rawk to their ears, keep playing until they realize it!

Hello all,
New guy here. I gave a bit of a history on my Pantera X275 "rescue" in the intro section. I have read this thread and appreciate the advice given here. My question to Mr. Corsair is-should the 275 have three springs also? Thanks in advance for your reply and as a warning, this is the first of what I'm sure will be a number of questions from me.

Hello Confused, and welcome from me too!

John gives good advice (MR. Corsair - I like it!) and as a general rule of thumb, on most trem bridges, three springs seems to be about right!

Pauline :flower: :queen:

Confused wrote:Hello all,
New guy here. I gave a bit of a history on my Pantera X275 "rescue" in the intro section. I have read this thread and appreciate the advice given here. My question to Mr. Corsair is-should the 275 have three springs also? Thanks in advance for your reply and as a warning, this is the first of what I'm sure will be a number of questions from me.

If you want the bridge to float, then 2-3 springs will be correct for most string gauges and tunings.

If you don't care about the bridge floating, then use all 5 springs and you will get a slightly thicker tone and more sustain.

The more springs, the better, in terms of tuning stablilty, tone, and sustain.

It all depends on how wobbly, or sensitive, you want the trem to be but 3 would be my choice for the minimum number. On my Bendmaster equipped guitars I have 3 but on my strat I use 4 simply because I prefer the feel of a strat that way - it's arbitrary, eh!!

...and the rest of you loonies in here could learn from that.."Mr Corsair" indeed!!!

Hiya,
I have found a source for graphite nuts and the models they list are for strads and tele' cast's. Would these be comaptable for the X' I have, with some modification? What guage of string would anyone reccomend?-I'm eager....One site lists 7, 8 or 9 guage. They didn't have this system the last time I bought strings. Jimi died eh?

Yep, they should be fine; just take all of the measurements from the Pantera, i.e. the width, length and depth of the slot and get the nut that is closest to it - easy peasy!! There may be a little jiggery pokery to get it fitted up right, but it really is no major problem...

The string thing is much more subjective and depends on what style you're gonna play; if leaping all over the fretboard is your bag, then .008s or .009s would be "the go"! If you're into heavier, riff based rock then .011s or .013s with a wound 4th may be required, but if you're like the rest of us and just have a play every now and again, then you can't go far wrong with a set that goes from .010 to .052; it's a good all round set.
And we haven't touched on roundwound -v- flatwound yet...

Unfortunately, yes; Jimi is gone...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think a strat or tele nut will work on a Pantera.

Strats and Teles have little thin nuts that fit in a slot in the fret board. Panteras have a thick, tall nut that fits at the end of the fret board, right?

Hiya,
I don't know about Fender nuts as I haven't tracked down ANY nuts yet. The "space" on....(I'm going to have to name her...) mine appears to be 43mm long, 5mm wide and its 5.5mm from the base where the nut will sit to the top edge of the fretboard so the "height" of the string grooves will have to be at least 6mm PLUS the height of the frets (I measure aprox. 1.2mm). I'm heading off to a music store after work to look around. I have found tremelo springs on the internet that are supposed to be for a strat and I'll see if the store can help me out in that respect as well. I have 2 and space for 5 so I may just buy 3 in total in anticipation of later adjustments.

Hiya, Con - here's a link to a nut on NZ firm's page ...

http://www.guitarparts.co.nz/cart/Details.cfm?ProdID=773&category=

and I'm sure that Stewmac or similar in the US carry these, eh! Just make sure it's a graphite nut and you away and racing...

Mr. Corsair,
As I mentioned somewhere in this site I DID get 2 nuts slated for a Martin. Thanks though, for the link. We have a guitar emporium here in town that has been in SERIOUS business for about 20 years and they seemed to have the stuff in stock. I simply have to determine the height of the bottom of the grooves that should be above the fret level at the headstock to be able to proceed. The tremelo springs slipped right in but I neglected to mention I do NOT have a tremelo arm. I've seen several good pictures and when it comes time, I will attempt to fabricate one (just to be able to "bend" until such time I can replace with a stock unit). I now have 5 springs in place as the cavity seems to be as good a place to store them as the "safe place" where I secreted my unfound, for 20 years previous treasures.
I have done some preliminary filing on the nut and it seems if I'm careful (that's why I bought 2) I should be able to fabricate/alter what I have to accomodate strings (either round or flat wound-that's another subject you alluded to in one of your so kind responses).
-Confused a little less....

colt933 wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think a strat or tele nut will work on a Pantera.

Strats and Teles have little thin nuts that fit in a slot in the fret board. Panteras have a thick, tall nut that fits at the end of the fret board, right?

this man has a point, a good one too.

Ahh, see, someones thinking!! I've not got a Pantera so I don't know for sure! I used a Strat-style nut for my Spectrum and it worked great, but if the Pantera's is not in a slot then, yes, you're probably right Colt; move on to plan B!
Another option is to get Polly to measure the nut on her Pantera and post the measurements; or get a luthier to make a custom nut - it's not terribly expensive to do so but even he'll have to get the measurements from somewhere!!
Opinions, people??

Hiya,
Well, she's strung! I was able to fit the aftermarket nut without too much grief although the string height seems a "bit" high (possibley 1/2mm-3/4mm at the 12th fret) which I can get the local guitar shop to address when I find out if there are any other issues (electrical for example). Baby steps at this point. I had to re-postion the locknut baseplate slightly and it was a bit of a task considering the damage the headstock had experienced in a previous life.
I think a thorough intoning is in the near future as tuning seems a trifle off up the neck. I may attempt this myself if amplification becomes available. Thanks for all the information provided thus far. As Desi Arnez once said "Looking good Lucy"....Hey, that's a thought, with greatest respect to BB...how about Lucy?
I haven't seen a knob/switch configuration similar to mine in any Patera pictures posted thus far. 5 position switch flanked by pull knob towards headstock and click on/off knob towards tailstock. I really have to get a picture up.
Should I really be doing this? "House of the Rising Sun" Am, C, D....

Yay - I just love a happy ending! Yes, a luthier will re-file the nut at minimal cost and intonation is not a major exercise; just fiddly and you need a fair bit of patience!

With 5 springs on the trem I'd be surprised if the thing even moved; that's pretty stiff, eh! Bending up an arm shouldn't be any great worry either; one of my Bendmaster Deluxe arms has been bent up out of stainless steel and looks really nice.

I'm sure one of the Pantera people in here will have something to say about the controls but I know of 2 Genesis II's that deviate from the catalogue specs in major ways, and Matsumoku excelled in changing the specifications with no notice, so you could very well have an oddball; we'll wait and see!!!

Oh wow,
I borrowed a practice amp from my brother-in-law and plugged Lucy in. Holy EXPLETIVE! What a range of voice she has! I still haven't figured out what all the knob and switch positions do but... "IT'S ALIVE...IT'S ALIVE!!!"
I am going to leave the 5 springs in place for now, as I mentioned, it's a good place to store them and the tremelo arm will come. It's not the ending Mr. Corsair, just the beginning.

Hey there Confused, well done!

There'll be no stopping you now! Watch out Status Quo; Confused is about to start rockin'!

Now, about those chords for House of the Rising Sun ....????

You've got to get some pictures put up real soon, that is if you can stop playing long enough to photograph Lucy!

corsair wrote: ... Another option is to get Polly to measure the nut on her Pantera and
post the measurements;

Oops, sorry, I didn't see that bit!

Pauline :flower: :queen: