Tuning stability

[wolf]

I've owned my Drop Top for 10yrs and for all those years I've set the trem up slightly tilted to aid vibrato.
I've always been very happy with the tuning stability.
I read recently that Tom believes the tone to be better with the trem decked, so today I've set it up that way.
The tone does seem livelier but now the tuning's not as stable.
I spent hours making sure that the posts aren't binding and that the trem plate lays flat on the top.
Basically it's now a hard tail , so why does the tuning go sharp as soon as I dip the trem slightly ?

Anyone have a suggestion ?

I'm going to gig it tomorrow night and if it's not stable, I'll revert to tilting the trem.

[dsouza.b.a]

I've owned my Drop Top for 10yrs and for all those years I've set the trem up slightly tilted to aid vibrato.
I've always been very happy with the tuning stability.
I read recently that Tom believes the tone to be better with the trem decked, so today I've set it up that way.
The tone does seem livelier but now the tuning's not as stable.
I spent hours making sure that the posts aren't binding and that the trem plate lays flat on the top.
Basically it's now a hard tail , so why does the tuning go sharp as soon as I dip the trem slightly ?

Anyone have a suggestion ?

I'm going to gig it tomorrow night and if it's not stable, I'll revert to tilting the trem.

All joking aside, have you lubed your nut? I am assuming you have a vintage style trem system. Maybe some pencil graphite to the nut grooves will keep your strings from getting bound up? My guess is when you layed the trem flat in may be pulling the strings deeper into the grooves and that is why they are catching.

[wolf]

I've always lubed the nut at each string change.
Would the strings sit deeper in the nut if the string height is the same as it was before ?

[tom]

let me clarify about tone and float. on our 2 screw vintage style trem. the bridge front still rests on the body even if the bridge is floating. this is different than bridges like the gotoh 510 and the wilkinson that some people raise enough so that only the studs are in the body. having the bridge completely off the body is what changes the sound.

that said, i have mine touching the body so that i can do a drop d tuning without the other strings going hopelessly out of tune. these days i have had the best tuning stability with this method when i have the springs just tight enough to have the bridge touch to body, but not to pin it there hard. with this setup you can not do country 2 string bends without having to bend both strings due to the bridge movement. i used to have the strings tight enough so that i could do a whole step bend before the other strings dropped in pitch, but this did adversely affect trem tuning stability.

i will often take two guitars these days so that i can have one floating and the other setup so that i can drop d tune if needed.