my new favorite way to set up a trem

[joe1962]

Over the years I've used various versions of floating or blocked setup on my trems. I'd been using the trem on my Drop Top the way it was set at the factory, against the body with enough tension to keep it stable under double stop bends. I liked it that way but for subtle trem on chords it was bugging me that I had to exert so much force to get the trem off the body, which made my trem not as smooth.

So I tried loosening the springs to the point where the trem is still against the body at rest, but comes off the body easily when you grab the bar. I now get a smoother trem action, but can still detune my low E to D without going out of tune, and if I were to break a string (which I haven't in years but you never know :) ) I'd still be in tune as well.

The obvious down-side is now the trem dips slightly on double-stops, but I'm finding that if I press my palm against the bridge when I do double-stops I can keep it from dipping. I just thought I'd share this setup that's working well for me.

[tom]

that's the way i've been leaning the past few weeks too. maybe slightly less. a whole step bend on the b string will bring the bridge up just a bit.

[joe1962]

that's the way i've been leaning the past few weeks too. maybe slightly less. a whole step bend on the b string will bring the bridge up just a bit.

That sounds about like mine. It seems to make bends a little more fluid for me, and I really like the way the trem feels for subtle chord vibrato. I like to play big clean chords through a delay and waver them lightly to get sort of a chorus effect. The trem set this way works great for that stuff.

[sylvanshine]

Had my Cobra set up that same way for years. Love it!

[crash]

I set mine so that you can pull up the pitch maybe a quarter pitch on the B string.

You lose the 'stop taipiece' feel - but since the pitch variation can go both above and below the note (like vibrato with a slide), it reduces the extent to which the note feels out of tune during tremolo. The result is a glassy, bigsby-like feel.

But, no more perfectly in-tune double stops.