No, this isn't one of THOSE posts. Got your attention though.

My kids have managed to repeatedly get to my tremolo arm. Where it used to point up the neck when tight, it now points at my right foot. Any ideas as to how to fix said problem, short of replacing the bridge???

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Will

Hi Staredge: when the kids were playing with your whammy might they have actually taken it right off and in so doing lost the little spring inside, which helps give the arm a bit of "stay put"?

First thing to check...

Cheers - C

No, they've never taken it off. They've just pulled it down seating it deeper in the threads.

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Will

Cigarette paper wrapped around the arm prior to screwing in, is a temporary fix. What guitar is it?

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No no and no

what happened is they turned it past tight and the bridge cut a bit into the bar so where it bottomed out before is no longer where it gets tight, the same way running a die on th ebarr would, you cant bend them bu pusshing down or pulling up, it would take more power than your kids haev to do that,

im a machinist, i deal with threads everyday so this is what im asuming happened but i cant be sure

if you knew your thread size you could run a die up the bar about hafl of a turn to bring it back around, that would run the treads deeper into the body by half of one pitch of your thread wich would only be a few thousants of an inch in this case so it should not affect anyting deeper inside

Squier Deluxe Strat.

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Will

you would have to inspect the bar to know if it was the bar that was stripped or the bridge, if it was it may be possible to fix the bridge but running a tap in it, it depends how much metal you have to work with

by tapping i mean you would go a tiny amount and back out and try it and do it again a tiny bit untill it is back around

it may be the bar,they you would have to tap it ,and a die would cost more than a bar

but if you have access to the tools that is how you could fix it

Ah, that sounds very likely.

The fix sounds good, but a little more challenging, for most of us anyhow...

Good luck - C

its really not as hard as you think

the treads are not torn out so you could screw the tap in like a bolt, then with a tap handle gently turn clockwise a little bit and turn counter clockwise, advancing a little further than you did the time before, do it few times then screw it right out and clean all the chips off the tap,then test the bar and if nead be go a bit bore,make sure to clean the chips off the tap and out tf the hole



p.s. if you dont have a tap hande you can use a socket from a normal set to drive it ,find the appropriate size to fit the tap

Mr Curley Maple, someone with your knowledge is good to have here. I hope you stick around: I have a feeling there's a lot to be learnt from you...

Cheers - C

Threads on the bar look ok, so I'm guessing it's the bridge. Thought about driving the bar back around, but thats going to be another 270 degrees. Not sure I like that idea. I may try flattening the upper threads on the bar. That would stop it from going in farther. Could just replace the bridge. Or learn to live with a floppy whammy.

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Will

NOOOOO dont turn it the rest of the way!!!!!

both of those steels are relatively soft so it cut a minute amount but if you tied to go around I GUARANTEE it WILL strip the tread from your bar, your bridge or both


the reson for the tap is its proabably 100 times harder and the geometry of the cutting edges is made to cut metal,your bar is not


and i learn so much here it that i would like to help the community with my skills

I am one of those players that actually prefer the whammy bar to hang free.

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Chet Feathers

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

oh and your idea of smashing the treads would work but it would be weakend and it would only be a matter of time

you could either tap the bridge

or if you had a set of dies(taps go in stuff for internal threads, dies go outside stuff for external threads, so you could put a die on the bar and just run the die up it the 270 degrees and it would be back to were you want it

a stock bar may not fix the problem if the treads cut deeper into the bridge, as opposed to the bridge cutting the bar which a new bar would fix



if you find another bar and try it if that is not where it should be i will tell you step by step how to fix it

I have a tap & die set around here somewhere. (actually, now that I think about it, my F-i-L stole it) Cutting extra threads on the bar actually might not be a bad idea.

I know a bit about cutting threads.....I'm a plumber by trade. Main reason I wouldn't try to run the bar in deeper. If it was just a quarter turn, then maybe but as much as I need would destroy one or both.

I'll try the bar. Always screw up the cheap stuff first!!! Thanks.

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Will