Last time we looked at how to get your guitar’s vibrato into line. Before I move onto the next juicy guitar maintenance task, I thought I would give you some additional balancing tips.
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Last time we looked at how to get your guitar’s vibrato into line. Before I move onto the next juicy guitar maintenance task, I thought I would give you some additional balancing tips.
You may need to balance your vibrato whenever you change your guitar’s strings; it might just take a subtle tweak to get it back in line. Changing the strings one at a time can help maintain the balance of your Floyd or non-locking vibrato. You simply detune one string, remove it, fit a new one, tune it up, all the while keeping the other five strings as in-tune as possible.
Changing strings one at a time doesn’t help if you need to clean your guitar’s fingerboard, replace the pickups or carry out any major repairs. In those scenarios, you need to remove all the strings, so try stuffing a rag or duster under the vibrato to keep some tension on the springs. That could help the vibrato balance naturally when you tune up.
Here are some other tips:
Following on from last time, you might find that the two big vibrato screws you turn to increase and decrease spring tension are adjusted as far as they can go, but your vibrato still isn’t balanced correctly. In that case, you could consider adding or removing a spring.
If the screws are screwed into the guitar’s wood as far as they’ll go, but your vibrato is still angled away from the body, you’ll need to add an extra spring (See photo 1 in the photo gallery below). Put some safety goggles on (See photo 2).
You’re dealing a spring under tension. If it slips from your grasp it could hit you in the face. I’ve done that; it hurts big time. If you’re