New trem arm wobble fix?

[martyn]

This was in this month's Guitarist mag.
Just bought some shrink wrap from Maplins to try it out.



Cheers,
Martyn

[olemuso]

Looks a good, simple fix

I notice he says shrink-wrap`s active temperature is around 90C then suggest various heating methods, some of which may be a little unsafe in some hands.
As water boils at 100C I`m sure you could just hold the wrapped end of the whammy in the steam issuing from a boiling kettle, or plunge it into a cup / pan/ kettle of boiling water.

If my whammy starts to wobble I`ll give this a try

Thanks for posting.

[Amanda Hambidge]

Hi,

I did try it sometime back, as I screwed the arm in it slid back up the shaft, I'll have to try again!

Amanda

[pacman]

I use ptfe tape as used by plumbers it was a tip given to me by a friend it stops the wobble and it lasts, you only need a couple of inches and its not very expensive, hold the tape in your left hand and wind the whammy bar clockwise it works for me
Pacman

[Charlie Hall]

Shrink wrap will tear eventually. I use ptfe tape, it's very thin so plenty of turns might be needed. I wrap it so it is slightly longer than the threads, then nip it closed before screwing the arm back in. 3 turns or so should cure an arm that isn't worn but won't stay put, more might be needed with a slack fitting arm.
Regards,
Charlie

[garystrat]

Hi all

Is not the idea behind this to have two capture points, one around the top of the block thread area, the other actually on top of the bridge itself?

This seemed to me to be the reason for making a taper from the inner and outer shrink wraps.

Gary

[Charlie Hall]

Hi Gary,
It appears so. But if the threaded area is good, it shouldn't really be necessary to support the arm elsewhere.
Regards,
Charlie

[garystrat]

Hi Charlie

I mostly seem to do alright with the Fender spring, I am known in our club as always having some spares around. The problem is that on most Strats that I have seen the the thread has too much tolerance and it is the spring pushing the arm up against the threads that holds it.

The key seems to be only tightening the arm until it just bites in position, so that the spring is not over compressed. Over compressing the spring spreads and distorts it, making it difficult to remove.

I spoke to Martyn about having the spring plus a tight tolerance tapered shim turned out of something like PTFE that slid up the the trem arm and was then just pushed down to fit into the I/D of the bridge hole, giving the two point fix. This would be small and unobtrusive, needing no modification or causing any damage to the arm.

On both my Strats there is something in the order of 1.5mm diameter clearance between the bridge hole and the arm, so if one tapered down to say a 1 mm wall thickness shim at the base, tapering back to say 2 mm over about 4 mm in length, this should do it.

In my previous occupation I could have had this made relatively easily, but at the moment I don't have access to small diameter turning capability. I might try a rolled sleeve in the top of the bridge, from an engineering point of view, I am reasonably convinced that this method would work and take some of the load and wear off the block thread.

Regards

Gary

[Charlie Hall]

Hi Gary,
Interesting thoughts. I did not know that PTFE could be obtained other than as the thin tape.
Regards,
Charlie

[garystrat]

Hi Charlie

Yes, you can get it rod form, other frictionless plastics would work also, like ultra molecular weight polypropylene. These types of plastic are used for moving bearing surfaces and should allow the arm to to move smoothly.

Materials like acrylic are too hard.


Regards

Gary

[martyn]

Just a quick update before Christmas lunch and inevitable falling down liquids: tried the shrink wrap - it was useless. It may possibly stop some of the wobble by filling out the gap between arm and socket nearer the top opf the socket's opening, but any further down and it gets snagged and shredded very quickly. May just try a slim section nearer the top opening but even that seems unlikely to work as the gap's so tiny.
Oh well, back to the drawing board . . .

Happy festivities (hic!).
Martyn

[garystrat]

Hi Martyn

Happy Christmas to you both, I didn't think it would work in the threaded area, but there is about a 1.5 mm clearance around the the arm and the bridge hole. I reckon if you focus on this it might do the job!

In the picture it is clearly shown projecting down into this. Shrink wrap also tend to go hard when shrunk, which is why the other materials may fair better.

Gary

[martyn]

Hi Gary - ditto to you two as well.
Yes I'll experiment further - I think part of the reason for the shredding is the amount of debris or part adhered plumbers tape that's still lurking in the cavity. Whenever I've removed the arm, some of the tape has dislodged and remained trapped within and I suspect that's part of the problem. If I could get in there with a torch and tweezers I may be able to remove some of the offending material.

Cheers,
Martyn

[Deleted]

hi the best way is to contact vml easy mute system tel [phone] they did hanks and ive had mine done 4-5years ago no movement, google v.m.L regards phil

[Amanda Hambidge]

Why Fender didn't adopt the approach used on the trem block of the Burns Marquee, is beyond me.

A grub screw in the block that either has a piece of PTFE in front of it or not and screws against the trem arm making it tighter in the block,
as the advert says - Simples!

I use PTFE tape!

Amanda

[john]

Just for the hell of it, on a spare arm I have I put a dab of super glue under the shrink wrap and giving a blast with the hair dryer it seems to be holding, how long for, I don't know.

The again like Charlie, I always carry a reel of plumber tape in my guitar case, I have thought about drilling the block and installing 2 grub screws arcoss from each other. When I get around to it, one of these days and a spare block
John M