Tremolo Springs

[woody]

Out of pure and utter frustration I have gone to all the trouble of having made proper spec tremolo springs that actualy hold the strings in perfect tune. Most guitars made these days have Chinese springs installed and these are made of steel that is not properly tempered.

I am currently having 36 and 40 turn vintage spec springs made using German made carbon steel and having them hand made in Australia.

Is there any interest in these springs? I have test driven these and my floyd rose now stays in perfect tune, even under varying temperatures as the springs are the same spec carbon as the majority of guitar strings.

Thoughts please before I commit to having any more made.

[dunkelfalke]

carbon steel rusts. and afaik guitar springs shouldn't have complex tempering because they need to be flexible - so they have to have a pretty low hrc.

[woody]

Yes , Carbon steel does rust but these are made to ASTM A228 in that they are Tin plated. The springs themselves are Cold drawn but the bending that produces the hook and loop need to have the stresses taken by heating the springs for 250 degrees for 1.5 hours.

[guitardoode]

Ive got 2 Ibanez guitars, ones hooked up with a LoPro ii
And one with a proper good ole LoPro.

Both seem to keep tune for months unless i give the things overly excessive abuse to the point the strings snap.

When i first was going through my experiance with floating trems i did find that tuning problem. but i found a technique that kept my guitar intune. its rather long winded but even with the most sever trem abuse i managed to keep it in tune.

First i would get the guitar roughly intune (Assuming it was way out)
then from string 6-1 i'd tune each one. then as you would normally do for a floater go back and retune it until the trem was ballanced.

Second: Lock the guitar Nuts down. Go through the fine tuners on the trem. until perfectly tuned.

Third: Stick the trem arm in and give the trem a bit of abuse. Dive the arm then pull up. repeat that 20 times. thats 20 drives and 20 pulls. alternating between drive and pull.

fourth: Unlock Nut, and Redo first Tuning steps, strings 6-1 from the headstock. and then lock it down again and retune on the fine tuners. Double checking each string before finishing.

I find with that i can easily keep the guitar in tune. I admit its not 100% kept in tune (more detuning on the LoPro ii) But with the Good ole LoPro it practically stays in tune for ever. i mean once every 1 and a half months i have to twiddle with the fine tuner. Besides that my guitars sit happily. Even in temperature change.

Im not sure if thats purely coinsidence but ive been doin it for 3 years now and its not failed me.. Yet.. *Touch wood*

One thing though is, if you are replacing strings or havent used the tremelo for a while remember to stretch the strings, and break in the springs before doin that tuning method or you'll waste your time and it will go out of tune.

I hope this is any help at all.
-Guitardoode