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Post by dannyhill on Apr 13, 2014 16:02:10 GMT -5
Hi everyone,
On my LP Deluxe immitation guitar I installed a B5 Bigsby on a vibramate plate and everything has seemed to be fine. The other day I noticed however that the part of the retainer bar on the side of the high strings has seemed to have lifted up under tension from the strings. Now I took the bigsby on my Wildkat apart the other day and it has C or E clips on the end with teflon bushings within the outer roller tube and inside is a narrower rod which the outer tube spins around, well around the bushings. The bigsby on my LP Deluxe Imimitation however is put together differently. Its inner rod is fixed (or whole thing) by a couple of hex screws under the bigsby. So what's happened here? Are there teflon jackets inside that got crushed on one side? Or are there needle bearings that have got broken? Is it fixable? Curious..... My thanks to all who can shed some light on this...
Danny
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Post by JohnH on Apr 13, 2014 16:34:46 GMT -5
Hi danny, nice to see you again. Would you have any pictures to illustrate your two current threads? If not, replies might be limited to only those who are very familiar with those parts. J
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Post by dannyhill on Apr 15, 2014 7:35:21 GMT -5
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Post by dannyhill on Apr 16, 2014 6:01:45 GMT -5
Anyone? What's happened to my retainer bar?
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Post by 4real on Apr 18, 2014 17:05:36 GMT -5
It looks broken on the high side. Have you taken it apart or with the strings off to see if the high string side is still in the axel/bearing point?
Is it rolling free?
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Post by dannyhill on Apr 19, 2014 15:21:22 GMT -5
Certainly does Mr '4Real'! I will get the screw drivers and masking tape out tomorrow and let you know how I get on. I'm guessing that these wont have teflon inner sleeves like that on my Wildkat but instead have bearings. Any heads up on what I should watch out for there? Cheers,
D
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Post by dannyhill on Apr 21, 2014 8:05:26 GMT -5
OK, so I got the fella off last night and when I unscrewed the little grub screw, surprise surprise the bass side had an inner bushing/collar but the high side had nothing. Well I must have bought it like that, anyway we live and learn. So out came the hobby tool and I cut the end off of a felt tip pen lid and drilled the inner tube (which enclose the felt tip) wide enough to accommodate the retainer inner rod. Greased it all up, then sanded the edges of the outer tube ends down so on final assembly the outer retainer tube could spin freely (at least 360deg on one finger flick). Added a washer under the bigsby so I can up or down one tone on the B string, although unfortunately of course the arm is now slightly higher. Perfect! Plus intonates well! Last night (very late) I could swear I had the action at the 12th fret, 2.25mm on the low E and 1.75 on the high E. But today the high E seemed to be over 2mm. I checked the relief (I look for 0.25mm at the 8th fret with the 1st and last frets held down) and it was slightly higher so I adjusted the truss accordingly to get it bang on. But now it seems I have 2.5mm and 2mm on the low and high E strings. WTF? OK, ok. So now you say, well just crank the bridge down (I think its a stock ABR), thats ok on the low E side, but the high E side can't go any lower!! What is going on? How can I get the action lower on the high E side? If I wind it down on the low E side will it drop down a little on the other side too? I measured the nut height. Bang on 0.15mm at the first fret when fretting at the 4th. Bizarre. Answers on a postcard to..... :-)
D
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Post by dannyhill on Apr 23, 2014 6:51:43 GMT -5
Anyone? How do I lower the treble side action if the bridge can't go any lower, its a set neck and the nut is the correct height? Clean out the saddle and nut slots? File the saddles down? Make sure the bushing is fully into the body? ?
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Post by dannyhill on Apr 24, 2014 4:00:28 GMT -5
Doh! I checked the relief again and there was too much! Lowered it and I'm back down somewhere between 1.5 and 1.75mm at 12th fret for the high E. Weird thing is though the G is higher. Saddle or nut badly cut? Well I capoed he 4th and put my 0.15mm guage under the first fret for each of the 6 strings, looks like its a bit snug on the high strings, but the G was just virtually touching the fret. Its the original nut that I sanded across the bottom as it left the strings way too high off of the fretboard initially. So a new Tusq will be going in there. Yay! One final thing though, I noticed that the bushing on the high E side under the vibramate (where the stop tail would go in) is 2-3mm further out than the low E side (where bridge ground wire goes) where you can only see the lip of the top of the bushing, when I walloped it back down, all fine and good. But stringing up again and under tension, it had raised again. How do I keep the little sucker down? Superglue? Pull the bushing, dowl it and redrill the hole? That would seem a bit excessive. Any advice most gratefully received! D
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Post by newey on Apr 24, 2014 6:14:15 GMT -5
I don't know what to tell you on that Danny. But unless there's an impact on playability, I'd say leave well enough alone. I'd certainly be leery of any solutions involving a drill . . .
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Post by dannyhill on Apr 24, 2014 8:49:30 GMT -5
Too true, its the same guitar that I had my, eh-hem,drilling mishap on before. I'll change the nut first and see how it looks.
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