Tremolo plate alignment on a Jazzy

[dannyhill]

Hi,

Bought this Squier VM Jazzmaster end of last week, but something doesn't seem right with the alignment of 2 or more of its components. The strings are well placed on the neck and although the neck pickup is a little skewed (max 1mm) when I overlay a piece of paper over them and just focus on the tremolo, bridge and neck something still does not seem right. Take a look at the photos (my straight edge spirit level is runs along the centre of the neck), I think the tremolo plate is skewed (BTW the strap peg is not quite centred between the 3rd and 4th string hole).


I first noticed something not right when the 1st string seemed to be very much off axis with its pole on the bridge pickup, the other strings less so. Any ideas?
I'm thinking rotate the tremolo plate a little clockwise and move the whole thing up 1-2mm? Don't think it is the neck not parallel to the pocket walls.
Thanks in advance,

Daniel

[dannyhill]

OK, so I took the neck off last night and tidied the pocket and then bolted the neck on again with the side butted up against the upper wall to change the angle of the strings coming from the fretboard a little. What between that and shifting the tremolo plate as much as the screw holes and loosened screws would allow me, the string alignment is a lot better. The strings from the holes still don't quite run parallel to the screws on the plate, so it needs another 5-10º clockwise rotation, maybe the AVRI plate I have ordered will allow me to do that without plugging and re-drilling the holes slightly away from where they are just now. :-)

[newey]

It does look a smidge off in the photos