How to Mount a Vintage Fender Tremolo
Learn to mount a vintage Fender tremolo if you have an old Fender guitar with a tremolo block. Tremolos are otherwise known as whammy bars, and allow guitarists to wiggle the bridge back and forth to alter the pitch of the note currently being produced. This is essentially the same effect as applying vibrato with your fretting hand, but it can be controlled with the picking hand. Installing the tremolo requires keeping the guitar in tune during installation and raising the bridge slightly to “float” it.
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Things You'll Need
- Philips-head screwdriver
- Tuner
- Pencil
- Petroleum jelly
- Masking tape
- Ruler
Instructions
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Remove the strings to access the nut. Find the nut by looking between the neck and the headstock of the guitar for the thin strip of white material. Cover the neighboring sections of neck and headstock with masking tape to avoid marking. Locate the six nut grooves. Use a small amount of petroleum jelly to lubricate the inside of the grooves. The tremolo arm will increase the friction that the nut experiences, so lubrication is important. Rub the point of a pencil through the grooves until the petroleum jelly turns black. This will lubricate the nut sufficiently and the petroleum jelly will hold the graphite in place for a long time. Remove the masking tape and clear any extra gunk from around the nut slots. Replace the strings and tune the guitar.
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2
Remove the tremolo cavity cover at the back of the guitar. Find this by looking on the opposite side of the guitar to the bridge. Unscrew the screws holding the cover in place and remove it. Inside you will see a few springs attached to the tremolo block at the bottom and a “claw” at the top, which is held in place by two screws. The “claw” and springs should be adjusted so that the strings stay in tune more easily.
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Adjust the two screws holding the claw in place to position the bridge. If the bridge is too flat, loosen the screws holding the claw in place, and if it comes up a little too much, tighten the strings. Measure the distance from the body of the guitar to the raised portion of the bridge. The gap should be around 3/16 of an inch.
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4
Test the guitar to see how well it stays in tune. Play some notes, then bend them upward at the fret. Check the guitar’s tuning. If it goes out of tune easily, change the layout of the springs in the tremolo cavity. If the lower strings go out of tune, you can either re-arrange the springs to provide more support for those strings (by moving some springs to that side of the guitar). This may be necessary because the thicker strings exert more force on the guitar. Having the claw more tightly screwed in on that side may also help the guitar stay in tune. Replace the tremolo cavity cover when you are done.
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5
Unscrew the six screws in front of the saddles on the guitar. The saddles are the six metallic rectangles that the strings sit on in front of the bridge. Unscrew all six screws initially, then tighten the outer two strings. This creates a pivot-point for the tremolo arm. Locate the hole at the side of the bridge for the tremolo arm. Drop a tremolo bar spring into the hole if you have one.
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6
Screw the tremolo arm into the hole. Turn the tremolo arm around clockwise to tighten it. It needs to be tight enough to move the bridge, but not so tight that you can’t rotate it easily.
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References
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