Blocking a Tremolo Bridge

Don’t like that wobbly bridge on your Strat? Fed up with it moving about when you bend strings or (oh no) going out of tune when a string breaks? Well, block that bridge.

Guitar Repair, SetupGerry Hayes27 July 2022guitar, bass, repair, luthier, strat, tremolo, vibrato, bridge, springs, setup, clapton

Strat Elite - Jammed Tremolo Arm

The whammy bar is jammed in this Strat Elite. Trapped. Won’t come out. What’s to be done?

Guitar RepairGerry Hayes2 July 2020guitar, repair, luthier, strat, elite, tremolo, whammy, bridge, vibrato

Why have a neck angle on a guitar?

Why do some guitars have necks that angle back towards the player while some don’t? What’s the reason for this angled neck? Do we even need it?

SetupGerry Hayes3 May 2019repair, guitar, bass, jazzmaster, strat, les paul, archtop, neck, bridge, shim

Addendum: Locking Tuner Advice Debunked?

So, after publishing the advice to always tune UP to a note for stability, I had a lot of questions about some advice from Fender saying the opposite when using locking tuners. Should you always tune up or should you sometimes go past the note and tune down?

Where’s my Debunking Hat?

Guitar RepairGerry Hayes13 November 2018troubleshooting tuning, tuning, tuners, locking tuners, fender, strat, setup, guitar, bass, machine head, tuning peg

How to fix loose and rattly bridge screws

Sometimes, it seems like elves visit your music room every night and loosen some of the screws on your guitar — usually the saddle screws. Why do these screws keep getting loose and rattling about?

And more importantly, how can you prevent it…

Guitar RepairGerry Hayes2 August 2018repair, diy, guitar, bass, strat, bridge, saddle, screw

This time it's staggered height tuners

More ranting. Now it’s staggered height tuners that feel my wrath. Well, not wrath exactly but I do have a bit of a problem with them.

Check it out…

Guitar HardwareGerry Hayes7 June 2018guitar, bass, setup, headstock, tuners, machine head, tuning peg, strat, tele, fender, repair, nut

Balancing Pickup Output/Volume

Now that we've looked at individual string balance for pickups, and looked at the problems with incorrectly adjusted pickups, let's get each of the pickups in your guitar or bass balanced so they sound good.

Let's go…

SetupGerry Hayes24 October 2017guitar, bass, setup, pickup, les paul, sg, strat, tele, single coil, volume, output

Problems due to pickup height

Your pickups are too high.

Well, if you're like most guitarists and bassists, your pickups are too high. Sure, it's all about the power but there are a number of drawbacks to setting your pickups too close to the strings.

Check it out…

SetupGerry Hayes17 October 2017pickups, setup, electronics, guitar, bass, fret buzz, tuning, intonation, humbucker, single coil, strat

Electric Guitar String Ground

In an electric guitar or bass, it's usually necessary to 'ground' the strings.

By this, I mean that all the strings should have a path to ground — a wire that connects them to a ground point inside the instrument. Usually that ground point will be the back of a pot or the sleeve of the output jack.

When it's properly grounded, you can touch the strings of your guitar and you'll usually hear the background hiss reduce. Yay.

There’s a common misconception that by touching the strings you are grounding the guitar.

Guitar WiringGerry Hayes7 February 2017wiring, electronics, ground, strat, tremolo, hum

Sketchy Setups available now