Advice from all Wilkison users

[AndyG]

I call on this board's infinite expertise and wisdom ...

I picked up a Carvin Bolt (dirt cheap!) a while back.  Wonderful guitar EXCEPT that I can't keep the Wilkinson trem in tune, even with mild use.  The guitar has Sperzel tuners and a standard black (don't know if its graphite or not) nut.  Now, I want to swap out the neck for a Warmoth with a maple fingerboard, and I'm wondering if an LSR roller nut will help the situation, or if I should just take a crowbar (figuratively) to the Wilky, plug the holes and install a Floyd.

Thoughts?

Thanx!!!!!

 

[blue313]

It's hard to call without seeing your guitar, but a good 80-90% of tuning stability issues are in the nut.  Aside from bad knife edges these sort of things are rarely the fault of the trem itself.

The LSR will help, and a FR locking nut will definitely help, but cleaning up your existing nut slots will also help (and is a bit cheaper than a new neck).  Try some pencil lead in the slots first.

 

[AndyG]

Yeah, but I actually want a new neck!!!

I don't think the knife edges are worn ... I'm pretty sure the issue is with the nut.  I am actually leaning towards the Floyd, as when I do use the bar, it is usually for dives and the like.  However, if I know that a Wilkinson + LSR will stay in tune with extreme(ish) use, that will save me money, and the headache of having to re-drill the mounting posts.

 

[Justinginn]

Gahh please no on the floyd. This board is floyd-dominated enough.  :laughing7: The only problem I've got with the Wilkinson is that it doesn't dive far enough.  :guitaristgif: Tuning is great so maybe just check the nut, make sure it's graphtech, stuff like that.

 

[blue313]

However, if I know that a Wilkinson + LSR will stay in tune with extreme(ish) use, that will save me money, and the headache of having to re-drill the mounting posts.

Define extreme(ish).  Are we talking Steve Vai or just CC Deville?  :laughing7:

If you really want to wank, it's hard to beat the Floyd Rose double locking system for tuning stability. 

 

[tfarny]

Yerp, Floyd Rose is definitely for wankers!  :icon_jokercolor: Sorry, couldn't resist.

Tuning problems are always the nut until you have definitively eliminated it as the problem. Widen out those slots with some nut files, they will pay for themselves with one less trip to the tech. Make the slots about .004 wider than the strings you have in mind, then grind down the top of the nut so the strings are just barely resting in little tiny slots. Then pencil lead to lube everything. Once you've done that, if it still goes out of tune, look for other problems.

 

[mullyman]

Yeah, I went so far as to get the nut changed on my Warmoth and it still didn't help my tuning problems with the Wilky. I would suggest going with the roller nut if you have that option available to you. But that's just me and I'm sure there will be plenty of people to shoot down my advice. Which is fair enough. To each his own. If I was going with Wilkinson again, which I won't, I'd go roller nut.
MULLY
going hardtail next time around

 

[AndyG]

Well, I have a guitar with a Floyd for the wild stuff.  But I want the Wilkinson to stay in tune after doing, say, a 3-step dive.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

The least amount of friction points between the saddles & the tuners will minimize obstacles in tuning stability.  While the wilky is a fine trem, much of it is in the setup.

When I worked at Warmoth, there was a soloist body with strat neck, Schaller mini locking tuners, coran nut, and Floyd bridge.  I'd dive it to totally slack, & pull it up into orbit and it wouldn't go out of tune.

Likewise, Rob Rounds the sales manager had a couple of personal strats with Sperzel's, LSR nut on one/standard strat nut on the other, both with American Standard bridges, slung with  11's, & neither wouldn't go out of tune either.

So long as you have a straight string path, enough downward tension to keep the strings seated on the nut so the strings don't buzz, and a well filed nut with lube posts on the bridge end, lots of non-locking trems can stay in tune quite nicely.

If you're just looking for a reason to order a new neck, then by all means, call em up, but if you're really concerned about its performance, consider the initial setup and the reasonably minimal ongoing maintainence.

 

[donw]

I don't know if you've visited the Carvin forum, but I read of a lot of people having trouble with their Carvin Wilki's. See here http://www.carvinguitars.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=17231&highlight=gotoh+wilki Several have replaced them with Gotoh VS-100's, which have the same mounting holes, and had good success.

 

[kdownes]

Something else to consider for your new neck: get a flat peghead, a la strat, tele, arrow, etc, with the straightest possible path from the nut to the tuning machines.  Avoid necks with angled pegheads as they will complicate, if not make impossible, keeping it in tune – I say this both from advice from Warmoth and from my own experience.  A few years ago I ordered a strat neck with an angled peghead thinking it would be great for easy truss rod adjustments, and I simultaneously had a Wilky installed to replace my old strat-style bridge.  The two did not play nice together at all, despite Schaller locking tuners and an LSR nut.  So I sold that neck and got a regular strat neck, Sperzels, a graphtech nut, and a pro set up, and haven't had any tuning problems since then.

 

[donw]

silent_k, you put an LSR roller nut on an angled headstock neck? That was your problem - LSR's are made for straight headstocks only.

 

[kdownes]

silent_k, you put an LSR roller nut on an angled headstock neck? That was your problem - LSR's are made for straight headstocks only.

Yea, it was a desperate move that was actually recommended by the tech, and boy, it sure didn't work.  Lucky for me I was able to sell the neck on ebay at not a huge loss considering that it was essentially brand new and had nice tuning machines installed, and it's been straight headstocks all the way since then.  Live and learn.