Gotoh 510 Tremolo Installation

[stratamania]

The pickguard is very close with a Gotoh 510 in any case. So your concerns may be misplaced.

You might also want to have a read through the Quilted Purple Strat build - link in my signature below. It has a Gotoh 510 from before they were a standard Warmoth offering and it was a custom rout. It is quite an old thread now but there are lots of photos etc who knows you may find some of it useful.

 

[Ozopart]

The pickguard is very close with a Gotoh 510 in any case. So your concerns may be misplaced.

You might also want to have a read through the Quilted Purple Strat build - link in my signature below. It has a Gotoh 510 from before they were a standard Warmoth offering and it was a custom rout. It is quite an old thread now but there are lots of photos etc who knows you may find some of it useful.

Let me first say how much I truly appreciate your help and your patience. I can get a fingernail between the pickguard and the bridge so I think I am OK there. Given that I want to learn how to do things myself, I am going to exercise some patience here and work through trial and error to get this right on my own. Today I tweaked things a bit using the credit card under the bridge "trick". The heel of my trem is now floating a bit. I still haven't gotten the front to back of the trem entirely parallel to the body, but I am getting closer. The guitar seems to be staying in tune better. Still not perfect, but better. I am thinking that I need to invest in a chromatic tuner, maybe something like the Peterson StrobostompHD to help with tuning during setup. I like the idea of a rackmount tuner but I haven't found one that gets good reviews. Anyway, I am working through this and feel that I am getting incrementally better. Best I learn to do it for myself as I have other acoustic guitars and hope to build more electric guitars in the future.
I will look through the Quilted Purple Strat build link you provided.
Again, thank you soooo much for your help and your patience.It is much appreciated.

 

[TBurst Std]

Keep in mind, parallel to the body is not a requirement. 
What is:
That the front edge of the bridge have clearance from everything (body, pick guard, etc) in its range of intended movement.

Keeping parallel to the body lessons impact on intonation in use.

Personally for 6 point terms, I prefer an angle rather than parallel ( for reasons I won’t go into as they are not applicable for your situation).

Basically, set your bridge posts’ height so you have clearance for the front of bridge plate for intended movement.

Fix the tail of the bridge for the moment so it doesn’t move. (Wedge, credit cards, etc). Set your initial saddle heights for action.

Now tighten claw screws slightly each until you device (wedge/cards) fall out. 

Retune

Now go through your std stop tail adjustments for action, intonation , etc.

 

[Ozopart]

Upon further examination of my setup I found the following issue. Not sure if it is literally a problem that needs to be fixed, or if it is OK. The issue is that the 2 trem claw screws seem to be in crooked. Both are angled upward from where they screw into the body to the vertical face of the claw where the springs attach. I am attaching 2 pictures in hopes that you can see the issue. I really can't recall them being crooked when I installed them before adding the springs but being new to this, perhaps I just messed up and did this wrong. If so, is it possible to take the springs out, remove the claw by removing the 2 screws, and do something to get the screws to go in straight. I am hoping I didn't cause a critical problem here. If I can remove everything and try to get the screws parallel with the body, is there something I need to do to make sure I maintain the integrity of the holes in the body that the screws go into?

 

[Ozopart]

I am reading through your quilted thread and wondering if the tremol-no is still a solution you recommend? If so, do you know which model works with my Gotoh 510? I am thinking this one: Tremol-No™ Small Clamp-type
Part # BP-2007-010.

 

[stratamania]

It is normal that the screws that attach and adjust the claw are angled - due to the geometry of how the holes are drilled and how they are also screwed in it is not possible for them to be parallel or is it needed.

I do know which Tremol-no to use but I do not recommend or advise which one to use at this stage as it will introduce more variables and you need to get the basics right first.

 

[Sadie-f]

Ozopart,

I would throw in that you're overthinking things a little . I appreciate your approach of change one thing at a time and this does make a good reason to start by blocking the trem, or as you did, using a plastic (CC) shim to support it.

So rather than think of a lot of variables, I'd suggest this order of operations (worked for me, first try, granted I'd already done some of this when I swapped a neck with a 16" fretboard radius for the original in my fender.

1. Get your trem in about the playing position you want to use it. This means both height reasonable close to the action you want, and angle where you want it. do not worry at this point about if it's in tune, but strings not loose nor set above normal tension (they can break of course).

2. set string heights / action using the very small hex screws in the saddles, you're wanting to match the radius of the fretboard (strings 3,4 highest, 1,6 lowest. I like a pretty low action and don't often push my strings hard, so long as you're not buzzing against the frets when you pluck at 11, you're good.

If you can't get the action right on all strings, go back to step one and adjust the two bridge-pivot screws. All things considered you don't want to be jacking the saddles up high, if 1 & 6 are lifted very far off the bridge baseplate, then  you probably want to increase the bridge plate higher.

3. set the intonation, this is adjusting the back screws of the bridge to make the string longer / shorter. This will affect tuning / tension, so you may want to adjust tuning at this point, but if you don't mind listening to off-key tones, it's not important If you want to use an electric tuner, then in-tune probably helps. Play  a string fretted at the 12th fret and then play the harmonic at the 12th. The note should be the same.

If the fretted note is higher than the harmonic, the string needs to be lengthened -- tighten the saddle position screw a bit, if it's lower then loosen it to shorten the string.

You probably don't need to iterate between these 3 basic steps, but it's OK of you do.

Now that that's all done, you can make final adjustments to the tremolo spring tree and tuning to bring the bridge angle to exactly where you want it.

Lastly, if you change your strings to lighter or heavier, you will likely need to adjust the springs tree or even add / remove springs. Of course you may also need to adjust the neck truss-rod for if you do this, I din't *need* to when I switched up to Medium strings for a while on my Fender, but I did need to go from 2 tremolo springs to 3.

 

[Ozopart]

Ozopart,

I would throw in that you're overthinking things a little . I appreciate your approach of change one thing at a time and this does make a good reason to start by blocking the trem, or as you did, using a plastic (CC) shim to support it.

So rather than think of a lot of variables, I'd suggest this order of operations (worked for me, first try, granted I'd already done some of this when I swapped a neck with a 16" fretboard radius for the original in my fender.

1. Get your trem in about the playing position you want to use it. This means both height reasonable close to the action you want, and angle where you want it. do not worry at this point about if it's in tune, but strings not loose nor set above normal tension (they can break of course).

2. set string heights / action using the very small hex screws in the saddles, you're wanting to match the radius of the fretboard (strings 3,4 highest, 1,6 lowest. I like a pretty low action and don't often push my strings hard, so long as you're not buzzing against the frets when you pluck at 11, you're good.

If you can't get the action right on all strings, go back to step one and adjust the two bridge-pivot screws. All things considered you don't want to be jacking the saddles up high, if 1 & 6 are lifted very far off the bridge baseplate, then  you probably want to increase the bridge plate higher.

3. set the intonation, this is adjusting the back screws of the bridge to make the string longer / shorter. This will affect tuning / tension, so you may want to adjust tuning at this point, but if you don't mind listening to off-key tones, it's not important If you want to use an electric tuner, then in-tune probably helps. Play  a string fretted at the 12th fret and then play the harmonic at the 12th. The note should be the same.

If the fretted note is higher than the harmonic, the string needs to be lengthened -- tighten the saddle position screw a bit, if it's lower then loosen it to shorten the string.

You probably don't need to iterate between these 3 basic steps, but it's OK of you do.

Now that that's all done, you can make final adjustments to the tremolo spring tree and tuning to bring the bridge angle to exactly where you want it.

Lastly, if you change your strings to lighter or heavier, you will likely need to adjust the springs tree or even add / remove springs. Of course you may also need to adjust the neck truss-rod for if you do this, I din't *need* to when I switched up to Medium strings for a while on my Fender, but I did need to go from 2 tremolo springs to 3.

Thanks for the advice, I will give it a try today. Things are getting better but I am definitely not satisfactorily "tuned in" yet. As to strings, I just completed this build and I have the first set of strings on it now. I went with the following strings to start. (D'Addario EXL110BT Nickel Wound Electric Guitar Strings, Balanced Tension Regular Light, 10-46) Not sure if I am happy with them though. No big deal as I can try different things over time. For my acoustic guitars I have generally used Elixir strings but did try some D'Addario strings recently. They play fine but seem more prone to breakage than the Elixir's. Thanks again for the help. It truly is so appreciated that people here are willing to provide others with the benefit of their experience.