Strings get caught on saddles/ Bends cause strings to go flat.

[clay-man]

So there's been something I've been dealing with ever since I've had my guitar, and I've done work arounds, but I might as well ask it here to see if anyone can help.

 

I cannot use the whammy bar and do bends without sacrificing tuning stability. It seems to mostly effect the B and G strings.

If I tune the guitar in tune in conjunction with the whammy bar, it will go back in tune everytime I hit the whammy bar deeply.

After that, if I do bends on the G and B, the strings will go flat in tuning. 

 

I end up not using the whammy that much and just tune by streching the G and B string until they don't go flat anymore, so that bends do not cause the guitar to go out of tune any further, but this causes me to not be able to use the whammy bar too much. The deeper I use the whammy bar, the more the strings get reset onto the saddles. 

When I do bends, I believe the strings get caught on the saddles instead of sliding back from being flat to being in tune.

 

I've determined it's not getting stuck on the nut, because I've tried tests to see if applying any pressure near the nut causes tuning problems, but it does not. I've applied pressure on the strings near the saddle and it does cause it to go out of tune.

 

 

 

Is there anything I can use to make the strings go back in tune? Obviously this is a problem because I can't put anything damaging on the piezos. 

[klangmaler]

Try this:

 

GHS (Rene Martinez) Graphit All Guitar Lube

 

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/162-2279982-0894868?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Rene+Martinez+Graphit+All+Guitar+Lube

[clay-man]

It won't damage the piezo assembly?

[GearFarm]

Do you have the trem decked or floating?

I float all my trems and have little to no tuning problems.

If the high strings ever do seem a bit out after aggressive bends or dives, usually just a pull up/down on the bar will reset you to the zero point.

[eenymason]

 

So there's been something I've been dealing with ever since I've had my guitar, and I've done work arounds, but I might as well ask it here to see if anyone can help.

 

I cannot use the whammy bar and do bends without sacrificing tuning stability. It seems to mostly effect the B and G strings.

If I tune the guitar in tune in conjunction with the whammy bar, it will go back in tune everytime I hit the whammy bar deeply.

After that, if I do bends on the G and B, the strings will go flat in tuning. 

 

I end up not using the whammy that much and just tune by streching the G and B string until they don't go flat anymore, so that bends do not cause the guitar to go out of tune any further, but this causes me to not be able to use the whammy bar too much. The deeper I use the whammy bar, the more the strings get reset onto the saddles. 

When I do bends, I believe the strings get caught on the saddles instead of sliding back from being flat to being in tune.

 

I've determined it's not getting stuck on the nut, because I've tried tests to see if applying any pressure near the nut causes tuning problems, but it does not. I've applied pressure on the strings near the saddle and it does cause it to go out of tune.

 

 

 

Is there anything I can use to make the strings go back in tune? Obviously this is a problem because I can't put anything damaging on the piezos. 

 

I don't get that they'd come back to being "flat." It makes sense that if the strings are "grabbing" at the piezos, then when the bar is released, and the bridge settles in it's resting position, then the strings should be sharp, not flat. This has happened to me with Strat whammy bars, to varying degrees. I find that the traditional style bars (secured by 6 screws, not the knife edge into two posts), to be better for returning to "zero", when set up correctly. My variax 600 wore badly on one side, causing metal fatigue, and chunks to come off it - useless!

Big Bends Nut Sauce on the nut was good, and if you don't want to apply that to your saddles, then graphite would suffice there, when you change strings. Maybe your actual piezos are moving forward when there's less pressure on them from the strings at the low point of your "dive-bomb". This could cause them to come back "flat", if you think about it.

Also, Graphtech Ghost saddles would (I'd say from experience), improve whatever tuning problem you have using your whammy bar.

[clay-man]

Do you have the trem decked or floating?

I float all my trems and have little to no tuning problems.

If the high strings ever do seem a bit out after aggressive bends or dives, usually just a pull up/down on the bar will reset you to the zero point.

really minimal floating. Basically parallel to the body.

[clay-man]

I don't get that they'd come back to being "flat." It makes sense that if the strings are "grabbing" at the piezos, then when the bar is released, and the bridge settles in it's resting position, then the strings should be sharp, not flat. This has happened to me with Strat whammy bars, to varying degrees. I find that the traditional style bars (secured by 6 screws, not the knife edge into two posts), to be better for returning to "zero", when set up correctly. My variax 600 wore badly on one side, causing metal fatigue, and chunks to come off it - useless!

Big Bends Nut Sauce on the nut was good, and if you don't want to apply that to your saddles, then graphite would suffice there, when you change strings. Maybe your actual piezos are moving forward when there's less pressure on them from the strings at the low point of your "dive-bomb". This could cause them to come back "flat", if you think about it.

Also, Graphtech Ghost saddles would (I'd say from experience), improve whatever tuning problem you have using your whammy bar.

 

 

Sorry, what I meant was, that if using the whammy bar means that the strings get caught in the saddle instead of falling back to zero, then it's coming back sharp. Bending causes it to fall to normal.