How to Lubricate a Floating Tremolo’s Knife Edges
Improve Tuning Stability With This Simple DIY Procedure
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If you’ve got a guitar with a floating Floyd Rose™ (or similar) bridge that’s set up and balanced correctly, but returns a little sharp or flat after heavy pull-ups or dive-bombs, here’s an easy DIY procedure you can do to to improve its return-to-pitch.
We’re going to lubricate your tremolo’s knife edges. “Knife edges” are what we call the two pivot points of your tremolo that rest against the main height-adjustment studs:
If your floating tremolo doesn’t have good return-to-pitch after a heavy dive-bomb or pull-up, adding some dry PTFE lubricant to the knife edges may solve the problem.
And here’s the kicker: you don’t have to remove your tremolo nor even remove your guitar strings to do this procedure.
Well, you can completely remove your tremolo or strings, but what a pain eh? Instead, I’ll show you how to do this procedure with the tremolo and strings on, and tuned up to pitch*. It’s surprisingly simple and once you understand the procedure you’ll be able to do it in about 5 minutes.
*Note: If adjusting your trem’s height adjustment studs under full string tension makes you uncomfortable, you absolutely can loosen your strings if you’d like. Loosening your strings simply adds a few more minutes to the procedure, but do whatever makes you most comfortable.
To do this, first block the tremolo (before step #2 below) so that it doesn’t tilt backwards when you loosen the strings. In fact, the trem block alone sometimes will loosen the strings enough to relieve the string tension. If not, simply loosen the strings a bit more after you’ve got the block in place.
Minimum Supplies
You don’t necessarily need these exact items or brands, but they’re what I actually use whenever I do this procedure. They’re products that I know work well. You’re free to use something else, but if you do please research and be sure you’re using the right stuff.
Sharp Plastic Flosser (or similar)
Don’t use wooden toothpicks for this because they’ll absorb too much of the lubricant.
Your Tremolo’s Bridge-Height Hex Wrench
Size varies depending on which tremolo you have, but this is usually 3mm (Floyds) or 4mm (Ibanez).
The Procedure
So let’s get to it.
This is an extremely easy procedure that takes just a few minutes. It’ll seem a bit involved and drawn-out here because I’m trying to “teach”… literally laying everything out and explaining it step-by-step. However, once you understand the basic premise here you can skip a lot of the formalities and knock this out in about 5 minutes or less. A guitar tech doing this procedure during a live show can do it in a few seconds.
1. Put your guitar into a safe, securely supported position.
Having a proper workspace ensures that both of your hands are free to work without your guitar sliding around or moving. You don’t necessarily need a guitar work mat or neck rest like I have here, but they sure make this kind of work easier. They’re great to have for bread-and-butter guitar maintenance too, like string changes and routine cleaning.
If you don’t have a guitar neckrest or work mat like these, don’t worry. I got by for years using bathroom towels as a work mat and stacked books as a neck rest. Just be sure neither the body or the neck of the guitar can potentially slide off. Buy a roll of non-slip padding at the grocery or hardware store. Put that between your guitar and the bathroom towels and your guitar won’t slide around as much.
2. Rotate one of your tremolo studs 180 degrees counter-clockwise.
First, read the “note” in yellow up above if you haven’t already.
Insert your tremolo’s bridge height adjustment hex wrench, and take note of it’s position (which way it’s pointing). Got it? Now, rotate the hex wrench approximately 180 degrees counter-clockwise. This exposes the area of the bridge stud that is normally pressed tight against your tremolo’s knife edge, effectively pointing it forward so that you can add lubricant.
Insert your tremolo’s bridge height adjustment hex wrench and note which way it’s pointing
Rotate your hex wrench 180 degrees counter-clockwise
3. Shake the heck out of your teflon lubricant.
This DuPont teflon lubricant tends to settle and separate, so shake it really well before use. Back when I bought mine (what you see in these photos), the bottle was clear, so it was easy to see when the bottle was well mixed. However, I believe DuPont has repackaged this into a solid black bottle, so you can’t see the liquid inside. Just shake it for 10 – 15 seconds and you should be fine.
Give your DuPont Teflon lubricant a good shake before use
4. Apply lubricant to the sharp end of the plastic flosser/toothpick.
Be sure you do this part over a paper towel, because this stuff is water-thin and a lot of it is going to drip. Put 2-3 drops on the sharp toothpick-end of the flosser so it’s well-coated. You won’t be able to see the lubricant on the tip because it’s clear, but rest assured that it’s on there.
As soon as you’ve done this immediately move to step 5 below.
Definitely do this over a paper towel, because it’s water-thin and most of it will end up on the paper towel.
5. Quickly transfer the lubricant to the tremolo stud’s v-groove.
You need to work kinda fast here, because this type of lubricant air-dries quickly. Rub the sharp tip of the toothpick (where you applied the lubricant) into the v-shaped groove of the tremolo stud. This is the groove that your tremolo’s knife-edge is normally seated into, but we’ve exposed the surface by rotating the stud 180 degrees.
Stick the tip of the toothpick into the v-groove of the tremolo stud and use a wiping motion to transfer the lubricant into the groove
6. Apply a little more lubricant to the stud by repeating steps 4 and 5.
Repeat steps 4 and 5 at least once more to ensure enough lubricant has adhered to the tremolo stud. However, don’t get carried away. This DuPont teflon lubricant is super slick and too much can actually cause the tremolo to slip off the tremolo studs during certain maintenance procedures. It’s rare, but has happened to me more than once.
This lubricant is water-thin and invisible, so you won’t be able to see it on the stud. Just do this procedure 1-2 times and rest assured that you’ve put plenty on there, even though you can’t see it.
7. Repeat this entire process on the other tremolo stud.
Follow the same procedure to lubricate the other tremolo stud.
8. Rotate both studs 180 degrees clockwise–back to where they originally were.
Once you’re done, rotate both tremolo studs back to where they originally were. This effectively rotates the lubricant into that tight space where the knife edges rest against the studs–exactly where you want it.
9. Do a few heavy dive-bombs and pull-ups.
I don’t know if this step is actually necessary, but after doing this procedure I feel compelled to work the trem a bit to distribute the lubricant over the contact points.
I feel that giving the tremolo a quick workout distributes the lubricant over the contact points
Go Forth and Enjoy Better Tuning Stability
There you have it!
If your tremolo is properly set up and balanced and your knife edges aren’t totally destroyed from years of abuse, this little lube job should greatly improve your tremolo’s return-to-pitch whenever you get crazy with the whammy bar. If your tremolo is very old and/or worn, your mileage may vary. This isn’t a silver bullet, but even on severely worn knife edges it should at least help improve your tuning stability.
Also note that, even with this super-slick DuPont teflon lubricant, the procedure will need to be repeated at regular intervals. How long it’ll last, I can’t say. It depends on how old your knife edges are and how heavily you use your tremolo. I’m a heavy (think Vai-style) tremolo user, and I re-apply this teflon lubricant about once a year.
Final Thoughts and Advice
As I’ve alluded to a couple times in this article, this procedure assumes you already understand how to properly set up and balance your floating tremolo, and just need to improve its return-to-pitch. This post isn’t a “how to set up your Floyd” post, nor does it attempt to cover other issues that might be causing tuning instability. That’s a whole other blog post that I plan to write some day soon.
Tremolo still returning sharp or flat?
I hear complaints from guitarists who’ve never used or owned a guitar with a floater–who don’t understand that the expressive freedom you gain with a fully floating tremolo comes with some small tradeoffs. One such tradeoff is tuning stability.
It’s important that those of you with floating tremolos have realistic expectations.
Most of the guitars I’ve owned throughout my life have had fully floating Floyd-style bridges. Only a few of them, as measured with a strobe tuner during play, has ever consistently returned exactly to pitch after a heavy dive bomb. They usually get pretty close–enough that the average human can’t hear a difference, but 100% perfect return-to-pitch is the exception, not the rule.
Now let’s talk about pull-ups, which are a different story. Floating tremolos will almost always return a bit sharp after a heavy pull-up. I can’t explain why, but no floating trem that I’ve ever played or owned has had exact return-to-pitch after a heavy pull-up. So, I use some stealthy little tricks to re-zero the trem during a solo anytime I do a heavy pull-up.
Other Lubricants Work Too
Standard WD-40 is not a lubricant. Do NOT use it for this procedure.
Though I love and highly recommend the DuPont Teflon lubricant, it’s not the only lubricant that’ll work for this procedure, so feel free to shop around for something else if you’d like, but keep a few guidelines in mind:
- Use a “dry” lubricant, not a grease. Greasy lubricants work, but will attract dust, skin, hair, and other unmentionables into those pivot points.
- Look for a “PTFE” lubricant.
- Avoid sprays. They come out of the bottle with way too much force and will end up all over the tremolo and the guitar. You don’t want that. Try to keep the application confined just to the tight space of the pivot point.
- Do not use standard WD-40. WD-40 is not a lubricant, and it’ll accelerate wear-and-tear on your knife edges. However, the WD-40 company does make a good PTFE lubricant, but it’s in a spray can that’ll blast lubricant all over the place.
- Rumor has it that Joe Satriani’s guitar tech uses ChapStick on his knife edges. Hard to argue with that, but even though it may work I avoid it because ChapStick is greasy, and I feel it’ll attract dust and crap into those pivot points.
Question:
Do you have a floating tremolo? If so, how’s the tuning stability? Does it return sharp or flat when you do a heavy dive-bomb or pull-up? Tell me all about it in the “Leave a Reply” section down below!
I know this is an old post, but I had an idea after reading this post (which is a great post by the way, I have ordered the lube you recommended and can’t wait to try it!!).
Just an idea, but what I am going to do is apply the lube to the pivot post BEFORE rotating 180 degrees to make sure the lube can reach both ends of the pivot post equally. Then turn 180 degrees, apply to the other side of the pivot post, and then return to “neutral” position.
Good idea huh?
Also, do you think I can use a q-tip? cheers
I think the rotation idea sounds like a good one. It certainly can’t hurt.
As far as the q-tip, I find they’re just too big and fluffy for my taste (they cover too large of an area), and absorb too much of the lubricant. However, that doesn’t mean they won’t work.
In fact, I recently discovered pointed q-tips (the ladies use them for makeup application). Just search Amazon for “pointed cotton swabs” and you’ll find all kinds.
Those are what I use for this job now, and I much prefer them over sharp plastic or toothpicks.
You should not turn the studs with full tension which permanently damages knives. Instead, you should loosen the strings, pull the bridge back and apply the whole process you’ve mentioned above.
That’s what I stated in the yellow note at the top of the page: If doing this under full tension makes someone nervous, then they can loosen their strings first if it helps set their mind at ease.
The only downside to blocking the trem and completely loosening all strings is that it’ll add a good chunk of time to the whole procedure. If someone isn’t good at rebalancing a floating trem, this can be quite a challenge (I know, because I get 2-3 emails a week on the subject).
Thanks Guitar Answer Guy!
You’re welcome Steve! Any questions, just let me know.
I wanted to change strings and clean up a squier strat that I picked up at a pawn shop. The strings were stuck and would not budge so I had the utterly most stupidly brilliant idea to squirt a little wd40 into each stringhole in the back of the strat, thinking it would loosen the stuck ball ends.
Yes, I really did that. And now that I know better, I feel like doing a ‘Pete Townsend’ move on the guitar but I won’t.
I ended up poking a thin allen wrench into the string saddle holes to get the ball ends free.
So now the strings are removed and I want to un-wd40 all parts of the tremolo.
By now maybe you’re done laughing your ykw off and can give me some advice.
I’ve unscrewed each string saddle from the tremolo bridge but I’m not sure how to get them and their screws and springs un-wd40’d.
I used q-tips down each string hole in the back in an attempt to remove the wd40 but I’m sure it’s not all gone.
My questions are:
1. Do I really need to take the tremolo bridge completely apart?
2. What do I use to un-wd40 the string saddles and their springs and screws and clean the tremolo plate?
3. Anything else I need to know.
Thanks,
Mr. WD40
Hi Steve.
Really, the best thing you can do is just remove as much residue as possible with a soft, clean, dry cloth. Or, for smaller spaces, you’re on the right track with q-tips. Just remove as much as you can, and you should be fine.
The main problem with WD-40 isn’t that it damages anything. Aside from making some parts so slick that they won’t stay put (for example, imagine a truss rod bolt that slowly loosens itself over time due to normal string vibrations), the biggest hassle with WD-40 is that the residue makes finish (lacquer) repairs a big pain in the butt. For example, if you need to drop-fill a chip that has EVER been exposed to WD-40, paint and lacquer just won’t stick to the spot.
So, remove as much as you can, but you can rest easy knowing that it’s not going to really “damage” anything–not just from one mistake like this. Do keep WD-40 off your fretboard wood though. A little won’t be an issue, but too much over time (for example, I’ve heard of people using WD-40 as a string cleaner) can prevent the fretboard wood from absorbing moisture, or cause other issues with frets, fretboard binding, etc.
Hi Sir! The Ibanez is fine now, but the guitar with floyd rose no…John Suhr said that ofr are not anymore what they were in the past…I have a hybrid between ofr and 1500, the German baseplate is pretty much new, but is garbage…I will block it with a wood shim…This units are no longer lasting….I will block the ibanez too, or just using without the whammy…Andy James knew from the beginnings that you can’t record with floating units, unless you have tons of them(being endorser)…Beside some guys like Rusty Cooley or Jeff Loomis who are still Floyd rose “endorsers”, nobody is not using them anymore…Who are using them, are just loosing the time…Cheers Sir!
Hi Sir! I use floating units on my 7 string guitars…The stability is mostly the same on both of them…After pushing into the bar, the low B is going sharp, like a half of a semitone…Do you really think that this ptfe subtances can help? I really don’t like this issue, but I have to take measures against this problem…I am waiting for the answer….By the way, I am using 10-46/60 in B standard and both guitars are setted up properly and the intonation also…I use the John Petrucci methode:Neck as straight as possible and low action:1.7mm between low B and twelve fret and 1.3mm between high E and twelve fret…I also use heavy tension springs on both(for OFR the 3 red ones, for Ibanez the ESPR 2003, 3 springs)…Cheers Sir!
Hi Alex. It’s impossible for me to know for sure–because it depends on the condition of your trem’s knife edges. If they’re severely worn-down (which means they’re more of a ‘blunt edge’ now than a knife edge), lubricating them might help a little or not at all, but it’s doubtful it’ll completely eliminate any issues. On the other hand, if the knife edges are still in good shape, this should help.
For example, I have a 20-year-old Ibanez RG2027X 7-string that has severely worn knife edges. They’re so bad, in fact, that you can’t use the tremolo at all anymore or it’ll go severely out of tune. No amount of lubrication will fix it, so I’ll have to take more drastic measures (e.g. replacing the entire baseplate of the trem).
You really have nothing to lose, so give it a try. If it doesn’t work, then the worst-case is that you’re out less than $5 for the bottle of teflon lubricant. However, you can use it around the house for other issues (squeaky door hinges, for example).
Greetings. Thanks for the info! Kinda off topic but it’s hard to find my answer on the net. I have an Ibanez with a licensed under Floyd Rose Trem. Hope you can help me. What is the best way to make your bar not so stiff while using? I use 9’s and two springs and a Tremsetter in the middle. I keep bridge level. Sometimes leaning back ever so slightly to give me more lowering room. Thanks for your time! Hope to hear from you, James L.
Hi James. That’s a tough one, because for a less-stiff tremolo I would’ve recommended exactly what you did: go down to 2 springs and use the lightest strings possible. You can’t go down to 1 spring because it won’t have enough force to counteract even an ultra-light set of strings… like the many sets of 8’s I list in that article. If you’re only using 2 springs and 9’s right now, you’re basically at the lowest-limit of what you can achieve as far as stiffness. That Tremsetter is probably contributing some extra stiffness, for sure, but you probably don’t want to remove that–especially if you’re only using 2 springs. With your current setup, that trem is going to be extremely sensitive to hand pressure and whatnot, and easy to accidentally knock out of tune while playing.
If anyone reading this has some ideas on this, definitely chime in here and let us both know.
really great info about maintenance thanks a lot.
i am also White guitar fan. there is not a full photo of guitar that includes headstock.
can you share the brand of that White guitar in working mat. it is realy awesome. thanks a lot.
Hi mrt. That guitar is my white Ibanez RGD3127, which you can see on the Ibanez website: Ibanez RGD3127 Prestige
In my guitar (shown in this article), I’ve replaced the stock white pickups with a set of chrome DiMarzio’s which were made custom for me. The bridge pickup is an Illuminator 7 and the neck pickup is an Ionizer 7.
Eventually, I’ll take a decent full-length photo of this particular guitar and include it in the my personal gear section.
I’m trying to understand the question, should I be adjusting the screws on the bridge periodically ? I have a DMV Krammer 2000, and the bridge has independent cradles the strings sit in. by adjusting these ounce in a while, won’t that effect the action or harmonics ? or do I just adjust them and out them back where the performance is the best.
The short answer is yes, you can and should adjust your bridge saddles… but only if you’re having problems with action and/or intonation. Such an adjustment may require you to make other adjustments to your guitars setup. Rarely can you get away with making just a single adjustment on a guitar without also having to make minor adjustments to the truss rod, pickup heights, saddles, and maybe even the neck angle (if it’s a bolt on).
Based on the way your question is worded and the actual words you’re using to describe the parts, I would highly recommend first getting a book on guitar maintenance and or guitar setups. There are a couple good books, as well as some shorter guides that teach “just setups” toward the end of this blog post:
Guitar Setups: What They Are and Why You (Might) Need One?
Read that blog post, watch the setup video, and get yourself a good setup book–preferably one of the ones I recommend there. Before you go making adjustments like this, it’ll help to have a basic understanding of all your guitar’s parts, how they all work together, and even better… you’ll know how to do a complete (and proper) setup on your own guitars.
I have always believed, turning those height screws, while strings are under tension was bad.
I know those surfaces are hardened steel, but very thin, at point of contact. I do lube, but never rotate height screws, without loosening the strings first. I would add a disclaimer to your post, to be safe…
Dan, you don’t have to loosen or remove your strings. Turning the bridge studs under tension won’t damage the studs (I’ve asked Floyd Rose reps in-person at the NAMM show). For the Ibanez owners out there… the Ibanez owner’s manual actually states that turning the studs under full-tension won’t damage them. To confirm, search google for “floyd rose manual” (or similar keywords) and you’ll find many different tremolo owner’s manuals. None advise loosening or removing the strings before turning the bridge studs. They either don’t mention it, or some actually state that turning under tension is okay.
If you find one that does, please post the link for me so I can check it out, though it would be in the minority.
HOWEVER, it’s your guitar, and you need to do what makes you comfortable. If you feel better loosening or removing the strings first, you absolutely CAN do so. Loosening or removing strings before turning the bridge studs certainly won’t damage anything, it’ll just add a little extra time to this procedure.