Installing A Tremolo (and Replacing the TremKing)
I finally had enough with the TremKing so out it came.
Plugging Holes
After unscrewing the TremKing from the guitar body I was left with three holes which would all need to be plugged before I could drill for the Hipshot inserts.
So obviously I began by taping the guitar off with masking tape so as not to accidentally scratch the finish while I’m working.
To plug the holes I used toothpicks in the same way as if I was plugging a stripped screw hole.
After stripping the toothpicks roughly in half, I coated each piece with wood glue and then jammed as many of them as I could, into each hole
Trimmed the toothpicks with scissors…
…and then cleaned it up with a razor.
Now that the old holes were filled in, it was time to drill for the inserts for the Hipshot.
Drilling
Obviously, before I even thought about drilling, I needed to measure up and mark of where the holes would need to go.
Originally I was intending to drill the inserts with a hand drill using a doweling jig, but to be safe I ended up finding a friend with a drill press so that I could get the holes drilled perfectly vertical. In hindsight though, the drill press was probably overkill and I would go with the doweling jig if I needed to do it again in future.
After drilling I just pushed the inserts in…
…and then gently hammered them tight with a rubber mallet.
And believe it or not, thats all there is to it! The main trem assembly just rests against the inserts.
And the screws and springs went in like any other trem.
Now that the TremKing is lying on a rubbish heap somewhere, I’m back to a simple, floating trem that works and actually stays in tune.
Ahhh… Happy days are here again…
Ty – good to see that you replaced the Tremking without too much hassle. Hopefully your new tremolo is keeping in tune well. Just as an update on my Fender Strat, I’ve installed the Tremol-no on my floating Kahler and it’s happy days for me – no tuning issues. I’ve also installed the Kinman Woodstock Plus pickups with the K9 and also enjoying the hum-free and immense tonal possibilities. I’m using the “popped out” M&B pickups in series quite a lot for a warmer over-driven sound.
From the pictures above I seen that you have copper insulation in your cavities. Did you install it yourself and did you notice a difference? I’m wanting to put some on the back of my pickguard but was wanting an opinion on the difference it makes in your cavities.
Thanks for your work on this blog. Greg
Greg – Great that the Kahler is working for you now – its nice to have a trem that behaves itself
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more with the usefulness of having the series option with the K9 – it does do the ‘humbucker-esque’ thing very well.
Re: the copper shielding. I did it myself before installing the pickups. Since I’ve never heard the Kinman’s without the shielding, I don’t know if it makes a difference. Most people who have tried these pickups without shielding reckon they are perfectly quiet anyway, and generally don’t bother to shield their pickup cavities (of course you do still need to shield the controls).
Since you need to shield the controls (regardless of whether the pickups are hum canceling or not), I figured ‘what the hell’ and just did the whole thing
Personally though, I found installing the tape in the cavities a bit finicky so next time around I’ll heed Chris Kinman’s advice (http://www.kinman.com/image/install_tmp/Shielding.pdf) and use the conductive paint for the cavities. He’s got plenty more shielding info on his site as well, but you’ll need to login to his site to get there, which means I can’t link to it from here.
One very important thing that is mentioned on the Kinman site is to make sure that the shielding does not come too close to the pickups (either under the pickguard, or up the walls of the pickup cavity) as this can ‘unballance’ the hum cancelling effect and actually make them noisier
Best of luck,
Ty