Japan Pro Mod

[HammerBros]

Yo!
I'm new here. I live in the UK and I've been the owner of a pro mod for about a week!

Hopefully this is the correct bit of the forum to post about it.
It is a white with chrome hardware Japan made San Dimas Style 1.

It is the first guitar I've owned in 14 years that is equipped with a trem. My first guitar was a squire strat with a fender style trem. Since then I've been using Epiphone and eventually Gibson style guitars. Currently I have a Les Paul Custom and a ES-333 in addition to the Charvel.

I like it a lot! it is a lot of guitar for the money.
I'm struggling with the floyd a little, well, I wasn't, but i had a band practice recently and I had some tuning problems. Afterward I made sure the strings were stretched and locked them back down. I still had some issues after that which may not have been helped by the lack of battery in my tuner.
Another thing I struggled with when unlocking the strings, were the Grover tuners. They tuned upwards ok but when going down, they stick and slip. That got REALLY annoying when trying to tune up prior to locking the strings.

so.
I wanted to ask.
Has anyone got one of these and upgraded the floyd block, or the tuners?
cheers!

[Grim]

Yo dawg, can ya dig it?

[wilkinsi]

Try removing the Grover tuners, they might not be flush with the holes.

[HammerBros]

only my friends from Baltimore and Detroit say 'dawg'. can i dig the guitar? yes! 'Can I dig it' in the sense of quote from The Warriors... that's good too. Good movie.

[HammerBros]

hey Wilkinsi. I don't really understand what you mean. DO you mean they might not be fastened through the headstock correctly?

[wilkinsi]

Could on a non-flush angle. Take them off, put them back on again. The actual tuner you're trying to turn may be getting stuck. Sounds like the assembly was rushed.

[HammerBros]

Agreed! i'll check that out.
yeah, when i was trying it out I noticed a few things...
The floyd wasn't level with the strings in tune... it was slightly forward.
There is a bad solder joint where the neck pickup meets the switch. I didn't find this while demo'ing it because it is intermittent. If you flick the switch lightly sometimes then the neck pickups has a big drop in output. I can fix that though.
I was reading the manual... when nothing is fretted, the bottom of the low E string from the top of the 12th fret is 2.5mm... it should be 1.5mm apparently. So the action feels pretty high.
I'm going to take it for a setup and hopefully the tech can walk me through it. I'll also be changing the pups. The pot and switch seem good quality. Just seems like the setup hasn't been done... not at least to the factory spec described in the manual.
I kind of brushed that off when demo'ing it. Decided a proper setup job was needed and that you don't always get a pro setup job on instruments in general. I know the shop I got it from had never tried setting it up. It was just a small town store.
cheers for the tip on the tuners. If i have problems after that, maybe ill change them. seems pointless to put any super expensive tuners on a guitar with a locking nut though. Just needs some nice ones to make string changes easier. I was really struggling.

[HammerBros]

Hey All,

I'm having tuning stability issues.
everything 'looks' ok however, when the nut is unlocked and i tune using the grovers, it stick and slips a lot when tuning downwards. Going upwards it sometimes does nothing and then slips up.

also, when the nut is locked. I find pulling up makes the strings all return sharp, and diving returns the strings flat. slightly.

I'm going to put new strings on tonight (EB 9's for this, though im used to 10's on a les paul but didn't want to go that far just yet) and see if that makes a difference.

any more tips? anyone use graphtech saddles? worth it?
action is fine. trem is level. knife edge looks ok.

[Grandturk]

Make sure the locking nut is tightly secured to the neck. These can work loose the first time they're installed. When you have te strings off, back out the screws and then tighten them up while applying pressure to the nut down and towards the fretboard.

Try tightening the tuner buttons on the grovers. The button itself may be slipping.

Take the back cover off and make sure the springs aren't catching on Anything in the cavity.

[HammerBros]

Thanks. I forgot about checking the nut fastening to the neck. The springs are fine.
I'm quite tempted to put 10's in at some point. but... first things first.

I thought about taking off the pulldown bar from behind the nut, and just trying to tune it repeatedly... see if that makes a difference. It's probably unlikely the strings would catch on that but It rules it out.

thanks for the pointers!
hopefully my new pickups have turned up today.

[Tim_B]

hopefully my new pickups have turned up today.

new pickups?

If you need a good UK home for the originals, let me know ;-)
I'm rather partial to a ToneZone or two B-)

[HammerBros]

it has a '59 and a JB if you want those!
i also have gibson 498T and 490R and some BKP rebel yells for sale.



I did some tests today.

with the strings unlocked at the nut, if i remove the pull down bar, they no longer stick. The underside of the bar has some wear.
Likewise the nut and the string clamps have some wear.

I got new strings on and got the action ok and the trem level.
big dives still brought the strings back flat, but it was a bit better.
as for pulling up, i can't really do that so far, but it wasn't a large effect either.

I did enjoy playing it with the bar off and the clamps off the nut. like have a strat with a really expensive TP-6 gibson bridge and no locking nut.

I really don't want to block it. 12 years of playing TOM bridges is telling me i should do something... even if it is just making it a really hard dive only... it pretty much is a dive only anyway.

[Grandturk]

Something is wrong. The Floyd should return in tune. Did you buy it new?

[HammerBros]

yeah it was bought New. but from a shop nowhere near where I live. there is a really good tech near me though... still.

I tightened the nut a little. the tuners seem ok and work better without the pull down bar in place.

once the strings are locked it should all be good though right? the only point the strings might slip after that is at the saddle

[Grandturk]

Locked correctly, the strings should not slip. Be sure not to over tighten either the nut locks or the string lock blocks. You don't need to wrench them down with a lot of force.