The Electra Forums

I've not long bought an 85 Spectrum MX but the tremolo arm's missing. Can anyone give me advice? Baisc ones bought in shops are too small. (It's in original cxase, worth much???)

MX's were as I understand a budget version of the SX, H-S-S with a strat-style 5-way switch but without the coil tap and phase reverse wiring. All the bolt neck (i.e. non-FX) Phoenix/Spectrums I've seen sold for 50-200$ in e american ebay market, somewhat higher in the UK. MX's are fairly rare in the US though, i've only seen them sold in the UK. All of these are great guitars though, absolutely pro quality.

I'm not sure on the tremolo arm, but as there seem to be a variety of english and metric sizes and threads for tremolo arms, I'd look for an aftermarket replacement for something metric. (one luthier told me that 'Ibanez style' was a graceful term for 'metric japanese import style').

Another thought might be to fabricate your own by bending and threading a metal rod. i don't think i have a spare arm but I could measure mine and let you know the thread pitch if that helps.

Good call on getting it right. i have one guitar with a tek-lok tremolo bridge where somebody appeared to have screwed in the wrong arm and cracked the casting underneath- s'ok, I use the guitar as a slide, so non-floating non-trem it is, but still, it pays to be careful.

Cheers for you reply, fast as well. Is it possible to measure the thread pitch then? Cause I could have one made dead easy. If I find a battered old Ibanez or something, I'll test this Metric Japanese theory too.

i'll see about getting this info today!

OK, that was easy- it's a very standard thread- a 6mm bolt with 1.00 pitch thread. I'll take pictures of the arm so you can get the length & bends accurately (if you care to)

I just purchased a whammy bar based on the specs. in this thread for my blue MX. Fits fine, but not tight where I need it to be...should there be a spring installed in the bottom of the collar or is there another way to deal with this?

Normally the trem bar winds a certain amount of the way in, then gets stiff and feels like the threads are only partly cut and you're wnding them further in.

My impression is that the trem blocks are only partly threaded towards the bottom, and if you wind a trem bar all the way in it will lose this ability to tighten up. But then again the same effect could be from winding to the top of the threads of the trem bar. If that's true, you should be able to cut a quarter inch off the bottom of the trem and get the same result... maybe?

You can see I'm guessing. But I'm pretty sure that if you put something in the bottom of the hole, you'll risk stripping out the threads. The stress is up and down along the rod, rather than outwards from the rod to the hole.

Another way to stiffen the threads might be to deform the threads on the rod, by denting it slightly with a hammer. This runs a little risk of overdoing it and tearing too much out of the threads in the hole. A safer way would be to experiment with putting some kind of material in there to increase friction. I'd try stuffing a half inch of hookup wire insulation, little plastic tube without the wire inside, and then threading the rod in so that it gets squished between the threads.

Just some ideas. Another method would be to spill cocacola into the threads so that friction is increased- and I know someone who used that trick, though not on a guitar- but I wasn't going to suggest that one.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll look and see how much is threaded in currently. Bottom line, I think Bigsby and Jazzmaster trem handles are the best....no threads!

agreed. for myself I often leave the arm off a threaded-type trem and jsut manipulate the bridge directly in the infrequent case that I want to. a floating bridge mainly helps the action of string bending, imho, but then i've never been a dive bomber.

hey guys... dan erlewine, in his "guitar player repair guide" suggests tightening up a loose tremolo arm by dropping a small spring down the trem arm hole to exert tension on the trem arm.... note that this only works on the old style tremolos where the trem arm threaded into a blind hole.... i suppose that on the ones threaded all the way through, you could run an allen screw up from the bottom to press the spring against the trem arm to the desired tension... this seems to me like a much better way than taking a hammer to the threads .....anyways, you can check it out in erlewine's text, 2nd edition, page 103

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That is what I did 2nite, with a trem arm spring from All Parts. I had to stretch the spring for more length, but it works pretty well.

Also, though I think I'll still pot the pickups, I must say that this MX sounds better than my Cali Strat....warm and articulate, even with high-gain.

I appreciate everyone's comments, thanks.

...also, I LOVE Dan's book...I use it all the time.