Transtrem not shifting

[Krylar]

Hello all,

 

My ZT3 arrived today (from musician's friend). I've owned an Ibanez JEMVWH for about 8 years now and I've been looking for a change. The ZT3 is quite different!

 

Anyway, I love the way the guitar feels but there are a couple of things I'd like to figure out.

 

1 - Is there anyway to make the trem drop more than one octave on dives? On the JEM (and most any trem I've ever used) I can flatten the bar to the point where the strings flop around. Is it possible to make this trem allow for that as well? Playing Eruption, for example, sounds weird when you do the low-E dive and only go down so far.

 

2 - I can't get the Trem to change the tuning. I've watched the tech video a few times and Mr. Steinberger just assumes that it works when you open the box. I guess that's a fair assumption, but I think mine is incorrectly configured (or I'm doing something totally wrong).

 

Here's what happens: I press the bar down and move it toward the ground. I drop from an E to a D (no 1/2 step). The bar stays in locked position at this point. If I move it back to floating position, I hear a pop and the tuning jumps back to an E. Same thing happens if I try to move to F from E, except that it does go to F and not all the way to F#.

 

I don't see any troubleshooting for this type of problem. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

Thanks.

 

-K

[Eagle]

You need to tighten the arm in to position so that stayes firmly attached to the cam.

All thats happening is the bar is coming unscrewed.

[Krylar]

Thanks, Eagle. I'm not sure how much more I can tighten it. I don't want to break the thing. It is quite tight.

 

There is no play in the bar, and it does move the notes down to D. When you push down and move it clockwise, the note drops great (full step) and stays there. If, however, you move the bar back to normal position, that's when it pops back into place. Maybe I'll try to video it tomorrow so you guys can see what's happening.

 

Thanks again!

 

-K

[andyberger]

you may have to tighten the little hex nut on the trem, the one thats below the tuner between the g and b strings.

[Krylar]

Thanks Andy.

 

I tried that too. Even tried the little ones under the bar (volume control side).

 

If I tighten the one between b and b, it will put it into lock mode and allow no trem. If I loosen it then it takes a lot to get it into lock mode.

 

The ones under the bar didn't seem to have any effect either.

 

I called Gibson and they referred me to a warranty shop. It's a little disconcerting to have to go to a warranty shop on day #2 of owning the guitar. :/ Hopefully it's a quick fix; otherwise, I'm going to have to return the guitar.

 

All the best!

 

-K

[Krylar]

Here's the latest. I called Gibson for help and they put me in touch with a local repair/warranty place. I called them up and explained the problem.

 

The tech guy put me through a few tests and then said that he was pretty sure what the problem was. Says he's seen it before on the transtrems and that I should immediately return the guitar for a replacement. I asked if maybe I could just bring it in for a quick look since I'm not a tech. He said that it would take him 3-4 weeks to even look at the guitar and he doubted he could do anything to fix it because he's not had luck in the past with this particular problem.

 

So, I called Musician's Friend and they shipped a new one out today and I dropped the one I had off at the UPS with a pre-paid sticker.

 

I should have the new one on Monday or Tuesday. Hopefully that one turns out correctly.

 

-K

[Krylar]

I got my new Z in and it's better than the first one. I seems that I can now drop a half or full step, and also raise a half or full step. But only in the middle position (E) can I use the whammy bar.

 

You either have use of the whammy at middle position and are in E or you give up use of the bar so you can have an alternate tuning. If you watch the demo video you'll see that the pitch change locks the bar out of the way for use in different tunings. Demo vid: http://www.steinberger.com/press/ZT3Video.mov

 

I didn't see anywhere in the literature that it talked about this. I guess it should have been easily surmised, but that wasn't clear to me.

 

Anyway, I'm okay without the whammy as long as I get my tunings to be what they should be. I'll probably hang onto the JEM for real whammy work anyway. :)

 

-K

[Eagle]

You need to adjust the collar on the arm so the locked angle places the arm out of the way.

[Krylar]

Hi Eagle,

 

Yep, I know. It's been working fine with this new guitar. It didn't work with the first one I had. It dropped and raised full steps only.

 

It's not clear in the marketing materials that the guitar only works in different tunings in locked position though. Whammy only works in the middle (E) position. This is fine, I just wasn't aware of it.

 

Anyway, this guitar does handle 1/2 steps now, so I'm happy.

 

Thanks.

 

-K