Model 4 setup

[Jonesy]

A few years ago when I broke my old M4 out of mothballs you folks helped me figure out what I actually had. Now, thanks to my son taking an interest in playing, I'm actually starting to build up the callouses again. Of course in order to do that we had to put on new strings and get things adjusted. Doing an actual setup is something I never learned to do way back in my youthful playing days with my venerable Ibanez, and certainly something I never figured out when I eventually got the Charvel.

So now that I'm older, wiser (allegedly) and a little more patient, I'm trying to take the time to figure this out and do it right. I recently bought a cheap ass CC Clark off craigslist and have been dicking around with the truss rod and bridge height so I could practice before screwing something up on the M4. I think I have some of the concepts down but what I'm looking for help with is the order of operations, so to speak.

After putting on new strings I got a little buzz on the open low E and A and found the action was much higher than it was. I let it settle for a couple days and in the meantime discovered I didn't have the bridge seated correctly in the posts (I took it out and examined it during the string change, for some dumb reason). After putting that back where it's supposed to go, and messing with the bride height a bit I went to tune up again. With the locking nut open I kept trying to tune but I think I keep getting some settling of the trem. I eventually broke the high E while trying to seat it.

Between truss rod adjustments, bridge height, intonation, trem position and final tuning how would you folks go about setting this up?

Also, how do you access the truss rod on the M4? The plate looks like it extends under the locking nut, which doesn't make much sense. Is this one of those models where you have to take off the neck to get at it? And finally, I've never had the trem bar as I bought this used, and have therefore never used the trem. Would I be better off just blocking it off?

[MarceloBR]

Floating trems are a little tricky to adjust. On floyds you have to pay attention to the string gauge too. You can't simply take off .09s and put .10s for exemple. You have to adjust the springs to get some balance between the strings and the springs tension to get the bridge flush with the body. You'll have to adjust it many times to get everithing right.

This is a good article:

http://www.glowingtubes.com/p/FloydTuning.htm


But I like to tune the strings this way: low E, high E, A, B, D and G. When you start adjusting the springs tension, turn the screws just 1/2 turn at a time and wait a minute, then tune it again, and keep doing this untill you get the strings tuned AND the bridge flush with the body.

The M4 truss rod is adjusted on the headstock. I really don't know if you have to take off the nut to have access to it but you can try.


If you don't use the tremelo that much I'd say block it! I always block my floyds, I don't like that thing moving when I'm bending the strings. The tone is also improved when you block it.