Whammy bar wobble

Jazzthat

Why can't they make a proper fit to stop whammy bar wobble ? 
I find it a very frustrating paying £145 ( in this case Babicz bridge ) and have wobbly whammy bar on it , like on cheap Chinese crap .
I read few threads and it affects fender bridges etc .
Why wouldn't they use tight thread tolerances like 4H or 5H to fit these things together like they should ???
Really frustrating ! 

dazzajl

That tiny little click feeling drives me nuts. It’s there on most screw or push in arms I’ve used. Give me a good Bigsby or a Duesenberg trem
any day. 

stickyfiddle

Callaham fixed this 20+ years ago, and they sound great too. I won't buy any other sort of strat bridge ever again

Jazzthat

stickyfiddle said:

Callaham fixed this 20+ years ago, and they sound great too. I won't buy any other sort of strat bridge ever again

The thing is , I wanted a tremolo bridge in black with narrow spacing to fit Pacifica and I had a very limited choice .
I am literally pissed off , that in 21st century they can't make a damn whammy bar stay in place in any position without wobble . 
It's just ridiculous and it defeats its purpose !

Kittyfrisk

Have you tried a few wraps of teflon plumber's tape around the tremolo arm bush end?

Jazzthat

Kittyfrisk said:

Have you tried a few wraps of teflon plumber's tape around the tremolo arm bush end?

Not yet , but I am aware of this hack . 
I am more debating whether to get in touch with thomman ,where I purchased it from , or this is how they make/ sale these bridges and I need to put up with it .

Kittyfrisk

Fair point. If you don't get help from Thomann you might get in touch with Babicz direct?

Jazzthat

Kittyfrisk said:

Fair point. If you don't get help from Thomann you might get in touch with Babicz direct?

I think I'll pass on Babicz customer service . 
When I purchased the bridge the supplied screw had kind of bad finish . 
So I contacted them and they had promised to send them in . 2 months later , there was still  no sight of  screws and communication has pretty much ended .
Thomann on the other hand were awesome to deal with and that had got sorted . 

This is my first tremolo guitar so I am curious , if this is supposed to be like that with this particular bridge ?

Jazzthat

Bowks

Get some of the tiny trem springs Fender use in their trems and drop one in the hole for the arm, fixed my wobbly woes.

BlueStrat

Agree 100%, that little jiggle in the arm drives me mad too.
Such a simple fix, why do they still make them like that?

Also the amount of force you need to use to push in a fender pop in arm, it doesn’t pop in at all you have to punch it in there. Why not use a correctly tensioned clip in the first place?

Philly_Q

I'm surprised something as over-engineered as the Babicz bridge hasn't included a cure for this particular issue.

The Delrin/Teflon sleeves used by PRS and Callaham seem to be the best solution.

tone1

PTFE tape for me....

Jonathangus

The best solution I've found for a standard Fender trem is a short piece of plastic tubing pressing up against the saddle - which has the added bonus of the arm staying where you put it.

jonnyburgo

I thought a trem was supposed to wobble

Jazzthat

So this is basically an ongoing crap design across various brands ...
When I get some time over the weekend I'll see if there's a tiny space to accommodate some plastic washer and or use PTFE tape .

Kittyfrisk

Or try a very small 'O' ring on your end. Ooh err, missus!... but worth a try.

Jazzthat

Kittyfrisk said:

Or try a very small 'O' ring on your end. Ooh err, missus!... but worth a try.

That's the plan thanks

skullfunkerry

I always fit the Floyd Rose push-in arms on my guitars, they're so much better than any screw-in one that I've used... not much good for non FR trems though, of course

ICBM

Jonathangus said:

The best solution I've found for a standard Fender trem is a short piece of plastic tubing pressing up against the saddle - which has the added bonus of the arm staying where you put it.

That’s neat. My solution was to remove the block and drill out the top of the hole enough to fit a rubber grommet that grips the arm, but it’s not 100% effective. I’ll give that a try as well...

axisus

Personally I need a stiff one [insert Matron joke here] so I gravitate to trems where there is built in adjustment. I've done the plumber's tape trick in the past. Works well but you do have to redo it every so often.