I'm scared something horrible just happened to my Core Custom 24

[Simon Godden]

I hope someone can help me understand what just happened here. I just went to my Custom 24 to have a noodle on it, got the trem arm out of the place I keep it, and went to put it in the hole. It is tight (I like it that way) I perhaps forced it a little in a hurry, then the whole thing made a horrible clang and shifted, and the trem now appears to have banged tight against the body.

I'm terrified as to whether I have ruined the knife edge. I took the back cover off and I can't see any obvious reason for what has happened.

I bought this Core Custom 24 a couple of years ago second hand. The serial number is 12 196764. When I got it, the bridge was really high, and I did adjust the screws of the knife edge, carefully according to the instructions with the string tension off to get the leading edge of the trem back to where the standard measurements indicate it should be, and then adjusted the rest to get it floating properly according to standard spec distance. That was a year ago, I've had no trouble since, and I gigged this on Friday with no issues.

Can anyone reassure me as to what may have happened here? If I have not ruined the knife edge then I can just give this to my usual guitar tech to take a look at.

 

[CandidPicker]

Simon,
Symptoms indicate that you may have popped a trem spring (or damaged one). Without photo images, it isn't easy to diagnose the problem. Another possibility was that one of your strings was jammed into the trem and got stuck...installing the trem arm may have loosened up the string and that string is now way out of tune.

See this post for more info:

https://forums.prsguitars.com/threads/string-sometimes-slips-at-bridget-when-re-stringing.38743/

First thing I'd do is to inspect the guitar with the back cover off, and check if any of the trem springs released from the claw. If no, check the tuning of the guitar and see if any of the strings are way out of tune (one will be much more so than others if I think this is what happened)...if that's the case, you're safe...the string just likely released within the trem and your guitar just needs tuning. (Sometimes ball end strings get stuck, compared to something like Fender Bullets with are tapered conical, and don't get stuck as much.)

If you're still doubtful, a trip to the guitar tech may help relieve your worry.

 

[Simon Godden]

Thanks for the reply. I don't think it can be a string pop, because the entire trem clanged and has definitely moved hard to the body. I assume with a string pop my only symptom would be a string out of tune. I do have that symptom also.

Popping a trem spring sounds much more like it. I did take the back cover off but saw nothing obvious, they were all still attached. With a trem spring pop, would it not loosen the trem block rather than tightening it against the body?

I'll post a couple of pictures tonight just in case that helps.

 

[]-[@n$0Ma☩!©]

Sounds to me like you just pushed the bridge out of the groove on the knife-edge screws while pressing the trem arm. The klang was likely from hitting the body or - if no longer out of place - popping back in.

 

[Collywobbles]

Pics of the trem block and pivot screws in this thread at the bottom of the thread page. It shoud be obvious from the pics how the trem knife edge sits on the six pivot screws and (by extension) what's probably happened here - when you pushed the trem block it jumped out of grooves on the pivot screws. They're pretty tough so just push the block back to reset it on the screw grooves and it should be fine. I'd prob release string tension before pushing it back. I had a worn trem on an old guitar that ocasionally did the same - when it happened I'd just push it back as described and carry on.

 

[Simon Godden]

Thanks so much for these replies. I will take a look this evening when back from work.

 

[Simon Godden]

Pics of the trem block and pivot screws in this thread at the bottom of the thread page. It shoud be obvious from the pics how the trem knife edge sits on the six pivot screws and (by extension) what's probably happened here - when you pushed the trem block it jumped out of grooves on the pivot screws. They're pretty tough so just push the block back to reset it on the screw grooves and it should be fine. I'd prob release string tension before pushing it back. I had a worn trem on an old guitar that ocasionally did the same - when it happened I'd just push it back as described and carry on.

Massive thanks, and to everyone else who replied. It's fixed now, and back to its beautiful self, just a case of popping it back on to the grooves as suggested. And next time this happens I'll know what to do

Thanks again so much!

 

[bodia]

Massive thanks, and to everyone else who replied. It's fixed now, and back to its beautiful self, just a case of popping it back on to the grooves as suggested. And next time this happens I'll know what to do

Thanks again so much!

Glad to hear you got it sorted out.