Wobbly Trem Arm

[Darren]

Just bought my first Vigier a couple of weeks ago, an Excalibur Indus. Fantastic guitar but one thing is getting on my nerves. The trem arm or should I say the collar thing that screws onto the base doesnt seem to fit snug enough around the bar, so the bar moves a little in the socket before it actualy moves the trem itself, this creates a clunk between the transition of pushing/pulling up and down on the bar. This might not bother most people but I use the trem alot so it's quite bothersome indeed.

I decided to order a new schaller trem socket and bar after seeing it was a solution to the problem in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdyrV1fxQMU problem is the bolt in the back cavity that keeps the current socket attached will not loosen so I can't even fit the new trem arm socket to see if that solves the problem.

Anyone got any ideas? Maybe I just need a T-bar allen wrench to get some extra torque to loosen the bolt?

 

[nickeroo]

Silly question but have you tried tightening that trem housing using the Allen key socket on the bottom? (Little black socket?)

[Darren]

It's not the actual arm socket that's wobbly. The problem seems to be that even when you screw the collar down the bar still has room to wobble a bit within the collar. 

It seems a pretty odd design over all actually, even if the collar did fit snug around the bar surely it would ware down over time making the thing less stable. It would be better if the bar sloted into some kind of rubber housing or screwed into the trem itself instead of having the screw collar to attach the bar. Or am I just missing something about this trem system?

It's a real shame because apart from the trem system the instrument is incredible, but unfortunately I use the trem alot in my style and as far as I know these trem systems can't be replaced?

[nickeroo]

The sort of inbuilt trem collar system that the arm has on Vigier, is very common in the guitar world. Floyd rose arms have them too. I wondered if you have tightened the socket from the underside of the unit. ON your video, it is around the 1,22 mark you can see him with the allen key in socket. I am guessing you have tried this, but if not, please do. Hold the arm as you tighten. If this does not work I have found another solution to be using a new or other trem arm. If your Vigier is newer model, you can use a Floyd rose width arm, I think. If your model doesn't take those, you can get a new arm through a Vigier stockist. On one of my Vigiers, an arm from another one of mine doesn't fit as well (tiny tiny bit loose.) This may help.

 

[Darren]

Well I replaced the bar and arm socket with a new Schaller one but still had the exact same problem. Though I have solved the problem to some degree by wraping some plumbing tape around the bar tip so there is no room for it to wobble. I really shouldn't have to be using work around methods like this though on such an expensive guitar. 

Before buying this Vigier I had two Ibanez prestige guitars so I'm used to the edge systems which work very well. Having done a bit of research on this screw cap system, it seems I'm definately not the only one with this issue many people have this same issue with Schaller and Floyd Rose screw cap style trems and use work arounds such as tape, nail varnish, plastic or rubber etc. It just seems a very flawed system for a trem. Even if it * fine you can't adjust the height plus the torque is ajusted by the cap tightness which seems odd.

Anyway I'll definately be getting another Vigier in the future (the actual guitar quality is fantastic), but I'll be sticking to a fixed bridge for sure.

[nickeroo]

I bet a new arm would help too. See if you can source one. They can wear a tad plus not all are made equal.