Sometimes the holes for the springs are just a bit too small for the spring ends, so I've sometimes had to drill out the holes. But you can often just tap them in lightly with a hammer. After that it's down to spring tension. They look a bit saggy to me, so if you can screw the claw in a bit more, that should help. A bit. but not so much so they pull the rear of the trem upwards. The block wants to be quite deep so that it stops the trem block moving both backwards and forwards. You van always wedge in front of the block as well if you want it nice and solid.
Just double check that you haven't got the volume control turned down or the amp volume off. I've done that before!
Otherwise it's probably a signal wire touching the grounded shielding. Easy to do, especially if you've shielded the output jack cavity where the tip spring gets pushed out by the jack and makes contact with the shielding.
I've had this setting up a FR-style trem on an Ibanez.
I found that if I let the back of the trem rise up too much, and then tuned up, the strings were so far forwards that there wasn't enough balancing action available in the springs, even if the claw was fully wound in as you have done.
You need to keep the trem plate flat (which may need a wooden block/wedge inserted either side of the trem block) so that when you bring the strings up to tune, the string length is correct. Then the springs should do their job properly. With the trem plate up like that, the sting length is a bit shorter, which means that when you try and bring the trem plate flat, you are really stretching them and their tension goes up considerably, more than the restoring force of the springs can provide.
So I'd slacken off the strings, and try tuning again again whilst keeping the trem plate parallel to the body. If you can do that, you should be fine. Sometimes you can use the trem arm to help keep the trem base plate flat (you may find another pair of hands can help here if you can't wedge the trem block).
Thanks Simon. I kept the trem plat flat and brought the strings into tune. Then I hooked up the springs, kept the trem plate flat and held in the springs while I got my friend to tighten the screws on the claw. But now I have my old problem again, in that the springs just really want to pop out when the plate is flat (even when the claw is screwed in a lot). I don't believe it's an issue with the hole size on the trem block, the springs fit into the block fine, it's just that they're saggy as you say.
Sometimes it's the spring angle. i think I've had this issue and I've certainly tried moving the spring down as low as I could get it. It will mean redrilling the holes and offsetting the claw position a bit. I used a pin vice hand drill to get the bit as low and as flat as I could.
The two outer springs can be moved to the two unused claw hooks, which will give them slightly more tension, but doesn't address the central spring.
But IIRC, I think I used pliers to bend the spring ends that fit in the block so they matched the angle the springs were running to the block at better, and I think that was what cured it for me.
There is always the option of drilling some slightly smaller holes for the spring ends to fit into, between the existing holes. Just small enough so you can lightly tap the spring ends in with a hammer.
Some Ibanez trems use a screw-down bar to keep the trem screws in place, and you could make your own from a bit of brass or steel bar, a couple of small machine screws and a screw tap to match the machine screws (probably M2 size, nothing too big).
> used pliers to bend the spring ends that fit in the block so they matched the angle the springs were running to the block at better, and I think that was what cured it for me.
Re this - do you mean making the angle (relative to 90 degrees) slightly acute or slightly obtuse? Or something else? I have bent one slightly acute and one slightly obtuse but both still want to pop out of the block unfortunately.
I reckon the drilling extra holes, or using a bar to keep the trem down is sounding good at this stage. To clarify, is that getting a bar of metal and laying it across where the springs go into the trem block, and then screwing it in, in order to hold the screws in place in the trem block?
Probably making the angle about 88°, just slightly acute. Looking at the spring picture, I may have also tried to make the bend less rounded. I can remember putting the ends in a metal vice and hitting the wire with a hammer to get the bend sharper. That curve in the wire wants to pull the spring out of the block slightly. I may also have tried to put a kink in the wire where it left the top of the block so it then angled down at the same angle the main body of the spring made to the block. Slightly less leverage trying to pull the spring out.
The metal bar sits over the top of where the springs go in, to hold them in place. Like this:
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