Strat Tremolo

How can I keep my guitar in tune when using the whammy ?

I have a Jackson Randy Rhoads limited edition guitar. Its a replica of his first Jackson he had made for him so it has the Vintage Style strat Tremolo System, But, I cant so much as tap the whammy without the guitar going completely out of tune. Ive always used Floyd Rose equipped guitars but this one just plays amazing and i’m going to use it as my main player. Only thing wrong as I mentioned is I cant use the tremolo. Is there a way around this ?

Locking tuners/ locking top nut would be a great idea as this will add a lot of stability to the string tension when you release pressure on the whammy. Also make sure that the springs have been set up correctly. You can do this by removing the backplate and checking that their is equal tension in all of the strings. Also make sure that the springs are set up in parallel. What I mean by this is that 2 of the springs shouldnt be going to 1 side of the block as this will cause an inbalance in tension. If all of this fails then buy some more springs so that you can increase the tension that they are creating meaning that the tremolo shoud always return to the same point.
Alternatively you could take the guitar into a guitar store and ask them what they can do to fix it. They will more than likely be able to check the guitar over and make sure that nothing is wrong with it. After this they will probably fix the problem so that the tremolo works fine. To be honest though, you are better off taking it to a shop if you have no experience of dealing with fixing guitars as they will know what they are doing and they will definitely be able to fix it whereas you may cause more damage to the guitar

Possible applications of a vintage Stratocaster tremolo and how to stay in tune.

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