Glad to hear the happy ending, DJ 🙂 . I always take forever to fix up my guitar projects myself.

You’re very welcome, dj. Come back to tell us if things worked out OK.

No shame there – I completely missed that those screws were nearly hanging out!

😳

It would be nice to hear back from djruby to see if we (between us) managed to give him any help…

And, dur, I was completely the wrong way… er, wrong. I could tell I’d got something out on my forces acting etc, but even so… 😳

MicroSark is correct, I’ve seen this before, I own a music store. It’s a simple fix, take it to a music store or a repair technician and have 2 springs put in it and the screws tightened. It shouldn’t cost you too much if the store or tech is honest, maybe $60 at the outside.

Well spotted mrblanche – I missed that.

I would guess the two adjusting screws that hold one end of that trem spring are pulling out of the wood. You can try screwing them back in, which should effectively pull the springs tighter and pull the bridge back down. They may have just loosened with the vibration of the guitar. BUT, if you can’t screw them back in because the threads in the wood are stripped, you’ll have to have some repairs done. If I were doing it, I would first try putting a wooden toothpick in the screw hole, then screw in the screw. If that doesn’t work, I would next go up in size one number.

How can I be sure that’s the problem? Note that in the photo of the springs, the coils of the springs are almost touching each other, so they have no tension on them any more.

It looks to me like that trem should have 5 springs in it, and because 2 of them have been removed there is insufficient pull to return the bridge to the natural position. People often do this when guitars are fairly new to make the trem easier to work, but as the guitar gets older and the springs lose some of their elasticity it has the wrong effect, as can be seen from your pictures.

Take it to a music shop and ask for them to set it up properly for you.

(Why oh why do so many budget guitars come with tremolos? Just just hamper the player!)

😯 , Welcome, dj, and “wow” – I’ve never seen anything quite like that. Are there no screws holding the bridge onto the body wood at all? Screw-holes, at least?

What you can do is remove one of the tremelo springs. Many players find that all three is a bit too much anyway. That doesn’t sound like the solution, though. What is the make of guitar?