Is there any trick to getting a Strat tremolo arm tip onto the arm?

thermionic

I had a Strat tremolo arm with a missing tip, so I bought a generic replacement from an ebay shop. I could only get it it half on and it won't budge any more. I've tapped it with a hammer and then I tried widening the hole with some wet and dry rolled round an allen key. No improvement. If I force it any more I fear I might split it.

I think I remember it being a pig to remove it a few years ago (why I wanted to do this I have no idea) - I ended up chewing it badly with a pair of pliers. I mean, it has be tight enough for it not to drop off, but this is ridiculous. 

lewism

If it's a Fender arm it would be in Imperial measurements (I think), a generic tip might be in metric to suit Far Eastern imports so while they may be indistinguishable to the eye, the tip could be too small to fit and would be a bugger to fettle the whole of the depth to fit. Might be worth trying a Fender part.

Otherwise, and I know I'm at risk of lowering the tone here, you're trying to fit something into a hole that's too small for it to go into - some sort of lubricant may be in order?

axisus

I used a tad of fairy liquid once. Worked for me.

NickL

The bar thickness is 3/16" (10-32 thread) on most US Fenders and 5mm on Mexican, Japanese and some Squiers, so a generic part might fit one but not the other. Looking at the parts on Fender's site the USA replacements look like the tip screws on rather than just pushing, so that might explain why it only goes on half way if your arm doesn't have a threaded end. If it is a push-fit tip, would it help if you warm it up with a hairdryer?

mbe

All good advice. Put the arm in the freezer for a couple of hours, warm up the tip, drop of Fairy liquid should help it slide on.

sweepy

Place the plastic tip in boiling waiter for a minute or 2 and it slides on with no issue at all, reverse for removal, pop it inhot water and the tip slides off v easily 

ICBM

Heat the arm gently in a gas flame - it's a good idea to hold it with something heatproof obviously - until you can push the tip on.

If you ever have trouble getting it off, same procedure.

It is possible it may have a thread on the inside, in which case you may be better to take some of that out with a drill first, although the heat will probably work anyway.

thermionic

Ah, yes, it's probably the old Imperial/Metric thing. The arm is from a MIM Classic Series with no screw thread at that end. There might be a thread inside the tip though, as it seemed to screw on to the other end of the arm.

I did try actually putting the arm in the freezer for a couple of hours and running the tip under the hot water tap but the difference in coefficients of thermal expansion and/or temperature were obviously not enough! I'll try boiling water later.

boogieman

ICBM said:

Heat the arm gently in a gas flame - it's a good idea to hold it with something heatproof obviously - until you can push the tip on.

If you ever have trouble getting it off, same procedure.

It is possible it may have a thread on the inside, in which case you may be better to take some of that out with a drill first, although the heat will probably work anyway.

Not that I doubt our forum fount of knowledge but wouldn't heating the arm up make it expand, so make it actually harder to push the tip on? 

underdog

I've always sweated them on, boiling water and then goes on easy enough. If there's a thread in there you don't need remove it with a drill bit (doesn't have to be in a drill do it by hand if it's soft)

thermionic

Heating the arm will make it expand, yes, but the expansion will be tiny. The hot arm will soften the plastic of the tip as it's pushed on.

Sparky

Cut the tremolo arm down by the same amount it is sticking out by. Job done.

boogieman

thermionic said:

Heating the arm will make it expand, yes, but the expansion will be tiny. The hot arm will soften the plastic of the tip as it's pushed on.

Doesn't it make the plastic melt though? I can see that heating the tip in hot water would work. 

adamm82

thermionic said:

I had a Strat tremolo arm with a missing tip, so I bought a generic replacement from an ebay shop. I could only get it it half on and it won't budge any more. I've tapped it with a hammer and then I tried widening the hole with some wet and dry rolled round an allen key. No improvement. If I force it any more I fear I might split it.

I think I remember it being a pig to remove it a few years ago (why I wanted to do this I have no idea) - I ended up chewing it badly with a pair of pliers. I mean, it has be tight enough for it not to drop off, but this is ridiculous. 

I heated it up with a lighter once and it worked but I don't recommend it! 

ICBM

boogieman said:

thermionic said:

Heating the arm will make it expand, yes, but the expansion will be tiny. The hot arm will soften the plastic of the tip as it's pushed on.

Doesn't it make the plastic melt though?

Yes, that's the point...

prowla

boogieman said:

ICBM said:

Heat the arm gently in a gas flame - it's a good idea to hold it with something heatproof obviously - until you can push the tip on.

If you ever have trouble getting it off, same procedure.

It is possible it may have a thread on the inside, in which case you may be better to take some of that out with a drill first, although the heat will probably work anyway.

Not that I doubt our forum fount of knowledge but wouldn't heating the arm up make it expand, so make it actually harder to push the tip on? 

I was going to suggest heating it, but only to see if you came back and reported that you'd burnt your hand!

thermionic

The boiling water did the trick. Excellent advice.

The tip turned out to be about 3mm shorter than the proper Fender one I was comparing it with and it looked like it wasn't quite all the way on, so I thought I'd give the arm a few seconds in a gas flame and give it one last push. So, yes, I did burn my finger!

prowla

thermionic said:

The boiling water did the trick. Excellent advice.

The tip turned out to be about 3mm shorter than the proper Fender one I was comparing it with and it looked like it wasn't quite all the way on, so I thought I'd give the arm a few seconds in a gas flame and give it one last push. So, yes, I did burn my finger!

Haha - I wasn't serious about heating it, you know!