Wilkenson Trems

[nemo]

I've been snapping strings left, right and center with my trem. I think saddles are sharp and my abusive tremolos are killing strings.

Can I safely lubricate the saddle or file it down without affecting intonation?

[nemo]

Anyone?

[Power_13]

I'm not familiar with Wilkinson trems, but I have an idea of what may be the problem.

Does the trem have the hole just before the string goes over the saddle? Like the hole that the string is threaded through the body on a Tele? If so, this may be the problem.

If I remember, Stevie Ray Vaughn's guitar tech solved this problem by getting some of the plastic tubing that wire is usually in. He then slid this onto and along the string, so it covered it at this point. Since this took the punishment from the hole, the string was protected.

Hope this helps :)

[nemo]

Right on, thanks.

Sounds better than filing down the trem.

Could these be picked up at a local hardware store?

[Power_13]

I guess they could...just buy a length of thin wire, then use wire strippers to take off little strips of the plastic coating off. I'm probably going to do the same this weekend :)