I changed the strings on my Jackson Dinky JS11. Normally I use light gauge, but this time I went with medium. After tuning it and noticing the difference in thickness, the bridge is on a sharp angle, and the whammy bar couldn't even swivel past the volume knob.
I tried loosening the two bridge screws which helped a bit and raised it to be less sharp of an angle, but it also raised the action considerably. At least the whammy bar can swivel freely. But the amount I can "wham" seems less than before, too. (Pictures are after this adjustment)
Is there a way to get the back end of the bridge downward so it is more "even"? That would reduce some of the action and give me more whammy room?
Those aren't the screws you need to tighten! You need to flip the guitar over, take the back plate off, and adjust the screws in the cavity. You should only adjust those with the string tension off. Send us a picture before you do anything.
Youtube told me they were, but yeah I agree they aren't correct for my problem. PS I loosened them because after putting on the new strings and tuning, the bridge was sharply pointed downward toward the pickups, almost digging into the body.
I did take off the back plate and tightened the two screws attached to the spring mechanism, as tight as they would go without stripping. That didn't make too much of a difference unfortunately.
I'd change the gauge of the strings then.
That seems like the root cause of this issue. I'll try downtuning and see if I can live with it that way before resorting to changing strings again. Thanks for your help