This is ghetto, DIY, cheap arse mofo advice. There are probably fancy froo, costly "solutions" to this issue but this work and costs under a penny.
So I don't do a lot of whammy bar work. Never liked the things. I play hard. I bend hard. I generally abuse my instrument. Whammy bars just become a huge pain in my buttsicles... especially Floyd Rose's and other locking systems. They go out of tune (I don't just mean when actually dive bombing but I won't go into that). I have other ways to make things go nutty.
Whatever. Sometimes though they are necessary and I'm in one of those moments where I need to do some trem bar work.
The problem is my Yamaha Pacifica has a screw in whammy bar. They are squeaky, noisy, slide out of place and although no one will notice that kind of stuff in a live setting when recording that noise becomes a REAL problem. I cannot even have the thing screwed in while recording or it just makes a racket over the performance. It also has probably a millimeter or so of give on either the up or down pull so when I go to use it instead of instant response it clunks against the female threading. It is not very useful especially when recording.
I had been bouncing around this idea for a while but never had the motive to try it until now. My ancient Ibanez has a pop in trem bar with plastic washers that basically keeps the bar in place and eliminates all that noise so that inspired me to get my Yammie's screw in bar to behave in a similar manner.
Solution? Plumber's tape. Just that white graphite tape you would use to wrap around the threads of the pipe sticking out of your shower before screwing on your shower head. No glue or whatever. It's just meant to add some material in between the threads to prevent leaks.
I put a few turns of that onto the threads of the bar (and used scissors to make clean cuts to avoid fraying of the tape upon removal of the bar) and sure enough... no more noise, the bar stays put (but is still easy to move out of the way) and it is super responsive (instead of having to travel a millimeter in either direction and making a nasty cluck before doing anything to the pitch).
Whether the tape frays into the female threads when I remove remains to be seen but plumber's tape, unless packed ultra tight, tends to remain intact. Even if it does fray it is a) not really a big deal because it won't hurt anything and b) could be coaxed out with some kind of thin wire brush (kind of like a wire Q-Tip).
Point is... it worked so thought some of you may find it useful.
Do NOT use any kind of sticky tape. If you do not know what plumber's/teflon* tape is make sure you know what the heck I'm referring to before you totally gunk up your guitar. You can get it in any hardware store in the plumbing section. Get a roll that is flattened out on a spool. Not some bunched up crap you got with a showerhead or other fixture because you'll want to wrap it around the threads pf the bar flat and evenly. Not all bunched up.
Cheers.
*Edited: because I typed graphite instead of teflon. Derp.