Modern two point trem floating. Vintage style flat. As many springs as they will hold.

Adjusting the Fender Stratocaster Vibrato tailpiece is a process.

Presuming that you WANT your Vibrato to work - your guitar may be considered 180 degrees out of adjustment IF the bridge is laying completely level or is completely up.

The Vibrato cannot work if the inertia-block is locked down or wedged in place, or in contact with the body of the guitar at any point OTHER than the knife-edge contact point.

For ideal performance, the bridge should come to rest about halfway between fully 'down' and fully 'up', when not being operated. Typically, this creates a gap of about 1/8" between the top of the guitar and the back part of the bridge. This will vary some, allowing for different string guages and personal taste in action (string height at the saddles).

The number of springs attached to the claw should be in proportion to the guage of strings existing on the guitar.

The key relationship is the balance between the tension of the strings against the tension of the springs.

Setting the level of the bridge mounting screws is the last and most exacting adjustment in the process and is what separates the journeyman from the apprentice.

IF you want the guitar to behave like a hard-tail or NON-Vibrato model, then by all means add all 5 springs and tighten up the claw until the rear of the bridge sits flat on the top of the guitar. You can even put a wedge between the inertia-block and the inner side of the spring cavity (this is an old Clapton mod...but many people have done it, including me).

Personally...I like my Vibrato to work, so I can play 'Church Key'.

(there's more, but it more or less defies the printed word)

L7

surfdaddy
louie7 has it right on how to adjust a strat trem. if you follow his directions, it'll work fine! now, why would anyone use the thing!!?? i hate 'em, i lock it as soon as i get the guitar home!! old blues bender here, would rather use my hands for the effect. but that's just me.

How do you bend notes flat?

revhank
I set mine to only go down in pitch. If I break a string mid song, the rest of the guitar stays in tune which is a real plus for a trio. I find the guitar stays in tune, for me, much better.

Same here Rev!

THe NEpTuNeS

IvanP
As a Hank Marvin afficianado, I prefer to have the trem system floating.
Ivan

The way God and Leo intended.

Mines about 1/8 ' off the body with four springs and flat 12s.
It took some adjusting to the claw to get it dialed in.

The Thunderchiefs

~ One/eight inch here on my strat. Three springs, and the six screw traditional trem bridge. Works for me.
When I bend a string it is done in two ways.
1. fingers on the fretboard
2. hand on the trem bar.
I have on occasions used the Finger above the nut bends. But only seldom.
Joel

Last edited: Mar 23, 2007 23:32:54

also, i play other music besides surf and i only keep 1 electric around, so its set for me. got some oldies put away and i don't use them often, so i set up for general use. don't keep a guitar for surf, one for slide, one for blues, one for rock, one for jazz etc etc. i keep a guitar for--me.

I LOVE the sound of the arm gently wiggling chords above and below the pitch. There's no substitute for that sound. But I can never stick with a floating trem for long beacause you lose bottom and sustain and I can't do the bluesy double-stop bends that I like to do.

Instead of making a new thread I'm going to resurrect an old one.

I had been setting up the trem on my '62 RI yesterday. Previously every strat I owned I just blocked the trem. But I want to use it this time. I followed the directions provided by Fender in the owners manuel. I lifted the 4 inner screws on the bridge and set the outter screws to just kiss the top of the bridge. I adjusted the springs at the claw until the bridge floated about 1/8th of an inch of the back of the body. I'm able to push down and pull back and have it return in tune. So I'm assuming that means string tension = spring tension. So far I'm happy. I did some string bending and I noticed the trem arm moving on it's own. Is this just a side effect in the design? I noticed if I tighten the outter two screws on the bridge I get less movement from the arm when physically bending the strings with my fingers. However, that makes the actual use of the trem arm harder. I kind of want it to be smooth.

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Ruhar
That's normal for a strat tremolo Bill. You can minimize this by adding springs to the tremolo, but you'll need to decide if that makes sense for you given the string gauge your using etc. I have four springs in mine, but I'm using .012s and have very little movement of the tremolo with string bending. That's one of the benefits to using heavier strings on a strat. That said, I've also used .011s on my strat with four springs and there was very little movement as well.

I do set mine up very similarly to yours; with the inner four screws looser than the outer two.

Thanks. I did the trick Dan Erlwine recommends in Guitar Players Repair Guide. He says to bend the high e string one full step and play an open low e. If the open low e goes flat, then you need to tighten the springs. I tightned them almost all the way up and lost the nice up and down bend movement I had at the trem. So I just set it up back to how iI did it yesterday. I've got 10s on it right now. I'd like to be able to pull of the Mosrite styled Nokie bends. So I guess I'll just have to live with that play in the arm when I bend.

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