April Birthdays 
andare wrote:
There's a video by Puisheen for the hammer trick. I don't have a vise so I placed the end of the arm on top of a ledge at an angle and hammered it until it was bent. The bend is visible. As reported above, the arm is easy to insert and pull out, doesn't swing or squeak and I didn't have to squeeze the collet
The offset vibrato is a flawed design for many reasons. I will die on this hill no matter how many people swear by it.
Fender's QC is horrible right now, no way I'm spending 100 Euros on a vibrato only for the arm to be too big.
The Squier unit is cheap and doesn't have enough range but it works for me.
The bridge on my 40th anniversary is very stable. No buzz, no sinking. Absolutely no need for a Staytrem.
I have no doubt aftermarket parts are high quality but I can't afford them so a Squier and some elbow grease have to be enough for me.
I agree with a great deal you say. The collet is an idea that might have looked good on paper, but wasn’t so good in practice. FMIC has obviously lowered their QC standards, of late, and that doesn’t make matters any better. Angela Instruments sells a lot of Offset parts, and they charge extra to physically test that the arm they are selling you fits into the collet. Where I’m concerned, Fender should be ashamed, that they can’t get such a straightforward thing right.
The Squier trem’ that I removed from the CV Jaguar actually worked fairly well. I’m not into heavy trem’ action, so the limited range was not an issue, and the arm was stable, but the action was uneven, and I wanted the lock button, so I swallowed hard and bought the AVRI trem’. I thing that five minutes work with a file and one hammer strike to the arm would have been enough to make it worthwhile to use.
The AVRI trem’ works as well as any I’ve ever owned. It has a taut feel and predictable action. It stacks up well against a Bigsby, and that’s high praise coming from me, because I really like Bigsbys.
The StayTrem arm and collet are not too bad, price wise. Actually, about the same cost as a replacement AVRI collet and arm, from Fender.
—The artist formerly known as: Synchro
When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.
