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Post subject: No wood block in TB 'EC Strat'
Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2012 11:23 am
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Aspiring Musician
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Hi all,
Just taken delivery of a new team built EC... it doesn't have a wooden block in it. Is that the norm these days for EC guitars?
Cheers, E.


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Post subject: Re: No wood block in TB 'EC Strat'
Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2012 1:22 pm
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Anything with the lefty side of it ?

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Post subject: Re: No wood block in TB 'EC Strat'
Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2012 7:10 pm
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All EC Strats (Standard and Custom) came standard with a wood block as specified by the artist himself.

Image

Someone has removed the wood block to unblock the trem.


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Post subject: Re: No wood block in TB 'EC Strat'
Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 12:24 am
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chromeface wrote:
Someone has removed the wood block to unblock the trem.


It's brand new from the Custom Shop, custom ordered for me (rather than being a shop display model that someone could have messed with)


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Post subject: Re: No wood block in TB 'EC Strat'
Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 2:54 am
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alainlafrance wrote:
Anything with the lefty side of it ?


Not sure Alain. It's never been an issue in the past (have three already). The store is going to contact their CS Representative to see if they can shed any light on it!


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Post subject: Re: No wood block in TB 'EC Strat'
Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 8:23 am
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Fender UK are going to fix it apparently... not sure what went wrong. Might sound a bit OTT sending it back for a wooden block but what I didn't mention is it also needs a whole new pickguard/pup/tone assembly as it wasn't wired how I'd requested. I like my lefties to have righty pots wired righty. This one has righty pots wired lefty and it messes with the sweep - gives little control over volume. Goes from 0 - max in a few degrees!

I've had that with a previous MB.

It'll get sorted, they always do :mrgreen:


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Post subject: Re: No wood block in TB 'EC Strat'
Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:14 am
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LeftyElliot wrote:
alainlafrance wrote:
Anything with the lefty side of it ?

Not sure Alain. It's never been an issue in the past (have three already). The store is going to contact their CS Representative to see if they can shed any light on it!

I knew this wasn't your first Clapton guitar. In the past, needing to fabricate a new block for my '89 because the wood had dried out sufficiently that it was now loose, I established that they use maple for the block. If it wasn't a matter of the circuitry wiring I would have suggested you just DIY the block and have done with it. By the way..how have they set the trem block and claws in your guitars. Are they set flush to the trem cavity wall with all five springs in place and the bridge block against the wood? [ Minus the wood block, that's the way the old Blackie was set up.] So with the block in place, that's the way I have two of my Strats done.{'89 Clapton/'57VHR}. The other two are floating {Gilmour and FSR AmDlx VG}.

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Post subject: Re: No wood block in TB 'EC Strat'
Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 7:44 am
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Hey Doc, I'll have to check! When I get a moment I'll unscrew the plates and let you know.

I think there's only 3 springs in the new one. Can't remember what's in the others!

Take care
E.


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Post subject: Re: No wood block in TB 'EC Strat'
Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 10:08 am
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Hmmmm, Fender's engineers are probably breeding on how they should make a lefhanded tremblock now. :wink:

For a proper Clapton setup the claw should be tightened all the way with 5 springs installed. Effectively that tightens it up so much you don't really need a block.

in one of my guitars I have the same issue as the Doc, every time I remove the backplate the damn block falls right out. :lol:


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Post subject: Re: No wood block in TB 'EC Strat'
Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 10:14 am
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I've never had falling-out-block-disease! :lol:

Still not checked my MBs...

Anyway I'm sure Fender UK will sort it :D

It smells funny too. Guess that's the super-thin nitro finish I spec'd. Body feels stickier than all others (regular EC poly)


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Post subject: Re: No wood block in TB 'EC Strat'
Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 10:44 am
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[quote="Bobby1]For a proper Clapton setup the claw should be tightened all the way with 5 springs installed. Effectively that tightens it up so much you don't really need a block.In one of my guitars I have the same issue as the Doc, every time I remove the backplate the damn block falls right out. :lol:[/quote]

The Blackie is pictured on the back of the Christies Catalog, with that setup. A purist, no doubt, would desire to have a Stratocaster set up as such Interestingly enough, I have seen pictures of Tribute models which were not.

The Signature Series was conceived with a vibrato bridge and the block installed. Clapton is said to prefer that over a conventional hardtail. Something about the springs lending to the tone. I seem to remember having doped out the reason for the added wood block but it escapes me at present. The presence of the block may give more resonance to the body wood because it unites all the components as a system. As for the looseness, the wood blocks are cut to a square whoses thickness accommodates the space between the mass block and the back wall of the trem rout when the mass block and the claw are flush to the wood with all five springs in place. I accept the likelihood that minor variances due to finishing could certainly account for a new block being loose and the variance needing to be taken up by adjusting the trem claw. In my case, I attributed the issue to age shrinkage which the replacement block and the one I had installed in the '57VHR seemed to correct.

At the end of the day, everything about the old guitar is a one-off, hardly expected to be duplicated tonally, and a listen to the recordings of the tonal colors of his guitars across the continuum from past to present speaks to that as well. Even the past twenty years plus since the inception of the new guitars demonstrates a distinct change in voicings. There's so much nuance in the way that tone is tweaked and I am still convinced that the wireless setup, the amp-EQing and that with the board has something to do with it.

We have discussed this many times in the past and continue to acknowlege the fact that the details of the EQing of his sound system have never been revealed. I tried get some hint of that by looking at the settings on the amps at the preview of the 2010 auction in NYC but I wouldn't have accepted the truth of it unless I had seen Dickson setting them himself.

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Post subject: Re: No wood block in TB 'EC Strat'
Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 12:23 pm
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The one I have with the falling-out-block disease is an older guitar too, so I concur with Doc's theory that the illness is most likely related to block shrinkage.

Funny smell, hmmm, you sure it's not just the case? Maybe Fender can work on this and offer several smells as an option. I'd like to have one with Lagavulin scent. :lol:


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Post subject: Re: No wood block in TB 'EC Strat'
Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 5:56 am
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ZZDoc wrote:
LeftyElliot wrote:
alainlafrance wrote:
Anything with the lefty side of it ?

Not sure Alain. It's never been an issue in the past (have three already). The store is going to contact their CS Representative to see if they can shed any light on it!

I knew this wasn't your first Clapton guitar. In the past, needing to fabricate a new block for my '89 because the wood had dried out sufficiently that it was now loose, I established that they use maple for the block. If it wasn't a matter of the circuitry wiring I would have suggested you just DIY the block and have done with it. By the way..how have they set the trem block and claws in your guitars. Are they set flush to the trem cavity wall with all five springs in place and the bridge block against the wood? [ Minus the wood block, that's the way the old Blackie was set up.] So with the block in place, that's the way I have two of my Strats done.{'89 Clapton/'57VHR}. The other two are floating {Gilmour and FSR AmDlx VG}.


Checked it today before dropping it back to the dealer for return to Fender.

The trem claw is nowhere near the wall, and there's only three springs.

I looked at my TK MB 'EC' and that one's claw is right up against the wall with five springs (+ the wood block).

The CS seem to have done 'half a Clapton' on this one! :?


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Post subject: Re: No wood block in TB 'EC Strat'
Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 10:34 am
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LeftyElliot wrote:
Checked it today before dropping it back to the dealer for return to Fender.The trem claw is nowhere near the wall, and there's only three springs.I looked at my TK MB 'EC' and that one's claw is right up against the wall with five springs (+ the wood block).The CS seem to have done 'half a Clapton' on this one! :?

The one they did for me about 8 years ago was a Clapton-based design whose bridge setup was done 'according to Hoyle.' Now either 'Hoyle' has retired or there's a noobie on the line, but obviously something is amiss. I hope Mike is following this thread to assure that consistency becomes the order of the day. Of course, its a no brainer for any one of us to correct that setup, but that wouldn't deal with the issue of the Custom Shop looking into how that guitar managed to get out the door with all of its "Passed" tags on board. I might consider that once in awhile you have to cut the factory a little slack but when we're talking "Custom Shop'', I'm afraid not. Not for that kind of money.

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Post subject: Re: No wood block in TB 'EC Strat'
Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2012 3:12 am
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ZZDoc wrote:
unless I had seen Dickson setting them himself.


Lee had quit the service in late 2009. He was replaced by Jeff Beck's former guitar technician Daniel Dearnley as of 2010.


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