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Post subject: 90's strat tremolo missing piece?
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2019 8:27 am
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I recently bought tension springs for my tremolo arm. They came in the mail and I excitedly dropped one in the little hole only to have it fall right through... It seems like there's a piece missing at the bottom of the arm hole. I've looked through many bridge diagrams and can't seem to find a reference to this phantom piece that would plug the arm hole allowing for a tension spring.
It's a Mexican strat from the 90s with 6 screws on the bridge.


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Post subject: Re: 90's strat tremolo missing piece?
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2019 12:48 pm
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Location: SoCal, US
The hole does not go all the way through on a factory part

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Post subject: Re: 90's strat tremolo missing piece?
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2019 12:51 pm
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I don’t think there’s anything missing, it sounds like instead of only drilling so far in, they drilled the hole all the way through the trem block. Not sure of a fix except to replace it.


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Post subject: Re: 90's strat tremolo missing piece?
Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2019 8:18 am
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On the old skinny cast blocks, the trem arm hole does indeed go all the way through. Just like the '70s Zamak bridges -- it's easier to cast that way.

So no arm springs for the older MIM blocks.

To tighten up the trem arm, get some thread-sealing tape from a hardware store. It's a thin white non-adhesive tape, you pull it as you wrap it around the threads and it form-fits itself in place.

A couple of wraps will tighten and smooth the arm. The first time you may need to experiment to find how many wraps your particular arm needs.

If you remove the arm frequently the tape will cut and shred and need to be replaced occasionally. But a roll of tape is like $2 and will wrap hundreds of times.

(Also handy if you do home plumbing repairs.)
-----------------
It is possible to cast closed threaded holes -- they do that for the full-size cast zinc MIM Classic blocks. But it's a little more difficult, and adds a few pennies to production cost.

The sintered steel they use for the American 2-point trems is a different process than casting, so closed-holes are no problem.


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Post subject: Re: 90's strat tremolo missing piece?
Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2019 8:38 am
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Sounds like a good excuse to get a steel block to me. :-)

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Post subject: Re: 90's strat tremolo missing piece?
Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2019 3:21 pm
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John Sims wrote:
Sounds like a good excuse to get a steel block to me. :-)
+1


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