Can I get the low down on this item and what improvement if any it can make to an MIM strat? Thanks.

Ken

From what I understand they are great blocks! a little on the pricey side, but worth every penny according to my info. I ordered one earlier this week for a project i am currently working on. If your looking to boost sustain without tweaking the electronics, this is to way to do it!

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"I started out with nothing, and still have most of it"

You are going to get opinions on both sides, so all you can do is try one to really know. I will tell you my experience for what it's worth. I have experimented with blocks in the past and always come to the same conclusion. I just did this again this week ! After a time you start wondering whether you really heard what you did and sometimes have to revisit if you know what i mean. So i decided this week to try it again. i tried 3 different blocks in my #1. The block thats been in it for a long time and i decided was best is a zinc stock block that i believe was the stocker from my MIM 50's that is my #1, tho it could be from a MIJ. I have so many trems i get them mixed up ! Anyways, it's definatey zinc. Non magnetic, lighter than steel. Anyways, i removed that and over the course of a week i tried 3 others.....my old callaham that i bought for this strat and removed when i didn't like it about a couple years or so ago, another zinc that is bigger and heavier, and a ESP steel from a ESP vintage style trem.

The callaham went in first and it sounded to me the way steel always sounds in a average strat....it adds high end, period. That may cause some perceived sustain or other things that people report, but to me all i noticed is the sound got tinny and the full round tone i love in that strat was seriously compromised. And when i say "average strat" i don't mean how good or bad it sounds, but that the frequency response is average, IE: not overly dark or bright or middy. Pretty much right in the middle. so anyways i remover the callaham because it did nothing for that start except thin it out, something few strats need IMO.

Next up was a ESP steel. Pretty much the same thing. i little different sounding, but still too bright.

next a heavy zinc. this one almost had me fooled. It gave me a huge low end i was thinking may be good. But i began noticing the high end sounded too weak compared to the lows and lost some of it's roundness.

So back goes the original zinc and once again the guitar sounds best. There are plenty of people who like and use steel. But i question *some* of them not because i think thier hearing isn't as sensitive as mine. But because a lot of people put them in and never change back. I think you have to do that to truly hear the difference. for example, and this has happened to me many times with many things besides bridge blocks. When i first put the steel in i too thought it was better. But much later i began thinking my tone was too bright. I then thought it may be the block and went back to zinc and realized it WAS the block causing that. But i think a lot of people never do that and if they did some of them might also find the same things. I happened to think about the block and considered it to possibly be the issue. But it had been a while and i could have easily forgotten and overlooked that like i bet many did. I read posts about this at other forums where many also said they like zinc better. I even read that tom anderson and i think suhr or one of those other high end guys uses zinc in some of thier strats and recommends it in some cases ! This proves my point that you must understand. And that is that you have to understand that neither is better ! they are just different, and one of the most obvious things with steel is extra brightness and zing, and if your strat is already bright enough or even on the verge of being to bright, steel may not be the better material. It's like matching pickups to a guitar....brighter pickups in a dark guitar, darker pickups in a bright one. It's just that simple really. So IMO i would tell you to consider how bright or not your strat is and go from there.

As oczad stated, you'll probably get comments from both sides of the isle here but my personal experience is that the Callahams make a -huge- difference...at least it did on my '96 MIM.

Now I will say that I don't think that it affected the tone specifically...not like it made a huge difference in making it sound "brighter" or anything as much as it just sounds fuller. The big difference was really in regards to the sustain which was simply huge. Without going too much into the science behind this, your typical MIM Strat has a small (about half sized) zinc alloy trem block which will typically deaden your sustain. A genuine steel block (Callaham or otherwise) not only adds more mass but is going to be beneficial to the resonance (in other words, your strings will vibrate longer).

Seriously, next to replacing the pickups, that Callaham block was the best upgrade I've done on my MIM...again it was a huge difference. Unlike oczad, I also have to add this wasn't just a perception on my part either. I hadn't told my wife, who's also a musician, that I had put the Callaham block on...in fact she didn't even know I had ordered it. The evening that I put it on we were jamming a bit and she stopped and asked what I had done to the guitar...she said it just sounded "thicker" or "beefier"...she could hear that the guitar indeed sounded different like there was "more of it".

Anyways, just my $.02 worth but I whole-heartedly recommend those Callaham blocks.

Peace,
Jim

Thanks guys - your info helps. I definately want a fuller sound, but not a brighter sound. If the blocks do help a little with sustain I will consider one before looking into new pups, etc. I'm looking for strong mid to bottom end for rythym and I just can't seem to get my amp to get the sound I want - although it is electronic not tube. I have played with it quite abit this weekend and can't get the right sound.

I may need to look into tube emulating pedal and maybe a compressor pedal as well.

I'm new so I'm still learning about sound as well.

Thanks a bunch anyway.

Ken

I think the biggest thing is that it does help brighten up the tone a lot, I think that on the newer MIM's (like my 08) the zinc soaks up a lot of the tones out of the mid range (i.e. the higher highs and lower lows). I think if you dropped a callaham in yours like I did to mine, you'll find that it sounds a lot more like a pre-CBS Strat in that it is brighter and fuller sounding.

As far as worrying that it is too bright, I haven't had an issue with it. When I'm singing I usually play the rhythm and I use the neck/neck-middle pickup for that. And any issue I have with a tone being too bright for the song I dial down on the tone knob.

Basically a Callaham, in my experience, gives the guitar a very full sound, a deeper and more resonant sound, which definitely adds to the sustain but I think more importantly adds to the texture of the guitar.

I play mainly clean/tube OD'd sounds, and I think it works great, made a huge difference in sound, and is a big improvement over the stock.