The vibrato bar on my hwy one strat has never felt right to me. I've tried it kind of tight so that it's right there ready to use, I've tried it loose so that it hangs down out of the way, and in between. It's never felt right, like when I use it I'm going to snap a string or something. As far as divebombing it just doesn't work well. I don't really play the type of music where I need to do any divebombing anyway, but it would be nice to have it if I need it. I finally just took it off and put a piece of duck tape over the hole so I wouldn't lose the spring, and if I want vibrato I use the heal of my hand on the bridge. When I changed pickups to some Kinman Woodstocks, the bottom tone control pops up for more tone opptions and when I use it the vibrato bar bangs into it when you want it out of the way. That was one of the reasons I took it off. Any suggestions or am I just not a whammy kind of guy?

If you want to be able to raise pitch, float the back of the bridge about 1/8" with the number of springs determined by your string set. Heavier = more springs, usually 3 vs 4.

Wrap the threads of the bar with a generous amount of teflon tape and screw it in till it stays in place but is easy to move. That screw they give you is a joke.

Go by eyeball and feel. The original Strat trem works great. If you want to go to the extreme and leave your strings slack your on your own.

Obviously, if he can engage the trem without the bar, using the heel of his hand, it's already floating.

Also, the spring he's trying not to lose is the spring inside the trem arm hole, which supposedly lets you set the bar where you like it without it swinging loosely. My advice on that is to lose the spring and wrap the threads on your trem arm with teflon tape. The spring can actually screw up the threads on the arm or the inertia block.

As for "it just doesn't feel right," the "snap a string" comment makes me think it's too stiff. How many springs are in the back of the guitar? What string gauge are you using? And have you had the guitar set up since buying it?

I am using heavy strings and maybe that has something to do with it. I'm using 52 - 12s. There are 4 springs. I will admit I need to get it set up by a pro, I just haven't had time yet. The heavier strings sound great but they do change everything, especialy the nut. The little spring is in the trem hole, but I will try the teflon tape and see how that works.

Slapchop's idea to wrap the threads in tape is good.

Also - if you want to be able to press down on the trem arm with less pressure - then just remove a spring. Before doing so, note how high the bridge is sitting off the body (should be 1/8"). When you take off the spring, the bridge will raise a little bit higher. So just tighten down the claw screws to lower the bridge back to where it was before you took the spring off.

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I suspect the bridge plate screws are down too far.

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