Hi,

I've got an American Deluxe strat made in '06, with the strap-on tremolo arm, but it doesn't "plug" into the armhole. I think I'm supposed to hear some kind of click sound and the arm will be locked, but that's not the case. If I insert the arm all the way down and then turn the guitar upside-down, the arm falls down. Using a lamplight I could see sort of a retention clip inside the armhole...

I've had this problem since I bought the guitar, but never minded playing with the tremolo. How is this supposed to work?

Thanks!

Hi there - You may have the wrong sized trem bar. For some reason, Fender has many different trem bars - some are bigger than others, some screw in, others pop & lock in place, some are solid silver, others have the white plastic cap. Last year I bought an American Deluxe from CG - it came with a Standard trem bar. I returned that bar and was given what appeared to be an American Deluxe trem bar. When I got home and inserted it, it simply fell in and did not lock. I turned the guitar upside-down and it fell right out. I returned that one and they gave me a trem bar that was bigger, screws in, and has the white cap. I told GC I didn't think that was the right one, but they insisted it was. It wasn't. Anyway, bottom line here is that you may not have the right trem bar for your guitar. I recommend taking your guitar back to the shop to compare other trem arms. Hope that helps - best of luck.

Hi,

Thanks for replying. My bridge won't accept a threaded (screw-like) tremolo arm. As I was able to see using the light, it should work with the pop in arm that I already have. I had a look at the tremolo arm list, and the most resembling tremolo arm is the one with the hex adjustment wrench, but that's for the deluxe locking tremolo (not mine).

The arm I have is just like this:


I can take a picture of my own arm (well, the tremolo one), but it would not matter I guess

There is a set screw that you can tighten to hold your arm in. I believe that you can reach it through the trem cavity. Are you sure you are pushing it all the way in. Mine was real hard to do at first but the got easier with use. You want to set it where your trem arm stays where you want it while playing.

I've pushed really hard, I don't want to keep trying and break the guitar. What I did previously is to measure how deep the arm currently goes, and it goes all the way down, so my guess is that the clip is a bit loose.

I removed the trem cavity cover and found 2 screws. One of them can be adjusted if I insert the arm and push down towards the neck, and the medium-size allen key that came with the strat seems to fit it.

I think I found something... Look here (Guitar/bass owner's manual) page 11 (19 in the text) and have a look at the picture on the right side, the deluxe locking tremolo. Is not my tremolo but it has those 2 hex wrenches on the right side, vertically aligned.

Hopkins, did you messed with this screw? I'm sort of afraid of ruining my guitar By the way, thanks for the info

No I did not have to adjust mine but if you are sue it is all the way in then it probably is too loose. If you don't feel comfortable messing with it take it to a tech and explain the problem. Be sure when pushing it down that you apply pressure straight down at the 90 degree bend as to not bend the arm. It takes a lot of pressure. Good luck.

Well, adjusting the top hex wrench did not change anything. However I measured again the distance to the bottom, and I was wrong, my tremolo arm doesn't go all the way in.

I'll have to take the guitar to a luthier because the other hex wrench cannot be accessed