I am kinda old school, but......hold the guitar up and place your ear on the horn. Does the guitar ring when you strum? Listen for the sound to eminate from the wood....if it doesn't you have 2 choices. First, get a new body....second, sell it to somebody who plays really loud metal crap...they don't care! LOL

I have an American Strat that sounded dead....but I didn't want to give up on her, so I got a new body from WD Music and she absolutely sings now....and I used the old body to practice different painting techniques for my side business.

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Frank

"Why put off till tomorrow what you can get someone else to do today"

Trem edge is in good contact, and trem is still floating at 1/8 inch, just had to re-balance for the 4th (silver) trem spring.
The weight is just under 8 lbs, 1/4 lb lighter than the American Standard. The neck is perfect, the best MIM I've seen. She's coming around, slow but sure. That's half the fun, chasing these things down!

TRY THE HARDTAIL SETUP...BELIEVE ME

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Fender Highway 1 Strat, Fender Lonestar Stratocaster 25th Anniversary, Orange Rockerverb 50 w/ PPC212, Crate Vintage Club 30 Tube Amp, Digitech GNX3, Line6 pedals, Ibanez Tube Screamer (my fav), Crybaby Wah

This might be redundant, but it might be worth the $6 for a new set of strings. I've restrung a guitar only to find that my brand new strings -- the same brand I always use -- sounded, to put it bluntly, like crap. Worst case scenario: you're out $6, which is a lot cheaper than a new tremolo block.