Hi peoples, I purchased a Gotoh vintage-style tremolo with 2 3/16" spacing (gold hardware) from Gregg Rogers guitars, and purchased a 2005 Fender Standard Stratocaster Body off ebay thinking they were made in the USA, the bridge holes have a spacing of 52mm (I think that's 2 1/16 spacing) .So I'm wondering if I can get a top plate that will fit in my block and work with the 2 3/16 tremolo I already have or do I have to redrill the body to fit.This partcaster project requires a nitro finish so I'm either gonna sell this sunburst body on abay and grab a nitro strat body from

http://www.bhefner.com

Or fill the holes and redrill them and get the body resprayed as required, first option sounds easier eh

Thanks for the help

PS: Why do strat bodies have different spacings??

_________________
Regards

bluesdog88

Your measurements are correct all around.

The 2 1/16 system saddles are narrower than the 2 3/16 system ones. Consequently, obtaining a 2 1/16 top plate alone will not solve your problem as the saddles themselves will still be too wide.

The 6 holes to mount the 2 1/16 system's plate are closer together toward the center of the plate than that of the 2 3/16 system. If you do a super neat job, you could dowel the 2 1/16 system holes and redrill the appropriately measured 2 3/16 holes where the plate would cover the doweled holes and they would be virtually invisible unless someone was really looking hard from the front of the plate to find them. You wouldn't even need to spot refinish for that matter.

FWIW, Unless you are doing whatever modifications yourself, I'd take the cheapest way out by either selling the bridge or the body.

As to why the two different spacings, there are several reasons. Some of which are, it has separated the import knockoff stuff from the genuine US Fender stuff without fear of proprietary infringement for years. The 2 1/16 spacing also accommodates standard spaced humbuckers so the expense for the design, operation and maintenance for multiple dies for two different spaced bobbins are not required. The closer the spacings of the system, the less metal and chroming is required per complete bridge unit and then there's the overall quality of the materiel itself. Put all this together with the labor costs of these Asian imported units and you wind up with a pittance of production costs compared to having it all domestically done. All this may or may not sound like a whole lot but with literally millions of these 2 1/16 bridges being cranked out overseas, the savings will quickly and remarkably be realized by the American based manufacturer.

_________________
You dig?