I got my first Strat last week. Last night while in the bathroom reading the user's manual, it said to put a piece of tape over the hole where the tremolo bar fits so you won't loose the spring. Ahh! What spring? Did I already loose it and not realize it??

lol probably. I don't trust the spring anyway. I use a little bit of teflon tape (for sealing threaded pipe joints,) on the threads instead.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Thanks for that great tip Twelve!

Be carefull with that tape. It does the job well but needs care when putting the trem arm in and taking it out. You can quite ea strip the thread using it.

I bin the spring too. It just pushes the thread against the bore and guarantees early stripping.

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Hmm never occurred to me. I take the same care as i would threading it without the tape. been 15 years on my Strat without an issue. Now that you've planted the seed of doubt I am sure I'll be posting a thread about a broken trem arm in the near future!!!

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

On my Vintage style trems I screw the trem arm in until it just starts to tighten up, then back off one full turn. This leaves my trem arm free swinging, but still very functional.

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Chet Feathers

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

12B you can never be carefull enough, particularly if your view is obscured (by the tape). Thats all I'm saying, I used to use cigarette papers and had no adverse consequences, but their not as thick as plumbers tape. When in doubt i do what Chet does, you cant go wrong. This is timeless advice


Simply dont stress the thing, best ever advice. We all like a nice tight arm, that we can be sure its where we left it. But it just cant happen without making things awkward in one way or another.

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You can simply leave the whammy bar on at all times. Even in the case. Just rotate it towards the back and it should cause no issues.

I tend to agree with this - I was surprised to read the same piece of information in the owner's manual, and realized that the small silver sticker that had been there when I got it was still there!

My guitar lives on a stand and it never really leaves the room it's kept in, so I'm not worried about leaving the whammy bar in.

Ooo - my case doesn't want to close with the arm in place. I'd hate to force it. 20 seconds unscrewing the arm don't seem too much of life used up...

But anyhow: surely it's time the Deluxe pop-in arm trickled its way down to the American Standard? This whole thing is one of those tiny little niggles with Strats that should have been fixed decades ago.

Of course, no such issues with a Wilkinson VS-100 bridge...

Cheers - C

Quite honestly, I detest the pop-in style arm. I tend to pull them out when using this style whammy... anyone else have the same problem or am I just weird?

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My guitar lives on a stand and it never really leaves the room it's kept in, so I'm not worried about leaving the whammy bar in.[/quote]

The safest place for your guitar when you are done playing for the day is in the case. Humidity can cause serious problems if you leave the guitar out on the stand for an extended period of time.

I found this out the hard way.

My guitars live on my walls=\

I just got my first Strat (American Deluxe, Mohogany Black, Maple fretboard) & lovin' it. I have stayed up all night playing it the last two nights, and then had to go to work during the day (managed to slip in a nap just before I went to work both days).

It has the snap-in tremolo, which is really hard to push in & pull out. I'm assuming it will get easier with time.

Chuck theres a grub screw at the back of the tremblock that tightens or loosens the trem arm. You can get to it if you dump the trem all the way down. I dont like working on things like that under tension though. I slacken the strings and take the trem springs off to get to it. As you know on the deluxe its no biggie.

BTW leaving the trem arm on in the case is not advised. I've seen a few broken arms from that. It may be ok for a few hours or a day, if your luck holds. Eventualy the stress of the case pushing on the arm is going to break the case or the arm. I know the coming response is 'well its never happened to me'. That just makes you lucky.

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