I was just looking at the specs of the Jimmie Vaughan Strat again (I know, I'm just torturing myself lol) and I noticed that it features an American Vintage synchronized tremolo. I've been looking around for a tremolo to replace the one in my MIM Standard and I was wondering if it would be possible to replace it with an American tremolo. I think that I asked someone before and they told me that there was some reason why I couldn't, but when I noticed that on the JV (which is MIM) I had to ask again.

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Being that the JV is a signature model, it's specs are going to be different than that of a standard MIM guitar. Callaham should start paying me for as often as I bring their name up on this forum, but they offer a MIM tremolo upgrade kit. That's the route I would take if I were you. You could even save money by just buying the block.

If I remember right, the string spacing on a MIM is different than on MIA's- that's why they are not interchangeable. There may be some other differences as well.

TGS, I'm not sure but you need to measure the width of the trem because the JV uses a American vintage trem and I don't know if the MIM is the same size. Sorry I'm no help.

Check out this website:

www.callahamguitars.com

It explains all of that stuff.

kww

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Good info. The string spacing is different. Thanks.

The main difference between american and mexican trems in practice, is the string spacing. The Mexican trem is narrower than the American trem. 52mm versus 56mm. That is where the main difference. 4mm diesnt sound a lot but its an absolu te galaxy when it comes to the way a guitar feels and plays. Thats why some find fingerstyles on mexican guitars and lespauls awkward.
The Wilkinson 5+1 converts the mexican 52mm to 56mm string spacing and sounds better (smoother note decay) than a fender trem with a callaham block. Also the complete trem system costs half of what the callaham block does.
I cant recommend it enough for a mim.

http://www.rt1guitars.com/servlet/the-170/Wilkinson-Strat-5-pls-1-Hole/Detail

I did struggle a little to get one into a squire body though. The last screw wouldnt tighten down to the height of the other screws. It didnt impair the trems performance though.

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No no and no

String spacing, that was it. I was thinking about the Wilkinson for my Squier a while back, but I hadn't thought about it for my Fender. The price is also about right. So think I'm leaning in that direction.

As for my Squier, I can't fit any replacement trem into it because of how thin the body is. And the stock tremolo is really, really cheapo on that guitar. I've already stripped out the tremolo bar on it once before, and finding a replacement block and arm was a pain in the butt. I've been toying with the idea buying a replacement body and tremolo for it, since the neck is really my favorite part of the guitar and I want to keep using it. That would be something that would happen a while down the road though, I don't have any immediate plans.

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What depth is the body Tex? 41mm?

I'll pull mine tommorow and have a measure up with the vernier. You can have bang on measurements in metric and British imperial then.

I know US imperial is different with weights, not sure of measurments though. A inch is a inch wherever you are, isnt it?

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No no and no

It's about 40mm, or just a little over an inch and a half. It's kind of hard to get an exact measurement. I'm measuring through the back cavity. And it's definately metric, because the inch ruler didn't really line up.

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