I was at a local music shop yesterday, looking at his strat offerings. I noticed something new and disturbing. The American standards that he had all had very thin lite trem blocs. They looked to be just a hair thicker than the blocs that come in a squire bullet and the material looked a little better but they did not look half as thick as the blocs in the MIM's or the older MIA.

Anyone up to date on this let me know.

Thanks

I think they sound fine, but Callaham makes a nice steel replacement block if you dont like the stock one.

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"My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives." Blazing Saddles...

I think they're fine as well ... much better than a squire anyway

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Member # 85477

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Nah mate I think your mistaken. The american standard tremblock does have a slant on it to increase the dive range of the trem without banging into the body wood. Other than that slant its the same size and near the same weight as the vri tremblock. Also its powdercoated steel, not zinc alloy. Put a magnet next to it and the magnet sticks.

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No no and no

in 2006 fender did a overhaul of there standard MIM strats
and that includes the trim blocks. the standard strat MIM 2006 to
present is crafted very well and i do mean very well. befor 2006
the mim strat were crafted with between 5 to 7 pieces of wood 2006
they are crafted with 3 pieces of alder wood most of you MIA strats
are crafted with 3 piece alder. the 2006 to present MIM strats are simply
A+ CRAFTMANSHIP. and there are more and more pro guitarist playing
the MIM strat for the simple reason that the craftmanship of these guitars are simply fantastic and match very well to most MIA STRATS.

And you no this how????

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

How do you no they were light????
And were the blocks on the American Standards copper infused????
Forget about associating thickness to weight, whats on the inside????
Whats it made of Cast zinc, stainless, copper infused, hollow,????
There is more to how much something weights then the size that it looks like in the guitar. Callahan touts there high mass blocks and they are the same size even for the MIM's but they are heavier!!!!

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Yes, inquiring minds want to know.

Just noticed I'm in niki's signature O_O

Anyways, the only American strat I won is the Mahogany special and it's trem block is not wimpy at all. I assume it's prolly the same trem.

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budglo it could be a long wait you no what I mean. The one just takes these opportunities to say bad things about the Amer. Standard under one of his many aliases. To him the HWT 1 is the greatest guitar ever made and the Amer. Stand. is a waste of money. Isn't that right Angelo?

In my post I tried to explain the difference by putting the clues in the questions but I think most already know. You have to factor how and what they are made of and it will determine the mass weight not mass in size.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Sorry, but the guitar shop would not let me take the guitar apart and take the block to a lab to analyze the various metal components.

I bought a new MIA this summer and it has the wedge shaped block that is mentioned above by another person. I could be wrong, maybe the guitars I saw this weekend had wedge shaped blocks, but it did not look to be so.
The blocks I saw were certainly thinner than my MIM and they were not much thicker than my Bullet strats, thought they did look to be more substantial material, steel, than the zinc bullet block.

The real laughable thing is that the callaham block is made from the same stuff as fender american tremblocks. Mike Eldred went up the wall when he saw what callaham were spouting. The only real difference is the trem arm fitting.

The other fact is if you look at the slant of the american standard/deluxe tremblock, it ends short of the tremplate. The mexican/far eastern zinc blocks continue a 'cut out' right the way up there. Dunno if thats the way the 09's are.

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My 07 MIM has a big thick block that is uniform from bottom to top. I doubt its zinc, perhaps there is some alloy in with the steel, but certainly more substatnial than the squire bullet blocks I am replacing.

Ah ok its the same as the vintage reissue guitar blocks. Theres hardly any weight difference between that and a standard/deluxe block. Unfortunately I'm not in a possition to weigh my VRI block at the moment because the guitars at my drummers house. I do have a American standard trem in the drawer that I can weigh later though.

BTW I'm pretty sure that mass/weight difference should be viewed as the whole unit saddles, plate and block. Not block alone.

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No no and no