Hi,

Just got my stratocaster RB artist series and it's sound great. Everything looks cool except that I have an issue with the Vintage Style Synchronized Tremolo. As soon as I used the trem my strings goes out of tunes, half to one tone higher. I used 10-46 gauge. Is there any special tuning or setup that I should know with the Vintage Style Synchronized Tremolo?

Thanks!

Have you tried lubing up the nut and bridge saddles? I dab a little chapstik on the saddles where the strings contact and into the grooves on the nut on all my strats and rarely have any problems....although i have also loosened the 4 screws up in the middle of the trem as well (just a bit) its a trick i read somewhere that seems to help as well.

That guitar should have come with Fender® Super Bullets® 3250L, Nickel Plated Steel, (.009 to .042), P/N 073-3250-003

you might be getting some binding at the nut by moving to your preferred gauge. also is your bridge set to floating or is it flush to the body? If it's flush, depending on how tightly the tremolo claw is screwed down, this could be the problem. It should not be overtightened. 1/4-1/2 a turn of the claw screw after the bridgeplate is flush to the body is all you need.

_________________
"If I don't see you no more in this world I'll meet you on the next one and don't be late... don't be late." -Jimi Hendrix

When I purchased it, my Standard Strat MiM (also has vintage tremolo) went crazy out of tune, so much that I couldn't carry it in my gig bag because it just detuned itself in a manner that I couldn't tune it afterwards when I take it out from gig bag. I couldn't believe it. I tune one string, others de-tune themselves... rinse and repeat until completely frustrated.

Well... that was when I purchased the guitar.
After I took out the old strings, gave tremolo some dry "action" and string the guitar myself with new strings, my tuning is rock solid , now I can carry it around without fear.

You can get some machine oil at the hardware store and lubricate all contact points of trem and strings. Check out this thread, also
http://www.strat-talk.com/forum/stratocaster-discussion-forum/20130-mim-strat-upgrades-some-info.html