Just a quick one folks.

I've got a Strat with a floating 2 point trem bridge. I wanted the bridge set hard to the top for tonal reasons. Easy peasy on a std 6 screw bridge, but how do you do it on a 2 point? I've screwed the posts down but they've bottomed out and are still too high. Actually the cavity is now holding the edge of the trem block so it's all quite solid, but the bridge is still suspended above the top and it all looks a bit odd..

Any thoughts? Or should I undo and just wedge the floating bridge as it is..

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

Hi adey: it's not the posts you need to attend to. Put them back the way they were (at least for now) and then go round the back beneath the plastic spring cover.

You will see the spring claw held into the wood by two screws. Carefully and slowly tighten those screws so that the claw gets closer to the neck end of the cavity. That will put tension on the springs which in turn will drag the back of the bridge plate down towards the body.

Tighten till you have that bridge where you want it and then stop. You might now need to reset your action, because the height of the strings relative to the fingerboard will have changed a touch. And you will definitely need to redo your intonation. Any movement of the bridge throws the intonation out.

Good luck - C

Yes - or you can also just add a spring or two.

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

Yes, thanks guys..

Tightening up the claw was the first thing I did; the usual way of pulling down a standard 6 screw bridge. As expected, all it did was pull the back of the plate down until the bridge block made contact with the cavity edge.

Which is where I am now, and really it's fine as it is. But I wondered if was missing a trick - some way of bringing the whole 2 point bridge plate down flat onto the guitar top. Seems not..

Thanks anyway for comments/advice.

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

Adey

I presume you mean the slight gap under the leading edge of the tremplate.
Do as Ceri or 01GT says to get the back of the plate to the body, then you need to take the strings off, then the springs too and screw in the pivot posts until that leading edge lowers to the body too. Its important to have no pressure on that trem at this point as it can knacker the pivot posts or knife edges when you turn the posts.

Its a bit tricky to do as you need to have the trem into the pivotposts. When it moves back out of them it will appear to sit flatter than it does with tension on it. Slight hand pressure is ample.

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No no and no

And when all done, you may need to tweak your intonation (adjust the saddles in or out) as the slight change in overall string length may have changed your intonation.

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

Brother it's the trem springs that you have to tighten. Set the pivot posts back where you found them. Take of the trem spring cover on the back of the guitar and tighten the 2 trem claw screws in equal increments until the rear of it sits against the body. This will set the floating trem solidly against the body of your guitar. Don't crank the screws all the way down as it wont improve anything and it may cause the bridge to dent your body.

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

Which is exactly what I've done. But the bridge plate won't come all the way down to the top because the wall of the cavity now has the bridge block pressed hard against it. The cavity routing is in the way!

Anyway, it's doing the job as is, so no worries.. Regards to all..

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

You're saying that even under no string tension the bridge does not lay flat against the body? That is something to worry about then.

It cant lay flat because the 2 bridge pivot posts wont go far enough into the body of the guitar.

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

Those 2 point tremolo bridges have a beveled edge where the two screws go into the body that if the screws go all the way into the body it will raise the end of the bridge off the body.

I suggest backing up the 2 screws and ease the tension off the strings until the springs are able to fully bring the bridge flat with the body. Then you can put the screws where you want them and tune the guitar back.

Can you post a pic?

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Adey

Could this problem be related to the dreaded 2point trem intonation woes? Weve seen a couple lately where the pivot posts are off line or too far towards the neck. This consequently results in the saddles having to be set too far back on the tremplate. (my deluxe does has this fault)

If so I do have a solution. Block the trem. Take the strings off and press the inertia block of the trem against the cavity wall. This should bring the tremplate flat to the body. Also the knife edges should come away from the pivotposts a touch. If you block it in that possition though, the wood block should clamp the inertia block in place. You may need to cut some side blocks too. To stop the trem moving top to bottom (forearm contour to tone knob direction).

Have a look and a think and tell us what you conclude please mate.

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No no and no

There seems to be quite a bit of confusion here. I'll put up a pic or two in the next few days which hopefully will clarify things.

But I'll re-state as I don't seem to have expressed myself clearly:

The bridge in question is set to float on two posts (not screws). Each post has an indent into which the leading knife edge of the bridge engages. It's a little like a Floyd Rose design. The bridge plate pivots up and down on it's knife edge, but is secured by string tension into the slotted posts.

I lowered the posts (they just screw in) as far as I can into the guitar top. They have bottomed out but I still have the posts protruding too far out of the guitars top. There appears no way to lower the front of the bridge any further as it still has to engage in the post slots and these are still too high. The back of the bridge is not the problem - I can tilt this up and down against the posts by tightening or loosening the spring claw. And I have tightened this sufficiently to bring the back of the bridge down towards the guitar top. I can't actually touch the top with the back of the bridge (still a 3mm gap) as the tilted bridge block is now touching the cavity wall inside the guitar..

Does this more detailed description help? Otherwise I can only think of levelling up the bridge plate again and wedging the inertia block against it's internal cavity.

I guess I should add that the guitar is a recent Squier Std Strat bought from new (and it's a peach), rather than being one of my Fender Strats. I didn't mention this before as it didn't seem relevant.

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

Yes the whole of the trem is set to float. The rear and leading edges of it. The only way round that is to get the trem off the pivotposts, so the tremplate sits flat against the body. Then sandwich the inertia block against the cavity wall. With no string or spring pressure on the trem (so its not fixed to anything) can you manouvre it so that it goes to the position you want?

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No no and no