I have been reading on how people block their strats with a piece of wood in the back so the part that extends down from the bridge makes contact with the wood. The block bridges the gap between the bridge and the guitar body and allows the transfer of vibration to the body for better sustain and better tone.

I could not find a piece of wood laying around to try this, but I found a bunch of acoustic guitar saddles made of bone which are great for transferring vibration. I did not like the idea of blocking on the side of the bridge block that depended on the string tension to hold it in place, so I put the bone saddle in the side that the springs would hold it in place. The fit is almost perfect as it holds the bridge just about 1/8th inch of the body (as Fender recommends), and with 5 springs holding it, there is plenty enough pressure to transfer the vibration from the bridge block to the guitar body. It also holds the bridge block in the perfect position to change the strings without removing the back plate.

Has anyone ever tried this or did I invent something new...

Here are some pictures of what I did.

I'm not expert but that's not blocking anything. You can still put the trem bar in and do a dive, the "block" will fall out of place.

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

+1. I'm certainly not an expert either ... but the springs and screwed-in claw are doing all the work here. For a truly blocked tremolo, the block needs to be on the other side and the bridge plate flat on the body.

The point of using a block isn't necessarily only for sound transfer, but to make the tremolo immovable (block prevents bridge from raising up, bridge plate flat on the body prevents it being lowered). All you've done is blocked it in one direction.

That said, lots of people use 5 springs and screwed-in claw w/o a block so as long as you never use the trem bar, you'll probably never notice (but I think you'd be better off if the bridge plate were flush).

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Then again, what do I know ... I've only been playin' for 6 months ... !

I always add springs instead of blocking. It accomplished the same thing. The bridge is held tight against the body and the tremolo is essentially now a hardtail. No need to block it now.

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"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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I've done this to a couple Squires which the trem block didn't rest against the body route. It's not the same as blocking the trem. The trem is usable, but not floating. It does add quite a bit of presence and sustain to the guitar that is otherwise missing with the trem block floating, not resting against the body.

I make the insert from poplar, size it so both the trem block and bridge plate rest flush against the body, for even more vibration distribution. I glue them in with Titebond.

I blocked my Am Std w/ a piece of maple on the other side, opposite the side you did. I sanded a very slight taper making the piece a wedge then gently tapped it in place. I went with maple because of it's density. Also as was said, my bridge plate rests flat on the body. The guitar seems to have great sustain and I've never had an issue with the block coming loose.

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peace

1993 Am Std Strat LH
1999 Am Std Tele LH
2010 MIM Strat LH (on order)
Princeton 112 Plus
Princeton 212 Chorus

I blocked the trem on one of my HSS strats. What I did was to block the back side of the string block with a light amount of pressure such that the bridge lay flat against the top of the body. Then I blocked the other side with a little more pressure. The top bridge plate is still in light contact with the top of the body but the string block is blocked under fairly good pressure on both sides of the block cavity. I used hardwood strips (I think it was beech) which I planed down to thickness and the last piece to go in had a slight taper so it had to be lightly driven into place with a small mallet. I believe it to be roughly as solid as a Tele style string-though/ferule arrangement. I did reconnect the springs to the claw but they aren't really necessary as the bridge can't move no matter how hard you try but I figured the more points of contact for energy transfer between the string block and the body wood the better.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.