If you block your trem, fill the cavity with firefoam. It further increases stability and stops any reverbing effect from the tremsprings. Also if you fill your pickup and control cavities with wet epoxy resin then quickly place your pickguard onto it, it completely shields your strats electronics. Adds loads of mass to the body and gives a much more solid gibson like tone. You need to be completely sure you have tone monster pickups installed and are happy with the wiring before doing this though.

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No no and no

My old playin buddy. Clarence "Dirtybutt" Wills used to drill out his strap button screws and put in steel inserts. He said it adds mass and makes the strap much more stable. He posted about it on here a while back, but he got poopoo'd by all the experts on this board so he never came back. The man is a living legend of Fender modification; I just think nobody treated him nice because he was named "Clarence".

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60th Anniversary AD Strat, Deluxe Nashville Tele, Player's P Bass. Mesa/Boogie Mk IV combo, Marshall JCM800, 1960A cab, Genz Benz El Diablo 60, Genz 2x12" cab, too many neat little practice amps and kit projects!

It's a load. As Martian said, it's easier to change strings and adjust the trem. Tha's pretty much it.

Leaving the pickgaurd off of a Les Paul will also allow the top to vibrate more freely, which produces a much better tone.

It's totally insane to think that removing the back plate will improve tone. However it works miracles on your phrasing :^D

it does make it louder when not plugged in . thats all i notice. then i am sure it must change plugged in sound a bit also but i cant tell the differecnce. i leave the eric clapton one off so i can change the 9v batt easy. oh and i lost the screws for the cover.

if the springs start vibrating, i asssume that the backplate keeps the sound in the chamber, changing the resonance slightly, would that asumption be correct?

Texas, GREAT answer about the springs being able to breathe better, snorted-laughed out loud.

+1 the truss rod cover allowing the truss rod to breath was good, too.

I think it enhances the strummy quality and you hear more of the 'tinnny' sound of the strings vibrating when playing unplugged which seems to make it a little bit brighter/glassier.....having said that i didn't remove it for that purpose - i removed it because Fender's string holes don't line up with the trem block when you remove all the strings to change them - you would have thought after 56 years they might have changed this!!

I have to go with the "it makes no difference" crowd....after years of leaving them on or off.
Now the number of springs if the tremo is blocked,seems to change the tone,at least to my ears.
The problem of the string holes not lining up is reason enough to leave it off....although it looks ugly to me every time I see it.

i removed it and returned the screws...cuz i'm cool like that

I just removed the Fender strings sticker off the trem cover of my new Jimmy Vaughn Strat and was amazed by the increased sustain I got,these stickers should be outlawed as they are real tone killers.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Now you've gone and done it!
That sticker will be worth thousands in 50 years.

Tell me you're kidding.

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