Locking nut and tuners if you're going that far in you're tremolo. Try a hipshot in the tremolo, I've heard that helps too!

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


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There seems to be several things you can do, it just depends on the amount of modifications you want to perform on the the guitar. I have added springs to the trem, the afforementioned Hipshot tremsetter is a viable option, the Tremol-no is a good one, you can change nuts to graphite, or the LSR roller unit, add a lock nut, locking tuners, the Super Vee system. Sometimes, just the strings you are using may be the culprit. I have always had the best luck with Fender Bullets in my vintage trem, though I generally prefer other brands.

I'll repeat what's been said here often. Your biggest problem is friction along the strings path, at the nut or the saddles. A well cut nut - preferably in a slippery material like Tusque - is always your best friend for extra wild trem manipulation. You might get away with pencil graphite in your existing nut slots if the nut is up to par Are you using bigger guage strings ? ideally the nut slots will be cut to at least the guage you'e using. Check that your saddles haven't got a precut groove tight enough to grip the string. Flat steel saddle are always better than the grooved block ones. Lube them with vaseline, etc, under the string.

Locking tuners are good as well, but here's a good method for locking a string onto a non locking tuner post:

Line up the string hole from right to left. Feed the string through from the left and then wind it a half turn around the TOP of the post. Bring the string under itself at your starting position and then bend it back towards the top of the tuner. Hold in place while you tighten the tuner, and you'll see the string wrap itself around where you bent it over. If you've got it right, the tighter the string tension is, then the firmer your string lock will be. The string's tension is doing the locking for you. (This is much easier to do than describe!)

Lubricate the underside of any string trees with vaseline etc. Fender suggest lip salve and that works perfectly for me. Make sure your new strings are properly stretched in.

Finally, check that the trem springs are getting a good stretch. Sometimes you may need to drop a spring to get the remaining ones properly stretched out. Especially important if your bridge is set to float. If your bridge is set flat to the top, then tighten the trem claw at the back to put pressure on those springs.

If that little lot doesn't sort you out, then you probably have a problem with the basic geometry of the guitar. Check that your neck is screwed tight to the body before calling a tech.. err by which, I mean the guitar neck of course..

Fender's original strat trem design was years ahead of it's time. With a set up like I've described, EVERY one of my trem fitted guitars behaves faultlessly. That includes some cheaper Ibanez and Yamaha guitars I own in addition to my Fenders.

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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!

Two quick and easy things to try....

1) Graphite used to lube lock cylinders, put a little in the nut grove can help some. (A little goes a long way here)

2) If your tremolo is set to float, while tuning, give it a quick lift up to make use the tension is on the side on the tremolo side of the nut. Then after you use the tremolo wile playing, again, finish with a lift up.
It should reset to were you tuned it at.

Hi Nevin,

If your thinking about going down the trem-setter route, I'm going to be installing a Göldo BackBox on my Strat later on in my thread.



Its supposed to be easier to install and set up than the hipshot one.

Andy

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Pending Greatness

i was reading about this when I was waiting to get a haircut today. Don't know much more about it though.

http://evertune.com/

Not sure if it works on a guitar with a trem.

Nevin, don't know how hard you use the trem, but Nicki gave me some advice about using dental floss in the nut grooves and it's worked great since. I don't do VanHalen type whammy drops with the strat though.
filerj

I don't know what Fender locking tuners are like, (mine has a locking nut and Floyd Rose and it can be a pain in the rear), but I once had a PRS with
locking tuners and loved them.

I've often wondered why they're not the industry norm.

If it were me, and I had the cash...and I was certain it wouldn't mess up
the "integrity" of the instrument I'd give those locking tuners a try.

Wouldn't it be nice to speak to someone like David Gilmour's
tech, and see what he says about it? Gilmour occasionally uses the
dive bomb without a locking nut.

Another thing you may want to consider (and not sure if you prefer floating vs. flush to the body) taking out the float, that way when you drop down it returns to the same pitch. If you are still having problems, then you have string hanging somewhere. Either your nut is too tight, string trees have a burr, or your saddles are too loose. Also lube the guitar if you haven't done it in a while.

I have to admit, since I started playing Fenders with syncronized tremolo's I stopped diving all together. On my next guitar I want a hard-tail bridge.

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

Interesting Nevin, My player Strat is a Strat Plus with all the Plus features...locking tuners, roller nut, etc. But if I go crazy with the tremolo, like the other night we did the dong Victory by Santana and I got really carry away, I knew when I was done the whole guitar would be slightly sharp. In fact with big dives I can count on it. This is one of my few guitars that does not have a tremsetter. So I am sure the bridge is not coming back to rest in the exact same place. If I do the same thing with one of my guitars with a tremsetter, no problem, except I can't dive quite as far (you know...so low the strings are completely loose and rattling on the fret board!). So I am thinking a tremsetter or one of the other devices suggested might solve the problem. Tremsetters are a little tricky to set up but then there are YouTube videos that can walk you through it.

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

Nevin this is entirely a setup issue. Getting rid of friction and greasing all the relevant areas helps, but it is not the solution.

If your guitar is constantly pulling sharp, the same amount, every time you trem, it's a claw balance issue.

Is one side of the guitar returning sharper than the other side. Eg treble side sharper than bass side?

If so unscrew the treble side tremclaw screw no more than 1/8th of a turn, have a trem wobble moment then recheck, until you have it balanced.

If its both sides sharp it's a little trickier and requires a bit of intuition, so relax. Do the same as above, on both screws, until you get the trem balanced.

If were talking about a 2 point trem it can be worth rotating the pivot posts before doing any of the above.

Hope thats some help. I go utterly wild on my trems and dont really get much trouble at all, whether it be my CS guitar or a squier. I can only assume it's down to dilligence at setup.

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No no and no

I agree with Nikininja. Its all about set-up.
The video link below is for floyd rose equipped guitars, but i just followed it for my Strat's vintage bridge, and it worked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQQT9-Y0R9A

in case that doesn't work (it should work) you can try this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0Oyc6slYRc

and if you want to learn alot about strat trems you can watch these vids

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgfMyJ76p4o
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-h-jQlTA-w
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daAsLkXND7A
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvmUOwHieNY

I hope this helps!

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1991 MIA Std Strat, Partsocaster, and a Blues Jr.

Try having a nut made from a material known as slipstone. I bought a 2009 Ltd Edition '64 Strat heavy relic last year and right out of the case it was a nightmare to tune and with moderate tremolo use, forget it. I was frustrated. I took it to a local guitar tech to have it set up, action etc. and he recommended having a nut made of this slipstone. I kid you not! after the nut was properly broken in after a lot of playing I can dive bomb all day and it stays in tune. Check it out. I hope this helps.

Great advice Niki...I will try this on my strat before I install a tremsetter and let ya know if it does the trick on mine......

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com