I've been looking for a new guitar, and actually just bought one recently. I wanted a free floating tremolo, but did not realize what that meant for string bending: when one goes up, the other goes down. Will this also happen with the vibrato bar on a strat?

No matter how much fine tuning and adjustment you do on the vibrato mechanism the will always be a degree of pitch drop on other strings when the system is floating.I've always set my vibrato flush to the body and rely on bending on the fret or above the nut to get my notes to go sharp.You can also pull back or push forward on the neck itself to get a note-usually a natural harmonic-to go flat or sharp.Dont try this on a set neck guitar as the results can be disasterous.

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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.

so what about a strat, where the vibrato(or tremolo) only has one point, when one string is bent, will the others go down as well?

Yes and that's the way it's been since 1954 when Leo Fender first gave the world the most wonderful guitar ever....the Stratocaster. Either you get used to it, or deck or block the bridge to the body so it won't move when bending strings.

Try this: pluck the low E and while it's ringing out bend (but do not pluck) the high E. Give it a big bend of at least a whole step or more. And notice the low E ringing out will detune like you're lowering the trem arm. And watch the back of the bridge slightly rise away from the body of the guitar. That's just the nature of the Strat. If you don't like it then deck/block the trem, get a tremsetter, or get a Telecaster

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Obligatory gear list: Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson, Gretsch, Vox, Martin, and more Fender.

That's a big problem for me, I love tremolos, would like to have a floating that would not detune the strings when I bend, and still give me all the good sustain of thru body. I love using the vibrato on chords, and little dive bombs, but I also love to do the country third style bends, I use them a lot...eesh.

The tremsetter that I mentioned will help stabilize a floating trem. I haven't used one, but here it is for you to check out: http://store.hipshotproducts.com/cart.p ... tail&p=115

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Obligatory gear list: Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson, Gretsch, Vox, Martin, and more Fender.

wow, that looks like a gem, thanks for the link.

also, do u know if Bigsby trems have the same problem?