I just got a new '57 Vintage White Blonde Strat. Great guitar. There's just one thing that bugs me about it; When putting in the tremolo bar in I found that it was drilled on an angle, so when it's pointing towards then neck it angles high up away from the strings. When it swings back away from the neck towards the tail it is closer to the body. So close it smacks into the cable jack when it's plugged in.

I asked my luthier about it and he said "Yeah, some models are made like that. I like the ones that are drilled straight and can spin all the way around without hitting anything myself." Me too!

I have a Strat that was made in the early 90's that is like this (floyd rose bridge and totally different animal I know..).

My question is, is there another Fender Strat bridge unit that I could get to mod it with? One from this 'vintage era' that I could put in that would keep the vintage vibe and has a tremolo that is drilled straight and rotates 360 without hitting the cable jack?

Thanks!

All you need to to do is change the tremolo string block to the strait drilled model.

_________________
Marriage is like playing cards...

At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

But in the end, all you really want is a Club and a Spade.

I can't find a model that specifies that it's "straight drilled". Do you have a link or can you point me in the right direction?

I usually end up hand bending the vibrato arms on new Strats by wrapping the threads in a thick cloth and putting the threaded section in the vise. By trial and error and bending a little at a time I am able to get the arm at the angle I like.You can also bend the longer part of the arm in this manner.

_________________
'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.

I'm not interested in trying to bend the arm. It already sticks up way too far when it points towards the neck and I'd have to bend it up about a half an inch to clear the cable jack when it swings back.

I've never had a vintage trem that would spin all the way around with the cord plugged in,however all my American deluxe models with the pop in trem arm wiil do so.