1996- I recall ads in the guitar magazines with Jimmy Vaughn with the 'tex mex' stratocaster.

well I tried many guitars like an sg and prefer due to my playing experience a 5 way switch and a strat style= so I perchased one with a sunburst and have only been impressed more by this strat as the yrs get on.

I eventually had a set up with low action w/ dr 9's and the bridge dropped almost to the body (looks like it is)- great tone, sustain, and heavy!?

I changed the turners to locking sperzels and swapped the gaurd and accessories to blace with white accent=with the set-up never looked back.
The texas specials are awesome pick ups imo@!

recently, upon inspection and a period of not playing I found the bridge saddles were wearing a groove and debated repair other/ and opted to just buy another strat.

the strat I purchased this year is a classic 50s' in daphne blue (wanted that, the maple neck as my other has rosewood- also was excited to play a y shape neck than the 'c'' type on the 'tex mex'.

so, finding myself with a new guitar it is nice but alot lighter than my previous 'tex' strat= also the 3 springs in the back of the 50's have a bit of rattle. not the 'tex' also the texas special pickups seem to be more bassy than the '50's' (i call it 'ol blue') .

so I want to avoid the problems I have on 'tex' now with lubes or swapping out the trem block or entire trem set up bridge to one that is rolled steel?

The 'ol blue' is much harder to play in a way that is difficult to express other than the idea that my hand finds the y shape neck more tense to move about and the vintage fretwire sems shallow...

I want to increase the tone in the performance of the instrument along with durability. the trem block with 5 springs looks like something I will do since I have the locking tuners on 'ol blue' also. changing the nut is something I'm not convinced of.

instead of changing the trem block wouldn't a full 5 springs (or 4) give the sustain to the instrument? I'm not convinced that the steel is better than the zinc other than for durability.

love my 'tex' strat- getting to know 'ol blue' but I'm glad I didn't go for any MIA model because it would have been custom and I'm getting the job done at a better rate imo from experience.

I like to play my strats, not collect them- I play them hard - and have no intention of selling or worried it won't keep value as a MIM. the whole MIA keeping value or better is a shallow debate and debunked by every player whom changes the instrument to their needs. once you change one thing it's not the same animal MIA,MIM,MIJ ETC

the strats I have are quality, but wonder if anyone can figure why 'ol blue' is lighter than 'tex'- also what about the trem block issue? springs etc.

sorry for the long initial post,

steevie