I have a fabulous sounding 83 Gold Elite Strat and am the original owner. As everyone probably is aware, the pickup selector "buttons" kind of turned off many players when this very innovative guitar was introduced. Further, the weak point of the guitar is the finicky Freeflyte tremolo system which is very difficult to keep in tune. Has anyone out there ever retrofitted a different trem system on an elite? I really can only play this as a hardtail or limit the operation of the trem in the downward direction. I would really love to play it like I do my PRS....... plenty of whammy bar and it stays in tune!

Limitation......I do not want to in any way alter, drill, route, or otherwise deface the guitar. It is in absolutely pristine condition, and I always want to be able to go back to the hardtail option with this trem system.

The guitar has gobs and gobs of tone and sustain. The active circuitry is also very robust. Just this trem issue.

JR

With such a stipulation you are stuck with the Free Flyte trem.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

I was afraid of that. Anyone else with any ideas?
NJ

Just ran across this thread while searching for a source for a spare Freeflyte Trem Whammy bar and exact "L" saddles (mine are rusting a little). Anyone know of any sources? ( I saw one idiot on eBay wanting, get this ... $150 for a Trem Whammy Bar!~!)

I have a Sunburst '83 Stratocaster Elite and I really can't understand all the complaining about the Freeflyte Trem ... mine never goes out of tune - dive-bombing or pulling- , after I set it up right 20 years ago when I bought the guitar used from a guy who didn't understand you have to set up a guitar before you play it. But I've always been a good guitar "mechanic".

Get a different body that takes a standard tremolo system.

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Care to share a few words about how one adjusts that type of trem?

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

It's been a loooooong time (some 20+ year) since I set up my first Freeflyte on that Sunburst Strat Elite and then on my second "Elite" a Walnut Elite I bought two years later, but let me see if I can reconnect some of my lost synapse connections in my brain and remember all that my uncle who worked at Fender (in Fullerton, then Corona), told me to do to set it up right and keep it that way.

I also have a '83 "Two Knob" Strat Standard that my Uncle gave me.

Give me a couple weeks to write some, scratch my head some and write some more. Guess it worth putting down in text for posterity and anyone else with an Elite.

But just to show you that Freeflite's DO stay in tune, and a hell of a lot better than any standard Strat tremolo, take a look at this video -
http://youtu.be/upNdI_UfZx8

Why not just keep the Elite the way it is and get another guitar that meets your tremolo needs? More flavors is always better!

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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!

Why not make the Elite work the way it was intended to and enjoy it as a great guitar. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that Trem and the combination of the ground breaking Elite pickups and the push-button selector system that allowed you PUP selections no other Strat could make it the best Strat ever made.

I have a vintage '59 (not a reissue), a number American 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and one 2002 American Strats in my collection; and it all were worth the same dollar value, I'd keep my '83 Sunburst Standard Alder Elite and the '83 Walnut Elite over all the others for the most versatile players. Fit 'n Finish, Quality, Neck, Sustain and sound are every bit as good as my '59 or any of my 60's. Period.

Smith and his team at Fender spent 3 years designing and developing the Elite series of Strats and Tele's and Basses- they came up with the most over-looked Strat, Fender ever made in the USA.

Of course I'm not crazy and I know my '59 is worth a new BMW 5 series and any one of the 60's Strats are worth a new Harley 1200; so they ain't going no where.

Nothing wrong with buying another Strat of course, though.

I agree with this, however the OP stated that he did not want to fiddle and tweak in order to keep the trem in top condition. Lots of guys deck their trems in order to have a bit more simplicity.

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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!

"Decking" the Trem is a fine option, I've done that on two of my late 70's vintage Strats and my 85 Strat because I wanted that "Hardtail" sound that I prefer anyway. Though "Decking" still won't really get you a true strings through body hardtail resonance effect. I also have a '68 hardtail in Alder and a 73 Hardtail in Swamp Ash (neither reissues) and both are phenomenal sounding compared to Strats with any kind of Trem - Decked or not.

However, the Freeflyte Trem is not hard to set up and it does last for years. I have not redone mine in some 12 years and it still stays in tune no matter how much "Dive Bombing" of Pull Trem I do! So the constant adjusting and fiddling is not a valid argument for getting rid of the Freeflyte Trem system, or decking it; if the original poster wants a functional trem.

I will redo it (set up) again now, just so I can remember how my Uncle taught me how to and post it soon. I've also found my original docs on the Freeflyte that came with my first Stratocaster Elite my uncle gave me in 83. If anyone has a Strat Elite, a 83-84 Two Knob "Smith" Strat that came with the optional Freeflyte trem, or the Japanese JV series Strat's that some came white a Japanese made FreeFlyte, I will get to writing the set up procedure ..... soon.

Congratulations to you sir, for not having the same tremolo problems everybody else on the face of the good planet have had since they were created! Perhaps the OP should just sell you the ultra and get a strat we sweaty masses play and be done with it.

All the variables considered, guitar setup is not alchemy as some let on. Trems are touchy by design; no one tremolo unit will satisfy everybody. It's great that you can do all sorts of whammy wonders on a 30 year-old tremolo and not have it go out of tune, but there has to be a reason that tremolo isn't available on guitars today? Hmmm. In terms of enduring designs, you have the vintage 6 holer, the AS two pointer and the Floyd Rose in all it's incarnations (in addition to kahler, which is barely sustaining a pulse, bigsby for the jazz guys and the :shudder: Gibson Vibrola, which nobody uses). Only one solves all of the problems inherent to tremolos; unless you lock the nut, it and the tuners, striing trees, break angle, etc...become problems as well.

Again sir, I agree with you; the OP should either learn to love the idiosyncracies inherent to that particular trem, or move on and find a new love. Some guns are for shooting, and some for hanging over the fireplace (or throwing in the fire! ).

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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!

http://www.fender.com/community/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=62048
this is what happens when you retrofit an elite...

I also have had an Elite since '83 and have used it mostly as a hardtail like OP. As part of restoring it to a usable state I recently had to replace some corroded parts and broken electronics. In an effort to improve tuning stability I installed a set of staggered locking-tuners from Sperzel, removed the string-trees and replaced the nut with one from Graphtec. The original saddles and their height-adjustment screws were about to dissolve and with no original Fender-parts available I went for the only option, a set of saddles made by Graphtec specifically for the elite. The result is no less than amazing. The Elite is now about as stable as my PRS CU24. The only modification necessary to the guitar were a set of new pinholes on the back of the headstock for the new tuners. These holes are however covered by the original tuners should I ever want to put those back on.

that's an idea, but the route on these guitars is so huge, there is just enough wood left to catch the pick guard screws, probably to weak to hold trem screws