As most here know, my Deluxe strat is suffering the common Deluxe low E intonation problem. Well last night I stripped the guitar right down trying to find the problem. Measured the trem post placement and checked that they were 90degrees either side of the guitars center line. Spot on. Checked the posts weren't bent, their fine. Stripped the saddles and block off the trem and had a good gander at the trem plate. The low E side knife edge cutout is 1.75mm worn. Causing the low E side of the trem to sit closer to the nut. Thereby causing probably all of the intonation problem on the bass side of the guitar.

Now this guitar is the 50th Anniversary Deluxe. So the simple option of just buying another trem and slapping that on is not available. I can't find a gold Deluxe trem for sale anywhere online.
Would the tremplate be interchangable with the American Standard's gold tremplate? I know the post spacing is the same, but is the block's screw placement? I don't want to lose the Deluxe's pushfit trem bar fitting.

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Hi Nikki, Yeah thats a tough one... This is a great case to make "Genuine Fender Parts" Available...From Fender...

Im sure you have looked at theses guys, but here it is if you havent
http://store.hipshotproducts.com/cart.php?m=product_list&c=20

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Hey, Boy Blue is back!

I had the same issue happen to my US Deluxe Strat I bought back in 2000, luckily mine was just the Chrome plated Trem-Plate, so it wasn't too hard to get a spare one through Fender, although the first one that the shop got in had incorrect block mounting holes. Once I realised it would happen again I ordered up a few spare plates back then (8 years ago) and I have one new plate left in a packet.

That guitar is still my No1 player so I've been through about 3 plates now over 10 years, since when gigging there was sweat getting around the top pivot point and chewing it out. I found that keeping that pivot point clean as possible and adding a tiny bit of lube there can help delay the gradual chewing out process, although it seems to happen eventually anyway, probably because I sweat a lot when playing.

I hope you have some luck getting a Gold plated one, maybe you could get a few Chrome ones and have them stripped and replated (not sure if the cost would be prohibitive), whatever you do I'd suggest getting a few backups as in my experience it will happen again if you keep the guitar long term and play it a lot.

I'll check for a part number on the packet I have left and post it up, it may or may not help (Although it will be for the Chrome Plate).

Edit for Part Number:
The Part Number label on the spare "Chrome" plate is: 0036527000

Hope that helps.

Snowy

Thankyou Bill and Snowy.

Snowy, do you have any thoughts as to why the American Standard bridge doesn't suffer from the same problem?

The idea I'm going with is to replace the gold Deluxe bridgeplate with the gold Standard bridgeplate.
Suppose I'll have to strip it and my American Standard bridges down and see if I can swap the bits around.

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Niki, I have no idea why this problem would affect the Deluxe and not the US Standard. I owned a US Standard for about 18 months before I sold it to buy the Deluxe which had just been released at the time, I played the Deluxe and loved the quality feel and the rolled edges on the neck, etc, and I had to have it! (Back then mine came with the original Fender "Vintage Noiseless" pickups), so maybe the same problem would have happened if I kept the Standard longer?

I just thought it was me sweating too much, I didn't realise others were copping the same issue.

But yeah, if the Standards aren't doing this, then that is a bit of a mystery!


Snowy

watching this topic as i too have a AM Deluxe 50th.
mines not been played very much.
niki, so whats the major differences in tremolos
on the two your talking about?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Hello Niki
The part number for the gold trem plate for your Deluxe is 0053145000,also the block is the same between the gold and chrome model so they must be the same.Callaham web site lists the same block for the std and deluxe so it seems that the plate would be the same. I searched for over a year to find a new or like new Am deluxe trem complete before I found one on ebay. I was going to have the chrome version gold plated by those automotive accessories guys that gold plate the stock emblems on cars.This process is usually pretty reasonable. If you really get stuck contact me and perhaps we can work something out for that gold trem as I have not used it yet.Craig

niki

how did you measure the knife edges to get to that number?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Hey Nik - - assuming you're using an electronic tuner, is the tone stable when played?

I mean, if there is any wobble to it, it might not really be an intonation problem, but might just seem like one. If there is any pitch wobble, your pickups might be too close to the strings, causing excess magnetic pull during about half the cycle as the string vibrates, leading to what they call "wolf tones". I always lower my pickups considerably when intonating to avoid wolf tones as much as possible.

I've also found on some of the Strats I owned over the years that I could not get the low E string to intonate perfectly. I ended up having to cut the saddle spring in half to get more adjustment travel out of it, but as with any mfg process, there is variation, sometimes to a disappointing level.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Mike the problem I had and I think is the same one Niki describes is that there are knife edges in the two "U" shaped cutouts of the bridge plate, and the one on the Lower E string side gradually wears at the point it sits against the pivot post. As the metal is removed from the base of that "U" shape the entire bridge starts to pivot and move forward and this really throws the ability to get enough adjustment to intonate the guitar, particularly the wound strings. It can move forward a couple of millimeters.

The first time this happened to me, mine had moved far enough forward on the low E side that the bridge plate was actually contacting/clipping the rear edge of the scratch-plate, so that in itself is even worse and the guitar was unplayable if I tried using the Trem. Nik has probably noticed that his would be getting closer and closer to doing that as well, depending on the amount of wear he has. Even if he could get it intonated that interference with the scratch-plate will cause major playability problems.



Snowy.

Ok lads here goes.

The trem plates are not interchangable, if you want to use the trem arm. Everything else aside from the trem arm hole is in the same place. Grrrrr. So it looks like I'll be contacting Wingman.

Mike, I never use a tuner to intonate. I'll only ever do it by ear. As for pitch differences between attack and fade, I go with the attack section of the note as thats the louder bit. It's always grabbed my attention more than the fade. And as you know, note fade will fluctuate in pitch. I can assure you that the pickups are set to a decent height and not interfering with the strings vibration pattern.

Because as mentioned before, I've read all kinds of suggestions as to what could be causing it. I've put a chrome american standard trem on it for the time being. Sadly it is most definitely the trem plate. This trem is sitting a lot better, but not quite perfect. So I suppose there is some post wear too.

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how did you measure this?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

I've been searching around using "Deluxe low E intonation problem" and it does seem
to be a very common problem with many fixes and even more suggested fixes.

I know you're aware of your pup heights, but I threw it out there just for others who might be searchin for a fix.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

OK, but what has the Pope to do with it????

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I remember when we were free!

Ah just in time, thanks for the bump. Oneal the pope has nothing to do with it. I just find it quite funny that the head of the catholic church has such a past.

Anyways American Standard trem on a Deluxe. All intonation problems solved.

Guitar before (note saddle position)



After (note saddle position in relation to the rear edge of the trem)




Aside from not suffering wear as drasticaly as the Deluxe trem plate. The Standard tremplate is wider. Looks to be 1.5mm wider leading edge to rear. Allowing for more scope of adjustment. Horrible grainy Iphone pictures, but the photobucket app for direct upload is just too easy not to use.

Next step, put a gold American standard trem on the guitar.

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