Hey Guys, I was just wondering if anybody has ever routered there guitar body slightly behind the tremolo to allow for more pull back, or if that would cause any potential problems. I setup my American strat with the tremolo slightly off the body anyway to allow for some pull back. I was thinking while I had the body striped down for a nitrocellulose lacquer paint now would be the time to do it. Thanks Guys any input helps.

Hi sjw867: it so happens I once did exactly that. It was on an old mid-'90s Squier body on which I did a six-screw to two-point conversion and then loaded with a Wilkinson VS100 bridge. Possibly the cavity was routed specifically for a thinner Squier block, because when I did pull-ups the new bridge occasionally banged against the wood beside the spring cavity.

So I routed a couple of mil off from that spot and that made all the difference. However, I have proper routing templates for that job which makes it a cinch: I wouldn't want to attempt it otherwise. That guitar was finished in black polyester, so it was easy to do a little touch up in that area to make the mod look nice and seal the wood - though there was probably no need for that.

What is surprising me is the idea that you'd need to do this on an Am Std Strat. They are constructed to identical specs on CNC machines: I've never come across one where there was any problem setting a floating bridge for pull-ups. But I guess there's always one...

Cheers - C

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No, thats not the problem at all. I was just thinking that I could rout the body for a higher pitch change with my current setup. My bridge is setup floating now with no problems.

So why not just raise the float on the bridge?

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No no and no

So what is the problem?

Are you saying that doing bigger pull-ups might cause the block to hit wood? In that case what I said applies.

Though I'd be surprised if it'll be an issue. On my Am Std I can carry on pulling the trem up till I'm scared of breaking the strings, yet the block isn't touching timber. I don't expect you'll need to do any routing unless your body has a manufacturing error.

Cheers - C

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"Are you saying that doing bigger pull-ups might cause the block to hit wood? In that case what I said applies.

Though I'd be surprised if it'll be an issue. On my Am Std I can carry on pulling the trem up till I'm scared of breaking the strings, yet the block isn't touching timber. I don't expect you'll need to do any routing unless your body has a manufacturing error".

Cheers - C[/quote]

Ok, cool that answers all my questions. I did not realize you could raise the bridge that much. I will leave the guitar as is. Thanks