When I see people blocking a spring tremolo with a piece of wood, I wonder why not just buy a hardtail! I know all the arguments for blocking a trem, but if you don't use the tremolo on your Stratocaster for what it's intended for, then why buy a Strat with a spring tremolo?
Sorry, but setting up a spring tremolo to stay in tune is not that hard! It's actualy quite easy provided you don't want to do drastic divebombing. And it will stay in tune!

Hardtails have great sustain, with no tunning issues, and players like Eric Clapton, Elliot Easton and others have played a hardtail with great sounding albums and results!

I agree that a properly set up spring trem sounds awesome, but what do you realy gain by blocking a tremolo with a piece of wood besides better tunning?

If all you want is better tunning on your strat, then IMHO, just get a hardtail! The sound differences between the two is marginaly different, and you'll be happier with your Strat!

Besides, if you break a string on a hardtail, you can still finish the song than change to your spare! Can you do that with a spring trem?

I own strats with spring trems and hardtails and I love them both equaly! But then again, I know how to properly set up a spring trem!

_________________
www.householdsaints.com

Hardtails are rare.

Robin

_________________
_________________________________
http://www.youtube.com/robinstrower
_________________________________

my reasons

1. hard to find a hardtail and if you can find one you will pay more.
2. Do they even make a MIM hardtail strat? I have a MIM strat.
3. I can have the best of both worlds. If I ever decide I want to use the whammy I can put it back to normal.

They do make a MIM hard tail in the Robert Cray model and I think the Tom Delonge is also MIM. I have a couple of them and got the bodies off Ebay for a song (no pun intended). They definitely sound different though. They have their place I think. Some songs sound awesome while others sound a bit thin. That being said they both have the stock Robert Cray pups in them. It may be different with other pups, I just don't have the money to play with that at the moment.

The hard tail will sound a little different. The spings in the floating bridge vibrate and change the the tone.

_________________
1975 Sunburst Stratocaster rosewood finger board
1979 Stratocaster with roseowood finder board
2001 Candy Green Clapton Stratocaster
2007 Andy Summers Inspired Telecaster
2007 '51 P-Bass
2012 Taylor 110
2015 Mystic Ice Blue Deluxe Stratocaster Plus

This has already been argued to death a million times over.
Most Strats come with floating tremolos full stop.

Some people can set them up. Others pay to do it.
If strings bind in the nut or string trees your going to have obvious tuning issues.

The "if you break a string live" doesn't seem to stop the million other floating trem players.

Guitarist it seems gravitate to three basic types of guitar (In the solid body world) a Les Paul, a telecaster and a stratocaster.

Not just that, they want then the way to first came out. In Les Paul, the tremolo models just don't sell. Same with the Telecaster, yes there have been many attempts to make one with some type of a tremolo or another, but they simple do not sell like the hardtail version.

So Fender makes the majority of the Stratocaster they way there customers want it, with the tremolo in it.
Not just a tremolo, the original model tremolo (Or one that looks like it).

Many improvements that could be made are set aside all for this traditionalist out there.
If you think about it, a guitar made with a carbon fiber neck and a a body made with an aluminum frame covers with a carbon fiber would be impervious to the weather and never go out of tune. It could have stainless steel frets that would never wear out and a tremolo system that would lock and be completely stable.

You would have a guitar that would be light weight, never wear out, play great and would be in perfect tune.....

And no one would buy it.

So that is the why.
I myself would have liked my guitar better if it didn't have the tremolo, but it does and I have it spring down, so if I bother to put on the tremolo arm I could use it to go down, But I really don't need it.
And I will get a better price for if I need to sell it later on.

_________________
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.

Hord tails are rare and harder to find and somtimes cost
More, but i agree with you.

_________________
You cant always get what you want

I prefer the blocked vibrato version.

IMO, the vibration of the springs of the vibrato add to the chimey 'bell-like' sound of my Strats.

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

Don't leave home without it!

YES

I see Joe Walsh in some of his current Eagles tours is using a Carvin with a Tremolo system:



Blocked or unblocked, the main reason I do not use a hard tail Strat is for the spring resonance. I know I will get flack for this, but this contributes more to the harmonic and certain note sustain more than "tone woods" or "brass claws or trem blocks." If I wanted a hard tail guitar with a Strat configuration I would simply use a DX Tele as it is string through, with the nice sound of a Tele bridge yet 2 Strat pickups:

_________________
Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

It's because hard tails sound different from a tremolo equipped strat, blocked or not.

You mentioned Eric Clapton, and he himself said that he didn't want a "floating" tremolo but he much preferred it's sound over a hard tail. So he blocked it.

You see, a hard tail has a much more quick attack, similar to a telecasters attack.

Tremolo equipped strats have a slower attack and gives a smoother, kinda squishy sound. This sound is what most people think of when they think "strat"

There is DEFINITELY an unmistakable difference in sound when comparing a trem-equipped strat and a hard tail.

Nile Rogers also played a hardtail strat. Nice guitar, But I wouldn't buy one if he had a signature one. I've been playing with my trem decked & five springs, I've never played a hardtail, So I can't say if I'd like it or not. I'm fine with my setup now. It's not blocked, and I get plenty of sustain, and as tuning issues go, I play a couple of hours and have to make minimal adjustments. It's like others have said, my tuning issues disappeared once I learned how to properly wind the strings on the tuners. Once around the top and three on the bottom, a few more on the thinner strings.

My '78 is a hardtail and I have the trem on my SRV blocked. I don't think I have ever used a trem arm in my 15+ years of playing. Lately though I've been thinking about floating the trem on my SRV just so I can play with it.

Unless you are dead set on a hardtail I suggest getting a trem equipped model. Then you'll have the option and I can't notice a tonal difference between a blocked trem and hardtail.

_________________
Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!