I have an eric johnson strat and absolutely love the tone and feel and look but...

I spent a couple of hours trying to set up the tremolo in the way described by Carl Verheyen (goole from the video to see what I mean). I managed to balance the string and spring tension, the problem I have with the tremolo is that there is a lag from when I first depress or raise the bar i.e. it's not as responsive as I like.

Does anyone know if this is the design of the particular trem on the Johnson model? The other tremolos I've used haven't had this issue?

I am seriously thinking of replacing the tremolo for a vintage style (non locking) one, with 2 provisos;
1) it must have instant response,
and 2) it must've affect the tone or sustain

Can any of you suggest a suitable replacement that will meet my criteria?

The tremolo unit you have on the guitar is the Vintage Synchronized Tremolo.

Sounds to me like you are missing the black spring that sits in the tremolo arm hole.
They get lost very easily.
They look like this


You can buy them on this site
http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/trem_usastrat.htm

_________________
No no and no

Thanks for your response, I still have the spring and was wondering wether it was the spring that was causing the lag.

No the spring pushes the trem arm tight, effectively getting rid of the lag.

Personally I won't use the spring. I don't like the way the trem arm is constantly pushed up. The threads of the arm are constantly forced onto the threads of the block.
I use the same tremolo without any spring and don't notice any lag that is a real world problem.

Are you tightening the trem arm enough?

_________________
No no and no

I had the arm screwed in really tight. I can only really describe it as if the arm felt like it was bending slightly before the tremolo block would move. I'm sure my mexican strat had the same vintage style block and I never had this problem it's very strange.

How many springs do you have in the back of it? Sounds to me like you have it set too stiff.

Or you could have a weak trem arm. In which case buy a replacement arm before you replace anything else.

_________________
No no and no

Ok I'll give that a try first, I had 3 springs in the back.