I recently bought my first Mexican Strat. After the first pair of strings wore out, I restrung my guitar with D'Addario .09's because that's what I assumed it was originally strung with..

So, I have no intonation problems with my guitar across the fretboard, it sounds in tune just about everywhere. However, I noticed that the strings have pulled the bridge into a tilted position, and when palm mute heavily (I play metal) it throws the guitar off tune.

So what adjustments do I have to make in order to get the bridge to go lie flat on the body so that my palm muting won't affect it? Obviously I want the guitar to stay perfectly intonated.

Would appreciate some help here! Thanks!

Remove the rear cover. The trem springs connect to the trem at one end, and to a "claw anchor" at the other end. The claw anchor "floats" in the cavity and is attached to the body with two big screws. Loosen the strings, then screw in the claw anchor screws a bit so the trem springs are tighter. Retune the strings and check if the bridge is still raised up -- if so, repeat the process.

Another way to pull the bridge down is to add one or two more trem springs -- there are holes and claws for a total of 5 springs but most Strats ship with only 3 installed. But you'll have to go buy extra springs, and often the claw anchor needs adjusting anyway after you add springs.

The intonation will change slightly when you change the angle of the bridge. Most people's ears can't hear such a slight mis-intonation though so there's a good chance you won't need to adjust the saddle positions.

Does attaching extra springs pull the strings closer to the fretboard?

Setting the bridge flat will lower the strings a tiny bit regardless of how you do it -- adjusting the claw anchor or adding springs.

Put your trem arm in and watch the strings as you pull up then push down on the arm -- the strings move up and down (higher/lower). The saddles also get closer/farther from the nut as you rock the trem up and down.

The movements aren't large. If you don't have the action set super-low to begin with you probably won't have problems with fret buzz or choking. Same for the intonation -- a good tuner like a Peterson or Pitchblack would show the changes but a TU-2 wouldn't be able to register them. Some ears are as good as a strobe tuner but most ears aren't. So often you can adjust a floating bridge to sit flat without touching the saddle height screws or the intonation screws.

(While the string lowering is pretty mild, sensitive hands can definitely feel the lower action. And moving the strings just that little bit closer to the pickups can change the tone a little. So if you're really picky about feel, tone, and intonation you will want to adjust saddle height and intonation.)

No, adding extra springs in and of itself will not make the strings closer to the fretboard If you use the tremolo often and like it's feel, do not add more springs. If you just want the bridge planted to the body, do as stated above and remove the rear cover and tighten the claw screws until the open strings do not detune when bending a fretted string heavily.

So I tightened the screws (I don't care about using the tremolo) and now the strings started to buzz against the fretboard a bit. Should I be looking to adjust the truss rod now to correct this problem?

Raise the saddle height by using the small allen screws in the saddles.

It's worth while checking the truss rod before adjustng the bridge saddles just to be thorough. I flattend my bridge just by tightening the trem springs, no additional springs. Seems pretty stable. You can also add springs, or block the tremolo w/a block of wood or a trem lock. Personally I didn't feel the need for those things. cheers
http://www.fender.com/support/articles/ ... etup-guide