Greetings,

Well, i've been playing on and off for about a year now and decided to buy an electric. I still consider myself a super noob. I purchased a Blacktop HH in Sonic Blue yesterday. It was the last one they had left and they did not provide a trem bar. I went back in today to see if they just forgot to give me one or if they still had the box. Well, they gave me one that looks like the ones in the pic with the black tip, but i'm finding that it keeps hitting the lowest control knob. Is this normal? Everytime i go to play it scrapes the knob. Should i have received an "authentic" one with purchase? Sorry for the silly questions, i've been using an old acoustic passed down to me and pretty new to electric...

OSZ.

Go back to the store. If you were more experienced with Strats, you'd probably find that it's just an adjustment that needs to be done. If it's the proper arm, then either the bridge needs a little adjusting, or the arm needs to be bent a little. I pretty much always have to modify the trem arms on my Strats to be just the way I like them. Usually the bend is changed toward the bridge where it makes a 90 degree turn. I just clamp it in a wood vise and bend it a couple degrees with my hands (AFTER everything else on the guitar is adjusted the way I like it).

Cuz you're a noob, I'm not recommending you do that. Just go back to the store and show them the problem. Do NOT let them try to tell you it's okay for it to hit the knob.

Nothing wrong with asking them if the arm is a stock Fender arm. They should give you a straight answer on that.

Bottom line is: you have a legitimate complaint, easily solved by anyone that has half an idea of what they're doing and is willing to do it. If they give you trouble, then it's your turn to be a jerk and just take advantage of their return policy and return the guitar. If they don't have a return policy, you oopsed. It's not the last HH on the planet, so why take garbage from them?

I have the same problem with the same guitar. Ended up opening up the bend in a vise. The knobs are in the way. Tried different arms and they all hit. Just changed the knobs and might try another arm.

thanks siamese for the reply...

i've taken it back and it's the genuine arm. we did some searches while i was there and there was a review online that had the same problem. i guess it's the knobs. the tech said everything was adjust fine as "he would play it".....i'm planning on just changing the knobs. not really a fan of these "amp" style knobs.

Ahhhhh......I failed to account for the Blacktop being different than a conventional Strat, regarding knob height. By bad. Glad you resolved it.