I recently added another spring to my bridge block in the tremolo cavity and noticed a big difference in tone. The rear of the bridge was floating higher than usual so to fix it, that's what I did. Anyone prefer theres flush with the body or floating?

I don't use the vibrato so I have mine flush.

I would suggest that you have a small block of wood (about the size of a match box) added. I've had the bridge flush with and without it and I noticed a difference. It's not nessisary, but I do feel that my Strats resinate better with the block of wood over not having it. It could be all in my head.

Questions:

Why was the rear of the bridge "floating higher than usual"?

Was the guitar not set up properly in the first place?

Why did you choose to add a spring "to fix it"?

Did you follow that up with a full setup?

Do you want to use the trem or not?

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Bill

My 6 point tremolos are flush and my 2 point tremolos are floating. I agree it does give more sustain when flush to the body.

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

I only use the tremolo on a rare occasion, so my strat bridges are always flat to the body and I use all five springs on the block.

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"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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That is roughly how high it was, it wasn't as high before so I kinda freaked out and added another spring to fix it. By the way, the strat picture isn't mine. I like the tone a lot though.

Ok. but the question remains, was the guitar not properly setup to begin with, thereby causing the high bridge? Did you try to setup the guitar prior to simply adding a spring or did you just arbitrarily add a spring without regard to the setup? Did you do a complete setup after adding the spring? Simply adding a spring without paying attention to the setup has altered everything from overall string height off the frets, intonation, and distance between the string and the pickup poll pieces. What are you trying to accomplish?

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Bill

Well i put heavier strings on and I didn't realize that it would make that big of a difference going from 10's to 12's. I readjusted the saddle heights to my preference and also fixed the intonation (tuning at the twelfth fret using the harmonic and adjusting the screw on the saddles) I think I did it right though.

Ok. just wanted to be sure you did the whole thing.

To answer your original question, my trem is decked with 5 springs AND blocked with a machined aluminum block:

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Bill

Roughly where can I find something that size (wood) to wedge in between the block and the body?

last time I changed strings on my strat I changed the gauge and was too lazy to mess with the spring tension to float it properly so I just set the bridge flush.

I don't like it. Next time I change strings I think I'll take the time to properly float the bridge so that when I pull up on the bar it goes to F#.

The reason I don't like it is that when I use the bar I hear the bridge knock against the body when I let it go.

That is way too high. Time for new springs!

_________________
"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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You can sometimes find them on E-Bay, most people make them themselves. Mine was a random piece of machined aluminum I had in a drawer that I filed and sanded to fit.

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Bill

Sweet!

I went the local Loews and cut a piece of 1/2" x 2" poplar. I found that the wood wasn't wide enough so I added about 3 or 4 brass plate shims to fill in the gap. My '79 Strat sings even more now than when I first bought it.

bluesky636,

the '79 is ash and weighs a ton. Now I also own a '04 50th Anniversary Am. Series Strat and the grain looks very much like ash. Why is the body so much lighter than the '79?

The '79: http://s1068.photobucket.com/albums/u45 ... Strat3.jpg

The '04: http://s1068.photobucket.com/albums/u45 ... ars318.jpg (The only change I've made is the pickguard, which I recently put back on)