I bought this as new old stock, it is a 2006 HSS American Stratocaster. I had a friend help me change the pick guard as it had discoloration where the stickers were on the original pick guard. To a novice it seems to play nice after friend set it up for free. But I found something that has me wondering if I got a guitar with something wrong with it. In the photo you can see just in front of the tremelo the gap gets slightly larger from top of the tremelo to the bottom with a visible hole in front of the tremelo where the whammy bar screws in. Why is that hole there? Should it be there? was it a bad drill at the factory and I got screwed somehow buying new old stock? I apologize if I am a little worried, but I saved up for a long time and spent 899 on this guitar. I appreciate any feedback, thanks.

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Johnny Funk~

Your guitar is perfectly fine.

93greenstrat is right my Strat has it too Here is a picture of my bridge

I shouldn't worry about the gap between the trem and the scratch plate being a little off, it is much more likely to be the scratch you fitted than the body drilling. It is a little hard to tell from the angle of the picture, but it looks like the lead edge of the trem baseplate is square to the strings, and that's the main thing.

The little hole you can see (the edge of the trem rout) - I've seen it looking both more and less prominent than yours, so I'm not sure there is a 'normal' but yours isn't the only one like it.

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Mater tua criceta fuit, et pater tuo redoluit bacarum sambucus

Awesome, thanks. And yes i do love this guitar! Here is a full shot

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Johnny Funk~

That is one beautiful Strat, BTW! If (for some crazy reason) you ever decide you don't like it, drop me a line !

Is that Sienna Sunburst like mine? Check it out viewtopic.php?f=6&t=80094

I want to trade it for a American Deluxe Telecaster ,but if that doesn't fall through I'll just keep my Strat

Wow that is a gorgeous Sienna Sunburst strat you have as well, the lines are nice on that ash body.

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Johnny Funk~

Thanks Yours has more of a curve to the grain and it looks nice too I thought the close up of our bridges had a similar look to them then you posted the pictures and I was like yep that's what I thought it was lol

As other have already said, the 'hole' you can see is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about. It's just the edge of the hole routed for the tremolo.

With regards to the bridge plate not being perfectly parallel to the edge of the pickguard, I've seen this once before and it was down to the fact the the two bridge pivot screws were screwed in to slightly different depths. One was a little higher than the other and it meant that the notch in the bridge plate was sitting at a slightly different (and thicker) point on the screw than the other side and caused the bridge to be a few millimetres off parallel. Adjusting one of the screws so that they were both at the same height fixed the problem and I ended up with the bridge perfectly parallel again. Take a close look at the screws to see if they both extend above the bridge plate by the same amount.

Will do Honeythief and thanks for the reply!

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Johnny Funk~