Guys, I really don't use my tremolo bar, so I am giving consideration to the various methods used for effectively blocking the tremolo.

I stumbled upon the Tremol-No last night and it appears to be a very viable, and easily reversible, solution.

Do any of you hard tail afficionados have any experience with the Tremol-No. I'd love to get some feedback prior to taking the plunge.

Thanks for any help.

No personal experience with it, but I have friends that tried it. In their opinions it was a waste of money.

5 springs, and tighten the claw worked well for me when I wasn't using my trems.

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

Yes I agree Cheers

My Eric Clapton has a blocked tremelo; it uses a piece of basswood between the body and the block; simple to reverse and does not modify the axe and costs about a nickle in material costs.
ON the EC; the string tension was so high the block was loose in it's place.
I have a Squier Strat; I put a piece of pine in there the same way as the EC; no problem; Here's what I did.
First put your axe on a thick, soft pad like a folded blanket on a flat stable platform like a coffee table or dining table. If you have a bench make sure it's clear of anything that could scratch your finish and just about anything CAN AND WILL if it can poke through your pad.
I reduced string tension to zero so the bridge would lay flat on the top of the guitar, snugged down the screws that hold the bridge in place, flip the axe over and measured the gap between the block and the body; cut a piece of wood as close as I could to that measurement (I used a chop saw) stuck it in there and re-installed the springs. The block was just wide enough to stick in place; I think this adds just a little bit of stability but I have no proof or theory to back me up. Anyway the whammy don't whammy no more and the bridge IS stable and dose not move whitch is what I wanted.

Hi, dna9656. Famously, Clapton "blocked" his trem off, rather than using a hardtail, because he thought it gave a better tone. Be interested to hear if that has been your experience.

Cheers

Well, CAFeathers, THAT certainly is good to know. Those Tremol-No's aren't cheap @ $50 a pop.

If I decide to do it, I'll try your method first.

Thanks.

I had a 70s Hardtail Strat; it sounded like a strat to me but I couldn't play at the volumes that EC could living in the dorms at Hickam AFB, HI. So as far as the tone thing goes it sounds the same to me.
I didn't have the tuning problems my rommmate (room dog) had with his; those cool breezes wrecked havoc on his tuning his guitar.
Blocking the trem doesn't change the tone; the routed opening is still there; all the bridge compenents are there; EC's feels that the lack of routing changed the tone; but he doesn't use the trem so (I am surmizing here) to get a more stable tuning environment they installed the trem because there's nothing to insert the ferrules into to hold the strings on a trem body so they blocked it off.
The only way to make a hard tail out of a trem body is to use a bridge that
holds the strings on top of the axe.

Absolutely. That's why Clapton had his earlier Strats blocked. But for the last few decades Fender have been building all his instruments to order, so I guess he could have hardtails if he wanted. He chooses to go on having blocked trems cos he says they sound better. I wouldn't doubt his ear for an instant, but I sometimes wonder if some folks do it that way because it just looks more "Straty".

So happens, a few weeks ago Clapton howled past me in a silver Porsche - I nearly had to jump out of the way! I didn't exactly get the chance to discuss the set-up of his vibrato with him that day!!

I recently had a complete setup on both strats. I told the tech to pull the back end of the bridge flush with the guitar body. I don't know if it works like a blocked trem, but I can still use the tremolo bar do push the bridge to a lower pictch, but not a higher pitch. I never pulled up on the bar anyway. If I used the tremolo bar, it was to bring the pitch down.

Anyway......I like the set up as I have it now.

I have a tremol-no on my 88 Fender strat plus and my 80s peavey falcon. The strat is standard tremolo and the peavey is a kahler spyder I LOVE the TREMEl-NO I get the hardtail I want without changing the guitar and keep my springs on and everything. It works for me

U should have given him some deep insight information about the tonality difference after all you know about guitars a LOT hehe