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Post subject: Floppy Strat tremolo bar? Try this.
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2015 1:55 am
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Location: Sackville, New Brunswick
My first strat was a Squier "Bullet" Strat. It came with one of those cone-shaped springs that sit at the bottom of the hole that the tremolo bar screws into. Evidently, these are in the habit of losing themselves, but since I never traveled with my guitar, I could leave the trem bar in. However, the springs broke easily, and it was difficult to find spares.

Time passes.

I trade in my Squier and get a Fender Standard Strat" from the same place. (Not "American Standard", just a MIM "Standard".) I ask the guy "where's the little whammy bar spring?" He'd never heard of them, but the tech in the back room managed to find one for me.

I want to be able to park it out of the way (between the two tone knobs) most times, but be able to easily bring it forward and have it sit there until I push it down and back, out of the way. I've tried using stuff like teflon plumbers tape, but it wears out too quickly.

Just tonight I was using some of that blue "Fun Tak" adhesive putty (suitable for hanging posters on the wall), had a brainstorm, and smeared just a wee bit of it (like, half a matchhead in size) on some of the upper turns of the whammy bar threads. I screw it in, et voila! It stays where I park it, yet is easy to flip back and forth.

We'll see how long it lasts.

Oh yeah - the other thing I was doing with the Fun Tak.
I was speculating that I might be getting some sympathetic vibration from the trem block springs. I have 2 pairs installed, and the 5th (middle) slot is empty. I jammed a pea-sized lump of Fun Tak between each pair of springs, and now for sure they aren't vibrating.

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Post subject: Re: Floppy Strat tremolo bar? Try this.
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2015 2:07 am
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Interesting.

I rather like the added reverberation sound from the springs, but sounds like you've found an easy way to eliminate the vibrations if you don't like the sound.

On a related note, Callaham uses a different design for the whammy bar hole in their blocks, and a Delrin insert, to eliminate the slop and it works very well, and the sound/sustain improvements are nice too.

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Post subject: Re: Floppy Strat tremolo bar? Try this.
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 8:48 am
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StewMac has their solution coming out in a month or so: The Trem-Arm Tension Spring.

StewMac Trem-Arm Tension Spring

Your tremolo arm stays put—no more flopping around. A quick, simple solution to a problem that can drive you crazy!

Screw the tremolo arm out of your bridge and drop the ball bearing in the hole. Drop the spring in next, and screw the arm back in place. That's all there is to it.

Turning against the ball bearing keeps the spring from binding as it compresses under the tremolo arm. With the added spring tension, the trem-arm stays wherever you leave it.

Works for traditional Strat tremolos, like our #1264 Gotoh Tremolo. Doesn’t work for our other models.

Dimensions
Spring: 0.5" long x 0.150" diameter (12.7mm x 3.81mm)
Ball Bearing: 0.158" diameter (4mm)


Sounds good, I'd like to hear they tested it on a Fender Strat Trem! :lol:
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Post subject: Re: Floppy Strat tremolo bar? Try this.
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 9:59 am
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Joined: Thu Sep 05, 2013 8:03 am
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Hmmmm.... that looks interesting. It's a bit pricey, though... all you get is one spring and one ball bearing for 5 bucks... plus whatever shipping is going to cost.

At least you get several springs if you go with the Fender Trem Springs for apprx. the same cost. Bet you could find the same dimension ball bearing at a decent hardware store... buy a few of them for a buck or two.

The price for both the trem springs and the ball bearings would prob come out to less than getting this from Stew-Mac... and you would have more than just one for other guitars or keep them as spares/backups.

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