Theres slots for 5 springs on the block.I Have heard of players using a diffrent ammount of springs for different reasons, but am inclined to use all 5 as is stock on the vintage Fenders. I will need to order somemore as i currently only have enuf for 3 on each block.
I use three with the birdge floating, and with the Callaham block, I get a smooth but medium-stiff trem that is very nicely balanced with the string tension. Really good tuning stability but a true vibrato when you want it.
I've got two on my Squier, 'cause that's how it came. Two installed, plus one spare.
I'm using .009-.042 now, and it seems to be fine; the bridge floats about 1/8" off the body, parallel to the body. I do plan to go up to .010s before too long. Maybe I'll need to install the third spring then.
5 springs, 10-46 strings. It just seems to have better tone/sustain.
3, 4, or 5....it all depends
but, prob most i have are 4
Imanidiot.
4 springs. 3 just didn't hold tension well enough to stay in tune on double stop bends. 5 was a bit stiff, so 4 was the compromise.
-Mark
I went to 5 after I switched to 11's. Not floating the bridge makes it sound a little less like a strat. But it seems to be the trade off for more sustain.
4 or 5, I don't remember. Probably 5. 10-46.
Several guitars in different colors
Things to make them fuzzy
Things to make them louder
orange picks
3 springs because it's all I need with .010-.046 strings and the bridge flush against the body.
I would prefer that the bridge float for nice shimmery vibrato, but floating bridges drive me crazy!!!
The bridge is a Callaham.
The one thing I don't dig about a floating trem is that it makes it very hard to change tunings.
3, because that's what came on it. Until I find a problem with it that's the way it's stayin'...
I use five because I like to float the trem, & it makes it a little more rigid in that case. I think it sounds better, too, but that could be my imagination.
I use the stiffest springs I can find as well. I get odd glances at music stores because I insist on bending ALL the trem springs in the parts dept. in order to find the strongest ones.
My bridge is not floating and I use three with 11-48. The two outside strings angled towards the center of the block. Works for me.
_____________________
Shut up and play yer guitar - Frank Zappa
I found that with 4 or 5 trem springs, no matter how much I loosened the claw screws, it still pulled the bridge too far down so I couldn't get the desired ~1/8" gap above the guitar body. So I stuck with 3 springs and a lubed string path. Keeps in tune great now....(strings: 10/46) HTH, LB.
Last edited by LoveBandit; 06-08-2007 at 07:28 AM.
Originally Posted by LoveBandit
-Mark
Read my earlier post again, it is pretty self explanatory. If you have a SPECIFIC question about it, fire away. LB
Just 3, I also float the bridge. No problems.
I just can't figure out how you can possibly not be able to adjust the claw screws so you get a 1/8" clearance on the bridge.
I mean, to say "on Tuesdays, gravity has no effect on me" is "pretty self-explanatory" as far as it goes... but it's still
So: is there anything _different_ about your trem/bridge set-up?
-Mark
I could see how with very stiff springs 4 or 5 would be too much. The black springs that came stock with my Strats arent particularly stiff. I found some other ones with much higher tension, and work better. On the first Strat (no tremsetter) I used 4 springs with 10-46 strings, and had the bridge floating. I think it sounded more "Strat" with a floating bridge, but now with the tremsetters prefer the tuning stability.
Last edited by JAM; 06-08-2007 at 11:08 PM.
Well, this IS my first Strat so maybe I am doing something wrong or strange......When I went from 3 springs to 4 or 5 springs, the extra springs meant more pulling power (not sure where "gravity" comes in here at all, BTW) which pulled my bridge down more toward the top of my Strat's body. I figured all I had to do was loosen the claw spring screws in back to get my desired 1/8 bridge clearance back but despite loosening my claw springs WAY OUT, the 4 or 5 springs STILL pulled my bridge down farther than the desired 1/8" that I wanted it to float.
Is that any clearer or am I doing something totally wrong here? LB.
I should add that my springs are new replacement ones from stewmac.com and they are pretty darned stiff, probably stiffer that what came on my MIM Strat. LB
I have two now...one on the high end and low end only. I have the tremolo blocked in and play .11s now, so that's what it took to allow the strings to pull the inertia block to the wood block and hold it steady.
I don't use the whammy bar and do have the bridge floating.
"...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."
-Edmund Burke
Well, I'm not sure how far you consider "way out" is, but after you let out the claw, did you retune the guitar to full tune to get the full tension back on the strings?
All I meant to say is that what you were saying didn't make much sense to me... a floating bridge is just the balancing of two tensions, one provided by the strings and the other by the springs. The claw adjustment should be _way_ more than enough to compensate for a different number of springs.
So the only thing I can think of is that if you didn't see the bridge height increase after adjusting the claw was because the strings weren't providing enough tension to pull it up.
Technically speaking, a steel spring is a very good approximation of a linear spring that obeys Hooke's law, which just says the force of the spring's "pull" is proportional to the amount it is stretched. So the pull of two springs stretched 1/4" from their resting position is the same as the pull of four springs stretched 1/8" from their resting positions.
So, as you can see, it's not very hard to compensate by the claw screws to get the same pulling force even if you double the number of springs. If two springs are stretched a 1/4" from their resting length when the guitar is fully tuned, four springs will only have to be stretched 1/8" to provide the same tension. So there's plenty of range in the claw set-up to provide that sort of adjustment. (Actually, these numbers are conservative -- on my guitar the spring displacement on four springs is only about 1/16" with four springs and .010 - .046 gauge strings fully tuned.)
Anyway, that's the longer version of why what you said just didn't make sense to me.
-Mark
Thanks....that made ALOT more sense to me than "WTF". LB
I have my bridge flush against the body w/4 springs, claw screwed in pretty tight.
I would have preferred a hardtail.
I use 9's......
fairly generic description, but that was all there was to it.....action fairly low without being shreddy.....
Kenny Belmont
>:^{I)>
Three springs. I don't angle the outer ones, since it increases the tension on them relative to the straight one. I've seen problems where the middle one will go slack and fall out because of that.
"No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim
5 springs w/ trem flush against the body for my EJ strat. It came set up that way and I realized ... "Cool, I hardly EVER use the trem on a strat." I did set it up to float at one point, but there was an ever so slight decrease in sustain. I put it back and all was well ... (do you hear it? The sustain ...)
This EJ will NOT go out of tune. Even if I do some moderate diving with the bar. Love it! The neck was unstable for quite a while, but I think it found its home. Crossing my fingers.
60th anniversary strat is set up exactly like my EJ, but it'll go out of tune on the B string every time if I use the bar. I blame the string tree. I've done all that I'm capable of doing for this guitar, so I'll put in in the hands of a better tech to straighten out the issues with this one.
AQS
Guitars:
Carvin CT4M Goldtop
Carvin DC125C
Fender EJ Strat (Candy Apple)
Fender 60th Anniv. American Strat
Amps:
Carvin Legacy Half Stack
Carvin Nomad
springs are for nancy boys. wedge a block of wood in there and be done with it, lol.
seriously though, there are a lot of variables involved in keeping a trad. strat in tune, and the whammy is but one of them. i dont wank whammy bars, so it only makes sense for me to block them. i tried 5 springs, but i cant stand the "springy" sound of undamped trem springs... i used to put toilet paper wads in the trem cavity, but i now leave the cover off for easier string change, and the wood aint going anywhere, or making anything but sweet sustain. at least that is what i keep telling myself.
a
.10 - .46, 5 springs, bridge flat on the body. Tone, sustain, and stays in tune - works for me.
Fender 2007 Custom Shop Custom Classic Telecaster | Gibson 2004 Les Paul Standard
Gibson 2005 SG Std / Fender 2004 AmDlx Ash Strat | Mesa '05 Lonestar Special
Martin 000-18GE Ambertone | Gibson 2006 CJ-165 Maple
"Playing is not practice. Practice is taking something you can't do, and trying it until you can."
- Ben Harper
i use 2 springs and the bar works great , just a mil from the body and the strings are 9 - 46
Depends on the string gauge. On 9's I use 3, on 10's I use 4 and on 11's I use 5.
VM
If aliens listened to our current top 40, they'd think that the entire planet was populated by sexually ambivalent robots with ethnic insecurity.
Two springs, maple block on my EC Blackie.
I use five, because I've never learned how to play a guitar that goes out of tune when you bend a string while sustaining other note(s).
Since replacing a zinc inertia block with a Callaham steel block, my Strat doesn't do that... at least "not so's ya'd notice" as my parents put it. Maybe what you meant to say was that you never played a Strat with a floating trem that was properly balanced. In my limited experience, it seems to me that most players haven't.
I had the same problem when moving to 4 or 5 springs on both of my strats. I was running out of screw length to let the claw out - and the bridge was always flush no matter what. This was with 11's .
I ended up with a floating setup with 3 springs. I had tried 4 or 5 when I moved to 11's just because I thought I would need them - but could never get that balance right.
+1 for me.
3
'cause I am too lazy to change it / them
do I look like I know what I'm doing?
I've got 3 on one strat, 5 on another. No idea what's on the rest of 'em. Wonder what it would sound like with one...
I'm using 3 springs with my DeTemple (floating) bridge. However i'd wish not to have other strings going flat when bending. I think this means, in theory at least, that i need to increase tension either with the number of springs, or tighten the claw. That would however (LOL), AFAIK, end my floating bridge, which i would like to keep! Any thoughts?
PS. i'm using 10's and tune flat.
jo
Always 3, but I use pitifully puny strings, 9-42.
I've noticed that EVH on his replica frankenstien guitar uses 3 (same strings) and has two angled, and one straight across (on the bass side). I haven't tried that yet, but it's interesting.
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