Strat Trem

ibmorjamn said:
@DirtySteve , the other thing I forgot to say is you are not alone with string height. I like the strings to not be on the frets also.
I never knew it had significant tone difference but according to Malmsteen the notes sustain better with string height.
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I like a certain action on the neck, but I was talking about the string height over the body, where you pick and strum.
 
ibmorjamn said:
I have been playing the Harley Benton HSS matte black a lot lately.

Something I have been doing and had not noticed until today is I palm mute just in front of the screws.
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Yeah. I probably do as well on the Strat…. I still can’t do it properly. I’ll mute a few notes…. Chords…. Strums…. Whatever. Then nope. Not muting anymore.
 
ibmorjamn said:
Oh , ok. I thought it would be effected in that scenario.
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It's like this, if you shim the neck to give it a slight angle then you would have to raise the bridge saddles to compensate and that would make the saddle adjustment screws not stick out on top of the saddles so much, if at all. And you can see how it also makes the strings sit higher up off the body. That's all I was trying to say..

JMtckuV.png
 
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DirtySteve said:
It's like this, if you shim the neck to give it a slight angle then you would have to raise the bridge saddles to compensate and that would make the saddle adjustment screws not stick out on top of the saddles so much, if at all. And you can see how it also makes the strings sit higher up off the body. That's all I was trying to say..

JMtckuV.png
Click to expand...
I’ve done this to a couple of my instruments…my T-40, and my Strat, for pretty much the same reasons. Both had the bridge pieces pretty well bottomed out when the nut was dialed in. Both had experienced major neck alterations, or exchange. When I did the first one, I wasn’t sure of how far I needed to go, so I purchased a selection of 3 from Stewmack
I found the one that worked on the Strat, and packed away the other two. Years later, I had the T-40 neck worked over by Ray(RVA), and didn’t want to use the micro-tilt, as I felt it was what likely caused the original neck issue, so I dug out the other two. Sure enough one of them was exactly what was needed to get it set up nicely.
Some folks use whatever is around to get the job done though…I found a fender medium pick jammed into the neck pocket of a Peavey Tracer a few years back…seen matchbook covers, business cards, playing cards, and wood shavings over the years…and I just work on guitars for friends once in a while…I’m no pro.
I chose the full pocket pre-fab shims because I felt more comfortable knowing that the pocket had full coverage…especially after seeing that Tracer pocket, with the pick imprint in the neck and body.
 
Thatbastarddon said:
I’ve done this to a couple of my instruments…my T-40, and my Strat, for pretty much the same reasons. Both had the bridge pieces pretty well bottomed out when the nut was dialed in. Both had experienced major neck alterations, or exchange. When I did the first one, I wasn’t sure of how far I needed to go, so I purchased a selection of 3 from Stewmack
I found the one that worked on the Strat, and packed away the other two. Years later, I had the T-40 neck worked over by Ray(RVA), and didn’t want to use the micro-tilt, as I felt it was what likely caused the original neck issue, so I dug out the other two. Sure enough one of them was exactly what was needed to get it set up nicely.
Some folks use whatever is around to get the job done though…I found a fender medium pick jammed into the neck pocket of a Peavey Tracer a few years back…seen matchbook covers, business cards, playing cards, and wood shavings over the years…and I just work on guitars for friends once in a while…I’m no pro.
I chose the full pocket pre-fab shims because I felt more comfortable knowing that the pocket had full coverage…especially after seeing that Tracer pocket, with the pick imprint in the neck and body.
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I use the Stewmac ones also. The .025 is usually all I need, but I have used the .050 on one once.
 
DirtySteve said:
It's like this, if you shim the neck to give it a slight angle then you would have to raise the bridge saddles to compensate and that would make the saddle adjustment screws not stick out on top of the saddles so much, if at all. And you can see how it also makes the strings sit higher up off the body. That's all I was trying to say..

JMtckuV.png
Click to expand...
lol, I get the part about the screws. What I didn’t get was the string height but it’s very clear with the picture.
Shims for everyone! lol
 
Thatbastarddon said:
I’ve done this to a couple of my instruments…my T-40, and my Strat, for pretty much the same reasons. Both had the bridge pieces pretty well bottomed out when the nut was dialed in. Both had experienced major neck alterations, or exchange. When I did the first one, I wasn’t sure of how far I needed to go, so I purchased a selection of 3 from Stewmack
I found the one that worked on the Strat, and packed away the other two. Years later, I had the T-40 neck worked over by Ray(RVA), and didn’t want to use the micro-tilt, as I felt it was what likely caused the original neck issue, so I dug out the other two. Sure enough one of them was exactly what was needed to get it set up nicely.
Some folks use whatever is around to get the job done though…I found a fender medium pick jammed into the neck pocket of a Peavey Tracer a few years back…seen matchbook covers, business cards, playing cards, and wood shavings over the years…and I just work on guitars for friends once in a while…I’m no pro.
I chose the full pocket pre-fab shims because I felt more comfortable knowing that the pocket had full coverage…especially after seeing that Tracer pocket, with the pick imprint in the neck and body.
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So, thats what that dirty little micro tilt does.
I never had a guitar with that feature. It doesn’t sound like it works that well?
 
ibmorjamn said:
So, thats what that dirty little micro tilt does.
I never had a guitar with that feature. It doesn’t sound like it works that well?
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Well…it works okay, I guess, if implemented properly…in theory. Problem is, it’s one set screw, against the center of the back of the neck heel, between the neck screws that are being torqued up against it. The neck heel usually has a metal plate, about the size of a nickel, to disperse the pressure…but the action of utilizing the system pushes against the center of the neck heel, keeping it from being in full contact with the pocket. It can cause the neck heel to ski-jump, or dome, over the tilt set screw over time.
 
ibmorjamn said:
Link to my build:

Oh no..Something New

Not a Squire. My new Warmoth neck if they ever decide to ship, could be 10 days is going to have a very different look thanks to GFS sale. XGP body , blemished.
www.thetonerooms.com

I have a love / hate relationship with strat tremolo’s.
The major problem I have is palm muting and the “E”, “A” Allen screws digging in to my palm, hate it.

So stock Trem. not going to happen.
Floyd’s are of course better in many ways but in theory I am building a USA Fender with no authentic parts.

The other thing is my budget is not going to include the Floyd.
So the Wilkinson/Gotoh VS-100N Tremolo is probably going to do the job. It looks like they addressed the set screw issue.
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Just use shorter screws.

From what I understand: if you set the trem so that it floats (not all the way up or down)...
and mute the springs inside the guitar...(the springs otherwise contribute a lot of ringing noises)
that's going to give the best result overall.

It would be nice to install some roller saddles instead of the stock ones.
 
DirtySteve said:
When I had that issue with my Tele I just shimmed the neck to give it a little bit of an angle so I could raise the saddles up some which made the saddle adjustment screws lower and out of the way. Also made the guitar more comfortable for me to play because it raised the strings up higher off the body. I don't like that cramped feel when the strings sit low to the body, that's one of the main reasons I love Les Pauls, the strings sit higher up off the body because of the neck angle.
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I was going to say exactly this.
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
Just use shorter screws.

From what I understand: if you set the trem so that it floats (not all the way up or down)...
and mute the springs inside the guitar...(the springs otherwise contribute a lot of ringing noises)
that's going to give the best result overall.

It would be nice to install some roller saddles instead of the stock ones.
Click to expand...
I use heat shrink tubing on my springs.

IMG_2024-12-16-082132.jpeg
 
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