[tatittle]

Indeed I have heard the separation of saddles being advocated by guitar makers before, this takes it one step further. On the other hand some folks advocate making the saddles 1 solid mass. I cant comment on its effectiveness unfortunately. I suspect I would find it significant...but lotsa stuff I think is noticeable other guys scoff at and say there is no difference. The rerouting aspect also makes this almost prohibitive as a mod, better suited for a plan from the beginning I imagine. Ill have to keep my eye out for these so I can try one, thanks for the post.

[Pfallon]

Have you considered just blocking the existing trem bridge in place?

[tcsned]

Have you considered just blocking the existing trem bridge in place?

That's what I did to my Strat and PRS.

[tatittle]

If you guys are making the suggestion to block re: my original post, it is a hartail strat (stringthru) body...not a trem routed one. Sorry if I wasn't clear on that. Re: blocked trem's (of which I have a handful), at least mine they don't seem to have as snappy response on the thickest strings that hardtails do. I still haven't gotten around to trying the disassembled trem plate on the hardtail, I will try and remember to post my results. I am pretty much thinking of it as a temporary solution anyhow.

[tatittle]

Before I forget: I tried taking the block off a Turkish made (HANTUG) trem bridge and the mounting screws were a tad wide on the sides, just as the Schaller hardtail was actually; still usable I think, but I did wanna risk messing up the wood so I checked my Callaham. The Callaham matches up absolutely perfectly; both mounting screws and string thru holes. I haven't strung it up yet, but it looks like it will function fine.

Indeed it works perfect and sounds great as Callahams do...though I also put my quartersawn (or whatever its called) Warmoth maple neck on it with 12" radius/brass nut which helps the tone too. Its a vintage mount with narrow space saddles. The wider vintage saddles space is nice for fingerpicking, but I can adapt .

[Pfallon]

I see you stated tha it was a hard tail right way in your op
It didn't sink in that you were trying to replace 1 ht with another
I read a post here somewhere that exact alignment with the string over the pole pieces wasn't as critical as you might think
Maybe just re adjust the saddle to relive some of the lateral force and see if it takes care of the string popping off while still sounding as balanced and good as you would like.

[Jon S.]

I have one of these at home. It was sold to me as a "prototype Alembic" but I'm pretty sure it's a Stars. What's especially cool about it is the saddles are virgin. If and when I eventually use it in a project, I will be the one to cut them to taste. (Open images in new tabs if they get cut off.)

[kurt eye]

I'm searching for the best tone solution for my strat. It was set up nicely with the floating trem when I got it. Based on my initial research I blocked the trem with a piece of pine (i now know hardwood is recommended) and put some tape around the springs and reduced the spring tension. Doing so introduced some annoying string buzz, but the guitar still had proper intonation. Listening to some recordings, the tone sounded blah. I did some more research and tightened the string tension to max. This resulted in a brighter tone, which i thought was a little better. The bridge was completely decked to the body of the guitar. I still had the string buzz issue. Most recently I tried the $2.70 technique - using 2 dimes and 5 (could only fit 4) half dollars to block both sides of the trem block which raises the back of the bridge about 1/8th inch from the guitar body. This has imparted a real metallic sound I don't care for, however, this exercise demonstrated to me that different trem blocking techniques really can affect the tone significantly.

I guess my next move from here is to try installing a better quality wood block. Any thoughts on the best way to do this - best wood options? blocking one or both sides of the trem block? should I completely deck the bridge to the body of the guitar or keep 1/8th inch gap? Is spring tension important?

Or should I forego this nonsense and just see about installing a hardtail bridge. I love the playability of the strat, but the whole tremolo thing is a pain in the ass.

[PHersh]

I don't think there is a drop-in hardtail bridge option for a trem-routed Strat body.

I suppose you could fill the trem cavity with a block of wood and some epoxy, then set a top-loading Schaller hardtail bridge on it, but that's rather complicated and permanent.

If I were blocking a Strat trem, I would deck the bridge completely, use five tension springs and use maple against the inertia block.