Tremolo: floating, sitting flat with spring tension, or just blocked?

[singlemalt]

I've got a guitar that the tremolo bridge sat flat on the body with the original strings. New sets have it lightly pulled up, floating. I'm not totally opposed to this situation, it still sets up nice. And I can get a bit of tremolo action by just putting palm pressure on the thing. I'm not big into tremolo, usually I just leave the bar in the case.

I think the guitar sounds like its lost some sustain with the bridge pulled up.

I've ordered a set of springs that I think will pull the trim back to flat on the body. We will see.

Just for fun I dropped the tuning a half step and that put the bridge almost completely flat on the body. And since its a Strat style single coil guitar, it sounds better down a half anyway...

So I'll put more springs on and haul it down flat.. I'll also probably try a block and wedge the thing into a fixed, locked down position.

I'm not ready to just put 9's on it, I like the 10's and the half step down.

So what do you guys think? Is the floating tremolo costing me sustain? (I think it is). Do you use your tremolo much? Or is it a pain. Floating, tight, or blocked?

 

[MovingPitchers]

I have my Strat set up as floating tremolo but the space between the bridge and body is like a mm. I can only go up half a step but I can go down as much as I want.

I like it that way. I don’t use the tremolo heavily and tbh is setup keeps the guitar in tune relatively well.

I use NYXL 10-46s now after being an 11-49 user for a year.

I have two other Strats (it’s the church’s) that haven’t seen any TLC in forever so I decked those since I don’t think anyone who uses those guitars will utilize the tremolo anyways.

 

[Dabndug]

My Strat came to me with maximum spring tension, so the bridge is tight to the body, which is fine by me. On guitars equipped with other "vintage" vibrato systems (Bigsby, Mosrite, Accent), I find my first movement is always down, lowering pitch. I have always assumed that's as intended, but maybe I'm missing something!

 

[singlemalt]

Thanks! I guess my main question is if a floating tremolo, (not a Floyd Rose style locking tremolo) is causing a loss of sustain.

I had high hopes for the DR pure blues .010. But the tension lifting the bridge up resulted in disappointment. The B was reedy and thin, much lower volume than the G and E. The DR pure blues are my go to round wounds on bass, so this was not a happy set up.

Since downtuning and getting the tremolo sitting on the body, I’ve noticed a huge improvement in the volume a quality of the B string, and more even volume across all the strings. The Pure Blues sound much better, richer and more clear.

I will throw another spring on the tremolo ( hopefully won’t put an eye out) and see where I end up.

I like the half step down, but mostly work in standard tuning, so I want to get back to the trem sitting solidly on the body when it tuned up to standard.

I read somewhere that Hendrix ran five springs on his tremolo and that was very tight.

Next experiment will be a solid block to see if that helps sustain and even volume even more.

Love to get more input.

 

[tris66]

Having your trem up can mess with the intonation, sustain and action. 09 to 10 is not much of a tension increase. You should be able to pop the trem spring cover and adjust it. pic is not mine. It was download. Three spring should be plenty. Having the bridge parallel to the body is going to the strings the proper angle over the saddles. It can take a bit of time going back and forth between adjusting screws and tuning to get it where you want it.

 

[iiipopes]

Leo originally designed the Strat whammy to be floating. But that was for 12's gauges strings, not for modern 9's or 10's. Playing the lighter strings necessitated something to be done to improve sustain. So various things have been tried and used: all five springs to get the bridge to lay flat; take off the whammy strings, or keep just one for the bridge ground, and glue a block of wood in the gap between the rout and the inertia bar, and others work-arounds.

The best compromise is to use a set of 11's, 4 springs, and set up the whammy with enough tension by adjusting the claw so the bridge is slightly raised so you can pull up and slightly sharpen the pitch as well as push down to slightly flatten the pitch to get a true vibrato as Leo envisioned.

 

[Passinwind]

Thanks! I guess my main question is if a floating tremolo, (not a Floyd Rose style locking tremolo) is causing a loss of sustain.

I had high hopes for the DR pure blues .010. But the tension lifting the bridge up resulted in disappointment. The B was reedy and thin, much lower volume than the G and E. The DR pure blues are my go to round wounds on bass, so this was not a happy set up.

Since downtuning and getting the tremolo sitting on the body, I’ve noticed a huge improvement in the volume a quality of the B string, and more even volume across all the strings. The Pure Blues sound much better, richer and more clear.

I will throw another spring on the tremolo ( hopefully won’t put an eye out) and see where I end up.

I like the half step down, but mostly work in standard tuning, so I want to get back to the trem sitting solidly on the body when it tuned up to standard.

I read somewhere that Hendrix ran five springs on his tremolo and that was very tight.

Next experiment will be a solid block to see if that helps sustain and even volume even more.

Love to get more input.

11-49 strings in standard tuning gets my vote now that I’ve acclimated to that. Barring that, yeah, block that sucker. But I would like to own one functional wangy bar guitar again eventually, they are a lot of fun.

 

[singlemalt]

I put in a couple more springs, and tightened up the claw plate screws. It’s not moving now.

Better sustain, and better set up, but I’m still not totally sold on the Pure Blues. They are still fairly fresh and new, so maybe a bit more time…

Now I’m wondering about pick up pole pieces. I need to pull the pickguard and see if I can adjust the height of individual pole pieces.

I’m doing my best to avoid turning guitar into the gear rabbit hole that bass playing resulted in. But we know how that turned out.

 

[Passinwind]

I put in a couple more springs, and tightened up the claw plate screws. It’s not moving now.

Better sustain, and better set up, but I’m still not totally sold on the Pure Blues. They are still fairly fresh and new, so maybe a bit more time…

The guitar ones are pure nickel, not nickel plated steel like the bass version. I liked PB strings a lot on my fretted fiver, but they didn't stay long on my fretless four as the breakup is annoying and in the wrong place for my use cases. For electric guitar I've settled on NYXL.

Good luck on avoiding the rabbit hole. I just bought half a dozen sets of different strings when I got my new acoustic right off the bat, and about ten different picks. At one point I started thinking about a guitar "upgrade" too, but for me no gigs = no way.

 

[zontar]

I've got a guitar that the tremolo bridge sat flat on the body with the original strings. New sets have it lightly pulled up, floating. I'm not totally opposed to this situation, it still sets up nice. And I can get a bit of tremolo action by just putting palm pressure on the thing. I'm not big into tremolo, usually I just leave the bar in the case.

I think the guitar sounds like its lost some sustain with the bridge pulled up.

I've ordered a set of springs that I think will pull the trim back to flat on the body. We will see.

Just for fun I dropped the tuning a half step and that put the bridge almost completely flat on the body. And since its a Strat style single coil guitar, it sounds better down a half anyway...

So I'll put more springs on and haul it down flat.. I'll also probably try a block and wedge the thing into a fixed, locked down position.

I'm not ready to just put 9's on it, I like the 10's and the half step down.

So what do you guys think? Is the floating tremolo costing me sustain? (I think it is). Do you use your tremolo much? Or is it a pain. Floating, tight, or blocked?

What kind of guitar?
What kind of bridge?

It sounds like the answer to both is Strat or Strat style.

Really it depends on what you want out of it.

Me? I have a Mustang, which is technically a floating one, but different operation, feel and all that.

 

[stinkfoot60]

My Squier Strat is decked, with 3 springs. D’Addario XL 10-46 strings.

 

[HelpImaRock]

Yes.

 

[Akami]

Really it depends on what you want out of it.

That right there is the only answer that matters.

 

[Hot Rats]

I've blocked and locked about 12 trems for people over the years. I just did what they asked. Whatever they want, ya know?

 

[Akami]

Exactly. I've also blocked a couple for others over the years, and unblocked a few as well. Can't stand them locked myself and there'd be no conversation if no one used them.
Some people are happy to have nothing but drop available, but a lot of us need the floating setup.

 

[groove pump]

I put in a couple more springs, and tightened up the claw plate screws. It’s not moving now.

Better sustain, and better set up, but I’m still not totally sold on the Pure Blues. They are still fairly fresh and new, so maybe a bit more time…

Now I’m wondering about pick up pole pieces. I need to pull the pickguard and see if I can adjust the height of individual pole pieces.

I’m doing my best to avoid turning guitar into the gear rabbit hole that bass playing resulted in. But we know how that turned out.

The rabbit hole for guitar gear can probably be just as eager to swallow $$$ as the one that's reserved for bass players and our gear, but it seems to me that there are lots of relatively cheap tweaks that we can do in the guitar realm. Guitar strings are much less financially painful to experiment with, different affordable guitar gizmos can give us almost endless tone possibilities, and there are even spectacular guitars (and amps) available out there for very low dough... okay, relatively low dough.

But I guess that because I gig as a bass player, my standards aren't quite so high with the guitar stuff. The last two guitars that I brought home include a used Indonesian Gretsch Streamliner ($300) and then I just picked up an old Japanese Ibanez RT 450 with its original case ($500). It just oozes that Japanese build quality and the honeymoon is going to last a good long time. I've always wanted to sample a sort of modern rock rig, but this Ibanez from the early 90's was apparently made to land in that middle ground between a traditional Strat and the newer shredders with their super thin necks. Yay!!

The Ibanez and my Godin "fat strat" both have a more traditional, non-floating tremelo (no locking nut) that I don't really pay attention to, at least right now. But the Ibanez is rather new for me and I'm probably going to want to noodle with that trem a little bit at some point - just because it's there, right? I respect the he!! out of what some folks do with their floating Floyd trem's, but I can also say that I've never been able to relate to them whenever I've sampled one. I guess I want to play more like Angus (and Malcolm ) than Eddie.

Oh - I agree that if the trem seems to be creating a sort of flimsy-ness that's killing my sustain, I'd rather somehow tighten it down and let the guitar sing.

Play around with those pole pieces and dial that thing in for yourself. You'll probably make some discoveries along the way and potentially... wait for it... have fun And that's our bottom line right there

 

[MovingPitchers]

The guitar rabbit hole is pedals and amps, but moreso the pedals. I have no idea how many forums and discussions in the guitar community I’ve seen solely dedicated to reverb comparisons or distortion comparisons…sheesh, or whether the Fender Twin Reverb is better than the Princeton or a Marshall.

 

[crazycloud]

Next experiment will be a solid block to see if that helps sustain and even volume even more.

I just used 2 small stacks of coins, and once I had them right, took them out and taped them together around the edges to make them solid. Less than a dollar and been there for years. The Floyd equipped guitar I mainly play now and love but for the FR is going to get the same next 'bench day': it's got no locking nut.

 

[meisi]

5 springs tightened to the body but not too tight but not the David Gilmore subtle floating high strings either.

Never was one for dive bombs but a little wiggle on the right reverb trail sounds great.

 

[mambo4]

I prefer no tremolo. the amount of times I use one vs bends doesn't justify tuning headaches
If I had to have one I'd use a bigsby style, as they strike me as more inherently stable