Jump to content

Strats: To trem or not to trem?


erok123

Recommended Posts

  • Members

a bit of an uninspiring question but....with one 1 i used to break more strings,and generally strings would lose intonation much quicker 2 i could coax feedback much easier and the feedback sounded much cooler and you can do thing s with it Hendrix like.3 it was good for Allan Holdsworth type violin slides into notes and same with chords and chord waggleing with echo sounded nice 4 all the typical rockabilly stuff . without one you concentrate more on your playing .so all in all the trem is a bit of a toy abit of a stomp box attached to the guitar. i would like an hardtail strat with through body strings

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I take them off and deck the plate by banging the spring tension right up rather than blocking. Leo, a non player, created the trem (vibrato) to mimic pedal steel. I think I dive bombed once 30 years ago "because it was there" but absolutely never use the thing musically.

 

Very few people use it with any delicacy. The excellent Jeff beck is one, note that here he is not 'whammying', just using a couple of fingers down near the pivot.

[video=youtube_share;blp7hPFaIfU]https://youtu.be/blp7hPFaIfU

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

I have kept mine on my '75, but I spent a lot of time getting it to come back to pitch [shortly after I got it right, the 'Trem-setter' came out...] adjusting the claw/spring combination. I also put loc-tite on the arm threads so the bar stays where I put it.

I used it sparingly, more for a slight quaver in the tone, or to hit blue notes. But that guitar is now semi-retired, and my hollowbody with the Bigsby copy is still a challenge. But I still think a Strat with a whammy is a real Strat, you may as well get a Nashville Tele if you want a hardtail ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

When I still had a Strat I decked the trem/vibrato/whatever and left it that way. Then again, I'm really an acoustic player rather than a Strat guy so I'm probably not representative.

 

. . . i would like an hardtail strat with through body strings

My Schecter is essentially a hardtail, string through Strat with two humbuckers. Honestly, I hate the string through aspect. It's a pain to restring and part of the reason I don't change the strings more often. YMMV.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

In a strat copy, I toss the bar, and deck the damn thing. I happen to like staying in tune.

I got rid of most guitars I have had with a Floyd, or Floyd like creature. The few notable exceptions being my Ibanez Roadstar 330 from '83, WONDERFUL trem on it, the original Floyd on my Ibanez Roadstar RSRG440, which only goes down in pitch, and the perfection that is the ZR trem on my Ibanez S540. Oh, and the Roland trem on my G707.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

i fancy an hardtail strat it probs will sound very different maybe even tele ish .with a bit of re wiring ,i like the idea of strings traveling through the body of the guitar.. ha ha i can`t believe just cause you have to feed the strings in through the back you don`t like it .you should maybe pop them all in at once then turn the guitar over and then string it up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

The strings, especially the thinner ones, always get hung up on the ferrules. It takes multiple tries to get them threaded through the body. Worse than stringing a normal Strat with a trem block. If I'd known then what I know now I wouldn't have bought the Schecter no matter how cheap it was. Give me a tailpiece or a top loading bridge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Grant: I'm so glad to hear you can't comprehend someone else's POV. You're a regular god among men, you are. You can have all the string through guitars in the universe if you want; I'll stick with what works for me.

 

catscurlyear: I've tried that. It didn't work. I need a hook of some kind to pull the string through the hole but I haven't found anything.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I have a couple of Squier standard strats and I hate the trem...........always have done on any guitar right from my Watkins Rapier 3 back in the 60's. I don't just remove the arm - I block them cos I hate how a trem (even when I don't use) mucks up the tuning.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...