mrbrown49

Agreed. Mine's very stable with the standard trem and I use the trem alot.

Skip the roller saddles and get staggered locking tuners so you don't need string trees. The locking helps a tad with tuning stability, and they make string changes so easy. No string trees helps a lot for tuning stability.

Have you tried lowering the height of your current pickups? That can really help open up the top end, depending on the pickups.

In my experience, boosts are more dependent on the amp than the guitar. For that reason I'd rather have a pedal than an on board pre amp.

An Mia fender strat. Go used to save a bit if you'd like. Love mine to bits and it's a bone stock 2012ish Mia standard.

Yeah you may be stuck. It's a simple system. Not a lot of 'knobs to turn'. What string gauge do you use?

I agree that's a reasonable amount of float. I think your only other recourse is to replace yours with a softer spring so there is still some travel when you pull all the way up on the arm. Fwiw the allparts springs I have seem quite a bit stiffer than my stock fender springs. Not sure it's enough to matter in your case though. I get around the bending issue by holding the bar steady with my picking hand, or slightly bending the other strings (or just fretting harder) to compensate. Takes some finesse and practice but i don't really have to think about it anymore, it just happens.

How many springs do you have on there at the moment and what string guages and tuning are you using? I usually use 3 or 4 springs depending on the springs stiffness with 10's strung standard. When I pull the bridge up to the body the open g string rings as an A. There is still plenty of tension on the springs to hold them stable. How much do you float the trem? It sounds like maybe your springs are too stiff for your setup so there is no spring travel left when you pull the float out. Try taking one off and screw your claw in more to compensate. You may want to look at the amount of float and decide if thats really what you want first. I like a full step on the g string.

The little flag icon on the right side of the header of the OP.

https://www.digikey.com/products/en/capacitors/film-capacitors/62?k=WIMA+MKP4&k=&pkeyword=WIMA+MKP4&sv=0&pv2049=u1µF&sf=0&FV=ffe0003e&quantity=&ColumnSort=2049&page=1&pageSize=25

Its just a cap. Should be able to get one at any electronic parts supplier, digikey etc. https://www.tubesandmore.com is my go to for hard to find guitar specific stuff.

Glad it's working out for you. FWIW, I made a fret tang expander out of a set of end nippers like the one below so I could deal with problem slots. It's pretty easy to do if you are handy with a dremel. I generally over widen and then squish it back with a pair of flat jawed pliers I install a stop gauge in to control the final width. Works great. Of course it's better to choose a wire that fits the slots but that's not always an option if you are picky about the crown dimensions, or material, especially if the guitar is on its second or third refret.

Could you overspray again, right over the frets, and redress the frets to remove the laquer like fender used to do? I suppose that depends on how bad it is.

Couldn't agree more. Most streaming and mp3s are just garbage quality TBH. Sounds like you have a nice setup btw.