Hell has frozen over....
- Thread starter jisham
- Start date
87 to 92/93 they were the wilkenson nut's then they switched to the LSR nut. I have a SilverBurst 91 with the Wilkenson and a Pewter 91 that has been fitted with the LSR. Both Good nut's and I have not issues. Story goes that fender replaced faulty Wilky's with the LSR. My guess is that it was cheaper to use the LSR since they could use the Fender Nut Slot... Either way, they work! NOT TO MENTION, that the string tention is improved, no string tree required.
Thanks for all the tuning suggestions -- it's off to my tech this week and I'm sure he'll get it dialed in for me. The trem bridge is flat on the body right now and after reading this thread and playing it some more last night, that's definitely part of the problem. We'll see how it does after my tech does his mojo.
As for the clothes -- I don't give a fuck what you all think. It was 105 degrees Saturday here and damn near that inside the club. Just as important, those shorts and the Strat are birthday presents so . . . /emoticons/default_biggrin.png
But....it's Monday morning and my feet STILL hurt. ARRRGGGHHHH...I'll never play barefoot again.
Obviously you've missed several episodes of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" Robert.
As for the clothes -- I don't give a fuck what you all think. It was 105 degrees Saturday here and damn near that inside the club. Just as important, those shorts and the Strat are birthday presents so . . . /emoticons/default_biggrin.png
But....it's Monday morning and my feet STILL hurt. ARRRGGGHHHH...I'll never play barefoot again.
Last edited by a moderator:
Jaye - for sure you haven't earned respect points showing up here with this strat /emoticons/default_biggrin.png
jokes aside - strat trem is notorious for an effort and number of tricks required to keep it in tune and yes, its not Floyd Rose so divebomb will bring it out of tune. I have read many (and use few) tricks to keep it in tune as possible, some of them are here (yes, I have strat too...):
- get decent nut. Some cheapo nuts are the problems themselves
- try different cut on the nut, for some (e.g. EVH) it was one of the ways to cope with it before he find his way to FRose.
- lubricate the nut, I use some silicon lubricator used in some electronic machinery, but big bends nut sauce I guess does the thing too.
- try to leave minimum necessary string wounds on tuners, some say it helps.
- I also do extreme string kick in excercise - pulling them hard in different places, it helps too.
and there are lots of tricks out there, which may work or not. Try yourself and decide what helped in your case. From theoretical standpoint the weakest links are string trees and nut, which doesn't allow strings to come back to initial tension, so focus there.
jokes aside - strat trem is notorious for an effort and number of tricks required to keep it in tune and yes, its not Floyd Rose so divebomb will bring it out of tune. I have read many (and use few) tricks to keep it in tune as possible, some of them are here (yes, I have strat too...):
- get decent nut. Some cheapo nuts are the problems themselves
- try different cut on the nut, for some (e.g. EVH) it was one of the ways to cope with it before he find his way to FRose.
- lubricate the nut, I use some silicon lubricator used in some electronic machinery, but big bends nut sauce I guess does the thing too.
- try to leave minimum necessary string wounds on tuners, some say it helps.
- I also do extreme string kick in excercise - pulling them hard in different places, it helps too.
and there are lots of tricks out there, which may work or not. Try yourself and decide what helped in your case. From theoretical standpoint the weakest links are string trees and nut, which doesn't allow strings to come back to initial tension, so focus there.
My mother called me Robert once.....*once*. LOL!!!!!
Check out Kinman's website on Strat tuning.. I have a vintage trem setup on mine. A little nut sauce, good string stretch in and winding the safety tuners correctly, the thing is flawless... I'd put it up against a PRS for tuning reliability.. On a vintage setup the tuner winds are crucial..
Well, I obviously don't know jack about Strats (yet) so I don't even know if the American Standards are considered to have a "vintage trem"??? Is that pathetic or what?
As for a Floyd Rose -- no freekin' way.
Yep, from what I know, the current Am Standards have two point trems (whatever that means LOL!).
Those newer American Standard trems are kind of a hybrid. They have the 2 point fulcrum piviots, and the vintage style bent steel saddles like the vintage 6 screw pivot trem.
I personally like the original cast AM Stand. saddles. They held the string in a groove for less sideways movement on the saddle, which you get with the vintage style bent steel saddles when you slack the strings from trem use.
The things that work for me to keep a Strat in tune are:
A graphtech trem nut (Lubricating graphite) or Derilin also a self lubricating plastic.
Locking Tuners. Schaller should drop right in with no drilling of holes. Or Sperzel. You gave to drill a hole for the stablizer pin. Some strats already have this hole. Take off a tuner if there is 2 guide pin holes, Schaller. If there is 3 holes, the one hole in the middle will accept Sperzels.
Graphtech string tree for the B&E.
Sometimes I ditch the string tree altogether IF I the guitar has staggered locking tuners. I just leave the B&E slots of the nut a little deeper to keep them in place and they don't pop out of the nut.
Also when setting the height of the trem baseplate make sure the 2 piviot points are set to the exact same height.
The Trem knife edges should be on the exact same horizontal plane. If they are off this adds friction and the knife edge may not return to the exact same spot.
Rock On!
This from the guy who names his Spider Valve patches CrunchNMunch and Han Solo?
Ummmmm no. And Ice Cream Man rules.
Word. As if Jaye could lose his Rock Star Status.
Jaye Isham INVENTED Rock Star Status!
Am. Std. whole different thing... The original vintage type trems will stay in tune just fine if they are set up right.. no locking tuners, graph tech saddles ..anything.. The split tuners in the vintage trem system will lock the string if you do it right.
The bent steel saddles won't hang if lubed, the cast ones will. If the original nut is bone or something of that density that nut sauce stuff will work just fine. Some of the bent steel string trees work fine with lube, the machined ones don't.
If I had a Am. Std I might go with locking tuners and graphtech saddles(only for the cast saddles)...generally I just blocked the trem when I had them before.
I started down the path of buying acessories to make the trem work better and then backed away when I discovered a good setup did the same thing.. My Strat is a Clapton so it's a bit different than a American Std.
Last edited by a moderator: