4 screw in vintage tremolo

[CarlosG]

Hi!
I have PRS Style tremolo on my strat.
I would like to achieve the lowest possible friction.
I noticed Andy Timmons does this in his mahogany and alder guitars.
My strat is poplar, it's probably a softer wood.
Would this mod be safe?

 

[ErikH]

Don’t see why not.

 

[ICTGoober]

Try it and see. I usually remove a couple screws from a trad whammy rig just to reduce friction.

 

[donaldr]

Andy Timmons is using a Wilkinson trem. I can be wrong but I read an article long time ago that Trev Wilkinson developed the VS trem to be used with 4 screws, but it have six holes for when replacing vintage trems and filling all holes.

 

[CarlosG]

Don’t see why not.

I was afraid that less screws might bend because poplar is soft.

 

[CarlosG]

Andy Timmons is using a Wilkinson trem. I can be wrong but I read an article long time ago that Trev Wilkinson developed the VS trem to be used with 4 screws, but it have six holes for when replacing vintage trems and filling all holes.​
Yes it's wilkinson VSVG. I wanted to use it, but it was too wide. I used a PRS copy of the tremolo - Musiclily
This seems strange because if there were no tremolo holes, they wouldn't be visible in the guitar.
Andy's guitar tech had set it up that way. Andy didn't go into detail as to why.

 

[ErikH]

I was afraid that less screws might bend because poplar is soft.

It's not much different than alder. I have a 6-screw set up similar for over 30 years. Mine is like this: (X= no screw, O=screw) OXOOXO