Re: Strat Trem Block Upgrade
Hey all,
I'm thinking of maybe trying a trem block upgrade since my MIA strat clone has a small zinc block. I like the trem to sit on the top of the guitar with the claw screwed all the way in. Would more mas in the trem block make a difference or would there be no benefit since it is practically a hardtail until I push down on the arm? Thanks.
There seems to be three common types of trem blocks; the super ****ty type which do little more than hold you string in type, weighs barely more than an ounce:
Next up it the middle of the road pot metal trem which at least has some mass to it, weighing close to 6 oz.
Finally the good ****, full sized steel block weighing 10oz
If you have the first type, then upgrading the trem block would probably make a difference. I haven't tried a Strat with the first type of trem block, but someone who had that type reported there was a big drop in volume when they used the whammy, so I suspect that, in a state rest, enough of the vibration makes it to the wood body for good body resonance.
If you have the more substantial pot metal block, IMO there's not a big difference between it and the steel block. There is no big volume drop when using the vibrato with the 6 oz. pot metal block. I think all the steel block does is add a little more sustain in the very high-high treble range. I can't even say I've for sure heard that extra treble, it just stands to reason that the trebles would sustain longer with a more dense mass under the saddles. And more treble is not necessarily a good thing, either. Do you want a guitar that sounds like it's made out of wood or steel? Keep in mind that Fender installs 250k pots to knee cap high end treble on Strats, and very few people question that wisdom.
It's a fact of physics that you will gain some sustain when you put a more solid mass below the strings. Going from 1 oz. to 10 oz. might be noticeable, but I honestly couldn't hear any difference between my identical Strats with 10 oz. steel and 6 oz. pot metal trem blocks. I had two Strats, one with the stock pot metal block, one with the steel block on either side of my head, by my ears, and I'd strum them both at once and try to see if I could figure out which one faded away first. Strumming one with just a tiny big more force caused it to overshoot the other by a mile, it was very difficult to tell any difference after repeated tandem strumming, trying desperately to get a conclusive answer, if only for my own purposes. I wanted to know if I should buy ten more steel blocks or not. I wish Myth Busters would get on the case.
Be wary with everything you read about trem block replacement that very few people are honestly able to A/B the difference between steel and whatever they had before. An hour would have passed between the time they last heard their guitar, removed the old trem block, put in the new one, strung the guitar back up and plugged it in again, so there's the risk of fallible eye witness who doesn't remember exactly what they heard. On top of that there's the motivation to want to hear an improvement when we do something to our guitar that costs money. Nobody would want to believe they spent $80 on a part and spend an hour installing it all for nothing. I'm especially suspicious when people describe obviously very subtle differences as being "huge improvements", or even choose to use an ambiguous word like "improvement" in the first place. Same is true with pickups, it's pretty rare that any one is astonishingly better or worse than an other. It's really about variety anyway, not better this and worse that.
