Re: Stratocaster: Hardtail vs blocking the tremolo?
I would not lose any sleep over which method you use to arrive at a hardtail Strat. The big decision is really floating vibrato vs. blocked or dive only vibrato. Strats sound like Strats and feel like Strats because of the automatic vibrato ("waver") that they have at all times. You are always using the vibrato on a Strat, even if you aren't doing it actively. Look at the vibrato when you fret a chord. It moves. Look at it when you bend a string. It moves. Look at it when you palm mute. It moves. Look at it when you hit a chord hard versus when you hit a chord soft. It moves differently. The strings on a Strat are always moving around, with anything you do, and that has a huge impact on the guitar behaving like what a classic Strat behaves like. Also, sound aside, there is an enormous difference in how a Strat feels when it is blocked vs. when it is floating. The difference in how the strings "fight back" (or don't rather) when it is blocked is a big one.
It doesn't matter which method you use to disable the vibrato. The simple act of disabling it in any way, shape, or form significantly changes the way Strats sound. Splitting hairs between which method is used makes little sense, especially when you are basing your decisions on untested wives' tales spread by famous people who have no particular wealth of knowledge in the areas of physics, mechanics, acoustics, etc., and are used to simply being able to say whatever the hell they want with no one telling them they're full of it. The differences between methods are entirely negligible when you think about the huge and obvious difference in sound and feel that simply not having a vibrato makes.
