What do I do with this strat?!

[jimzucco]

Hey everyone. I have this MIJ fender contemporary Stratocaster that I'm trying to revive and I've hit a road block. What the hell should I do with this weird trem? I do have the original trem which is a Schaller system ii (I'm pretty sure it's ii). I'd really like to get a traditional fender tremolo or even a hard tail. Anyone have any experience with these bridges or just any suggestions?

 

[jimzucco]

Re: What do I do with this strat?!

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: What do I do with this strat?!

Attachments not working, bro.

Your guitar has one of the Fender System series of vibrato bridges. The key to replacing these is the distance between the pivot posts and threaded inserts (when present). If you have the chunky, flatmount vibrato, the obvious replacement would be a Kahler. Vibrato and fixed variants are available.

Before spending any money on hardware, however, I would ascertain what material has been used for the body. I once bought a Sys1 Stratocaster. The body was Poplar. It might as well have been compressed card. No tone whatsoever.

 

[jimzucco]

Re: What do I do with this strat?!

Fixed my attachments (I think). Sorry about that! The body is alder I'm pretty sure. This thing seems like its going to be rough to deal with.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: What do I do with this strat?!

Somebody has already had a go at that one.

Many years ago, I owned a 1983/4 Fender Am Std Stratocaster. This had the Freeflyte knife edge vibrato bridge. Long story short, I exploited the existing cavities to install a Kahler Pro flatmount cam vibrato. This left an unsightly gap between the front edge of the Kahler and the pickguard. My solution was to leave the sunken knife edge bolted in position.

 

[greekdude]

Re: What do I do with this strat?!

Take a look at this thread : http://guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/6906/modify-body
This lady had an Khaler equipped super strat "Strat" which she tried to convert to vintage trem. They key point is that she ended up routing a rect area where the old Khaler was, filling a large chunk of wood in place and re-routing for the vintage trem.

Side note : FR is much better IMHO than any traditional trem, why should you want to replace it is beyond me.

 

[jimzucco]

Re: What do I do with this strat?!

Somebody has already had a go at that one.

Many years ago, I owned a 1983/4 Fender Am Std Stratocaster. This had the Freeflyte knife edge vibrato bridge. Long story short, I exploited the existing cavities to install a Kahler Pro flatmount cam vibrato. This left an unsightly gap between the front edge of the Kahler and the pickguard. My solution was to leave the sunken knife edge bolted in position.

You've blown my mind. I think now that I've had a freeflyte all along. I'm having doubts about this even being a contemporary strat! Thing is, it came with a contemporary strat manual. Anyway, thanks