Strat options?

suspiciousminds

I recently picked up an ‘89 korean squier strat for £100.
The electrics needed sorting ie pots/switch/cap etc and now its restrung it sounds and plays very very nice / i’ve never been a real strat fan but it does feel nice and i quite like it.
The only negative being the trem - with anything other than a slight “wobble” it drops out of tune.
So, options are upgrade the trem - but, is that worth doing on a lower end guitar and if it is, what should i look for/need?
Or, flog it along with a couple of my other guitars and get a decent basic strat, preferably single coils, rosewood board, medium frets - mex/usa/mij - nothing fancy, just a reliable workhorse.
Any thoughts?

Fretwired

Go to a store and try some new/second hand Strats - if you think they are better than what you have then you have your answer. However, the Fender Strat is a simple guitar and it maybe your Korean guitar is well made. You don't have to spend a fortune to upgrade and transform your Squier guitar and you may find some bargains on eBay.

Jack_

Get a Wilkinson one, it'll cost you about £20 on eBay. Job done.

Or just hardtail it.

mistercharlie

Check the nut and tuners before changing the trem. The strings could be getting hooked up there. Does it go sharp when I goes out of tune?

guitarmangler

mistercharlie said:

Check the nut and tuners before changing the trem. The strings could be getting hooked up there. Does it go sharp when I goes out of tune?

Nine times out of ten it's the nut. Tune it up, capo at the first fret, whammy away and see if it's still in tune . 

Schnozz

I've read around and been on Facebook Messenger to Axesrus and it seems that it would be better to just block off the trem, which is what I'm going to do

ICBM

Even a cheap Strat trem can usually be made to work perfectly if it’s set up right and the nut is cut well. The issues with cheap ones are mostly the quality of the block and saddles, which affect the tone but not the tuning, and the arm fitting.

Is it sticking out of tune in the same direction as the last arm movement, or the opposite? Same - the problem is at the bridge; opposite - the problem is at the nut or machineheads.

munckee

I don't see the point of a strat without a trem personally, I would check the nut and the string trees put pencil lead in the nut grooves and follow a youtube video to set up the trem properly.  I bought a cheap squier standard used and upgraded the electronics, pickup-ups and tuners and put nicer pickguards etc on and spray-painted.

I did end up selling as strat was my main guitar and I decided I should have more money in the strat and less in the tele, but was perfectly good.  I made back the money I spent on it and learned a lot from the process.

fretfinder

munckee said:

I don't see the point of a strat without a trem personally.

Eric Clapton and Robert Cray among others (including me) would disagree! 

munckee

fretfinder said:

munckee said:

I don't see the point of a strat without a trem personally.

Eric Clapton and Robert Cray among others (including me) would disagree! 

Yeah but you are all wrong might as well  have a Nashville tele : )

ESBlonde

munckee said:

fretfinder said:

munckee said:

I don't see the point of a strat without a trem personally.

Eric Clapton and Robert Cray among others (including me) would disagree! 

Yeah but you are all wrong might as well  have a Nashville tele : )

Probably the most recorded strat in history is the Hardtail used by Nile Rogers.

Horses for courses.

OilCityPickups

I never use my Strat's trem and have it locked down hard to the body ... however the trem springs do seem to add a certain 'something' to the sound. It may just be my ears, but hardtails seem a little 'lifeless' by comparison.

Lebarque

TheGuitarWeasel said:

I never use my Strat's trem and have it locked down hard to the body ... however the trem springs do seem to add a certain 'something' to the sound. It may just be my ears, but hardtails seem a little 'lifeless' by comparison.

Can open. Worms everywhere...

Funkfingers

TheGuitarWeasel said:

I never use my Strat's trem ...

My Fender AVRI Stratocasters still have the round silver stickers over the arm hole.

TheGuitarWeasel said:

... and have it locked down hard to the body

I tilt mine upwards by the regulation 3/16ths of an inch.

TheGuitarWeasel said:

springs do seem to add a certain 'something' to the sound. hardtails seem a little 'lifeless' by comparison.

I briefly owned a late Eighties Fender Big Apple Stratocaster with the fixed bridge. At the time, I blamed its lack of pizzazz on the *spread and veneers* body construction. In retrospect, the absence of springs and a cavity could have had something to do with it.

munckee said:
I don't see the point of a strat without a trem ... might as well have a Nashville tele : )

Gotta disagree with this. Despite making numerous attempts, I have never succeeded in getting a three pickup Telecaster to sound exactly like a Stratocaster without also losing the Tele-ness of its bridge position pickup. 

For what it is worth, installing a Tele-inspired bridge position pickup into a Stratocaster also fails to achieve that elusive hybrid Fender sound set. The nearest that I have ever got is a Squier JV Stratocaster with two Duncan APS-1s and a Twangbanger.

ICBM

ESBlonde said:

Probably the most recorded strat in history is the Hardtail used by Nile Rogers.

TheGuitarWeasel said:

I never use my Strat's trem and have it locked down hard to the body ... however the trem springs do seem to add a certain 'something' to the sound. It may just be my ears, but hardtails seem a little 'lifeless' by comparison.

I would say not 'lifeless', but a more direct, tighter, slightly more percussive sound that suits Nile's (and Robert Cray's) style perfectly.

Clapton prefers a locked-down trem too. I think it's likely that the cavity and springs do add 'something' to the tone - not least because when the spring vibrate, they're within the magnetic field of the bridge pickup.

Funkfingers said:

munckee said:
I don't see the point of a strat without a trem ... might as well have a Nashville tele : )

Gotta disagree with this. Despite making numerous attempts, I have never succeeded in getting a three pickup Telecaster to sound exactly like a Stratocaster without also losing the Tele-ness of its bridge position pickup. 

For what it is worth, installing a Tele-inspired bridge position pickup into a Stratocaster also fails to achieve that elusive hybrid Fender sound set. The nearest that I have ever got is a Squier JV Stratocaster with two Duncan APS-1s and a Twangbanger.

I don't like Nashville Teles either.

It's a circle that cannot be squared - a part of the fundamental character of each guitar comes from the bridge, so putting Strat pickups into a Tele or a Tele bridge pickup into a Strat - even a hardtail - won't give you the same sound as the other guitar.

OilCityPickups

ICBM said:

 I think it's likely that the cavity and springs do add 'something' to the tone - not least because when the spring vibrate, they're within the magnetic field of the bridge pickup.

I did an experiment once: I had a cheapo strat body, and seeing as I never used (in those days) a Strat bridge pickup ... I routed the pickup cavity deeper till it practically met the trem spring rout ... then I mounted the bridge pickup upside down so that it picked up the springs and not the strings and wired it to come on permanently with either neck or middle pickups ... voila ... instant, (subtle) reverb.

HAL9000

Absolutely agree that the trem springs are part of what makes a Strat 'Stratty', and I suspect why Clapton blocks the trem rather than uses a hardtail. I saw  Robert Cray a year or so back, and his live sound is definitely on the Tele side of Strattiness.

Danielsguitars

i don't know i made a set neck strat with a schaller hard tail bridge and it sounds very strat like to me, although i don't know much about strats so probably talking complete rubbish 

thegummy

customkits said:

i don't know i made a set neck strat with a schaller hard tail bridge and it sounds very strat like to me, although i don't know much about strats so probably talking complete rubbish 

To be honest I wouldn't trust anyone's judgment - especially not my own - if they/I are aware which bridge is being heard.

If I could pick out a trem vs hardtail in a blind test I'd believe they sound different.