Blocked trem question

daveyh

So, my partscaster has its trem blocked because thats what I always do. Mainly on account of being rubbish with a trem basically. Its a Wudtone, with a Callaham block. Is this overkill for a blocked trem? Woukd I get the same result with a cheaper trem?

Fuengi

I bought a cheap Wilkinson tremolo (£30) for my Mexican Strat, wasn't impressed.

I ended up leaving the original one in because the 2009 / 10s have a heavy block and it was far more solid than the Wilkinson.

I believe the more expensive Wilkinson terms are much better quality. 

guitars4you

Not overkill  - It is also about the tone that a good trem block will give and a cheap version, made with monkey metal, won't give

deano

In my G&L SC3 I have blocked the trem off with a bit of walnut that I sanded until the bridge (floating) stayed level against the string tension after the springs were removed. Sounds okay to me. Not sure if anything commercially available brings anything new to the table. Before I used the bit of walnut I used a bit of wood the I'd sawn off an old wooden clothes peg! It was almost the exact width I needed and they are (or were in the 1980's) hardwood.

ICBM

It’s only slight overkill because if you don’t use the trem, the extra ‘tweaks’ these parts have are a bit wasted - but if you replace it with something cheaper you’ll probably notice the difference.

The best solution is to use the trem .

thegummy

ICBM said:

It’s only slight overkill because if you don’t use the trem, the extra ‘tweaks’ these parts have are a bit wasted - but if you replace it with something cheaper you’ll probably notice the difference.

The best solution is to use the trem .

I'd be up for learning to use the trem on my Strat but when it's not blocked I have to tune each string about 5 times for them to actually be in tune! That's the reason I block mine.

ICBM

thegummy said:

I'd be up for learning to use the trem on my Strat but when it's not blocked I have to tune each string about 5 times for them to actually be in tune! That's the reason I block mine.

It's usually the nut which causes tuning issues with trem use, not the bridge. They can be made to work very well with a little attention. When I first started playing I thought the same, and blocked off the trem on my Strat copy - but now I wouldn't be without one, it just adds an extra bit of expressiveness that you can't get without it - and it doesn't go out of tune. Same model of guitar.