Stop the wobble

BluesyDave

I've just got hold of another Strat and the trem bar wobbles about in the block, even when almost screwed right in.  Any ideas on how to make it a bit more positive?

octatonic

Get a piece of rubber, wrap it around the trem arm and screw it in.

womble_fuzz

Ptfe tape around the end of the bar which winds in to the block

BluesyDave

Cheers Guys  

57Deluxe

Yeah - Plumber's PTFE tape... wind it round the male thread and your sorted... and what's more it won't leak...

noisepolluter

+1 on the plumber's tape. Keep a roll of it in the guitar case - only needs re-doing a couple of times a year at most - a few inches will do it. Either we'll all have long since popped our clogs or the tape will perish before you run out of roll. 

Are you getting any kind of extraneous trem noise? I was, and it turned out to be a combination of one spring slightly longer than the others, which went completely slack and rattled in the block while there was still tension on the other two, and also made the arm travel feel like there was a dead spot when moving the arm where nothing happened, plus odd reverb tank-style resonance from the springs themselves. Solved by:

1) re-installing trem springs in a fan shape and re-adjusting the tension so it floats properly (you may not need to do this - other folks get better results from parallel springs - depends on the guitar and the springs - mine just happens to work better this way)

2) cutting some thin strips of washing up sponge and threading them through the middle of the springs using an old guitar string hooked through one end of the sponge strip - thanks to folks on the forum for the tip - dampens any weird spring overtones from guitar body impact/trem use coming through the amp, especially at high volumes

impmann

Or do it properly...

Fender supply small springs that are inserted into the trem block and then the arm is screwed against it - these are standard fit on US Standards. Not bad but not great...

Or replace the usually crap pot metal block with either a Wudtone or Callaham steel item. These have a PTFE sleeve fitted and in conjunction with a better fitting arm, all slop is removed permanently plus the sound of your guitar is improved.

I wouldn't own a Strat trem without an uprated trem block these days. And I am a big fan of the Wudtone trem, since fitting one.

stonevibe

Get a Telecaster...

boogieman

The threads usually start to wear or strip because folks wind the arm into the block too far and it bottoms out. That's what the spring is there for, but it usually goes AWOL before long. A spring out of a biro works , sort of, or you can cut a little piece off of a pencil rubber and push that down the trem block hole. Then yup, couple of turns of ptfe tape round the arm thread and the jobs a good'un.

BluesyDave

stonevibe said:

Get a Telecaster...

Lol, got one  

Some really good advice, thx chaps.  

mike_l

I've used tape for years. Got a roll for 70p (IIRC) through work and it's still going strong after 5 (I think) yrs.

It also works on Floyd arms. I literally used one wrap around the threads to get it done.