Do you float your Strat tremolo?
 

I recently bought a Squier 60s Classic Vibe strat because Sweetwater had a sale I couldn't pass up. The trem is decked which I assume is the default. I know from reading that decked or blocked are preferred for tuning stability but having a whammy bar that works in both directions is appealing since I've never had one.

I saw in another thread a YouTube video on how to setup a floating tremolo and will study that carefully. I'm wondering which type of trem setup you Strat players prefer.

Mine is decked and I prefer it that way. If not decked and a string broke, the guitar would go out of tune, which is not good for gigging. I no longer gig but trem is still decked.

Do you float your Strat tremolo?
 

I like the feel of the bridge on the face of the guitar. Spring claw screws are two thirds into the body, five springs installed and the saddle plate screwed all the way down, below the height of the pickguard. It just feels right. You can even see the factory sticker covering the trem arm hole has never been touched.

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My electric guitar hometown is the Telecaster. I would engage in lots of finger and even neck bending vibrato with them. I used to say I have lots of ways of playing out tune without need one of them new-fangled moving bridges to "help me" when I didn't want it.

I was a blocked or decked guy for years with Strat trems. Besides the practical advantages, I think there some modest impact on sound. Then I got a used Strat Plus (a great model IMHO) with a Tremsetter which got me interested.

Then this century I started to get more issues with joints, pain and sometimes lack of mobility. I started to think that I might need help from a mechanical device some days. I currently play two Strat types, one with the classic design bridge and one with a two-post only modern variation. I keep both floating. Besides the upbend capability and the "around the pitch warble" I think it might change the sound modestly. I'm not contradicting myself in saying that, only saying that either setup has some effect you can hear playing clean at lower volumes on timbre. Neither is necessarily a better sound. Crank up to Jimi levels, then it's all about the vibrato and the timbral changes are hard to detect.

Other things? Do you use altered tunings on a single instrument? It's a lot harder even if you are just changing to drop D much less open D or G etc if you are working with a floating trem.* A floating (or lightly tensioned decked) will have a soft-feel action that my finger joints sometimes find pleasurable even though with finger vibrato you have to bend the string more to get the same pitch change. Also oblique bends (where with finger vibrato you bend and not bend a set of strings to get pitch change against a pitch that doesn't change) are difficult with a floating trem as the unbent string(s) will not stay stable due to the overall tension of all strings being changed by the bent strings.

Taken as a whole, all this may sound like an argument to block or deck. And there is an argument to do that! I used to make it. Still, remember, as I stand today (and I have fixed bridge instruments to alternatively use) I have my two Strat types setup floating. It has drawbacks, but it's an idiomatic sound that the Strat can make, and I want that option.


*One floating Strat type I have is a Line6 Variax, which can do alt tunings by electronically changing the pitch. Neat trick.

I can relate to that! Thanks for taking the time to relay your adventures in tremolo systems. Haven't decided yet whether to try and float mine or just leave well enough alone.

I prefer the sound of my strat with the trem floating. It just has an airiness and percussiveness to it floating that I really like a lot.

Nope I deck em,

I want to be able palm mute, dig in as hard as I want and not kill the tuning.

Since this is the acoustic forum I am assuming the OP comes from that direction. Although I play Tele's today I spent a few years with my sons Strat. Regardless of where you end up with your Strat setup - decked or floating - Take a detour and learn how to set up the floating bridge and trem. It's the heart of the Stratocaster. Put on 5 springs, a steel block, flat wound 12's and float the bridge so the trem goes both ways. That's the original base line Strat. Try it out - it was a breakthrough in it's day. If it does not work for you deck the trem, go back to lighter round wounds and enjoy your great 3 pickup single coil guitar. But as least you will understand what a Strat was about originally and you can take it where you want to go from there.

I have each of my Strats set up with a floating bridge. I use Carl Verheyen’s setup idea to make it work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy-F7iSIopA

Using his concept, my guitars stay in tune no matter how much I pull up or divebomb the strings. Each of my Strats have the classic, split tuners.

I have mine set for either or. 5 springs decks the trem, but I can still dive if I loosen the bridge screws. Remove two springs and the trem fully floats perfectly. Other things that help tuning stability is installing roller string trees. But for a stable vintage trem, it’s imperative that those winds are perfect, and that nut is perfectly filed for the string gauge you’re using.

My Fender Strat Plus has roller nut and a locking tuners. Those and the Tremsetter really makes takes away a lot of the gotcha's in a Strat trem. I got along fine with the Lace Sensor pickups too, though they don't sound exactly like a vintagey set, they also were very quiet.

They only made them for a few years, but it's really a great model Stratocaster IMHO. Wonder how they're doing in the used market...

About 95% of my electric playing since 1979 has been with a Strat and in that time, I’ve never found a way to use a trem bar in a musical way. So, my bridge is immobilized one way or another. I’ve blocked them, decked them, and owned a hardtail Strat. My current Strat (I’m guessing my last - it’s a good one) is decked and will stay that way…

-Ray

I have two Strats, one is blocked and one isn’t. The blocked one is a Lone Star Strat that I use with our band, where I’m playing a lot of songs in a short period of time. I need it to be stable for that. The other one is an ‘89 Am Std that I use mostly for recording at home. It that case I’m using the trem at times and can retune whenever I want. It’s fun to crank up the reverb and play some surf music.

I'm the original owner of a strat plus from 1996.

It's easily one of the best strats I've ever owned.

IMO your spot on with your take on the hardware.

I had a different take on the lace sensors though, wasn't a fan, though they were quiet.

I put Texas Specials in there soon after buying it.

Both my G&L S-500 and Sterling LK100D, Strat variants, have their bridges floated. Being able to reach down and wobble a chord or do whammy trem or various effects is what I have them for. I also have hard-tail guitars.

Bob