Spring Claw Adjustment Vs Adding More Springs

[steve00]

I just finished putting together a new strat, and after stringing and tuning the guitar, the bridge sits off the body at an angle of 20-30 degrees. I have three springs in the back, and I've tightened the spring claw a bit, but with no visible affect on lowering the bridge. I know that most strats are able to have the bridge sit flush with the body w/ only 3 springs. Why would mine be different? Any thoughts on where I should go from here? What are the cases for continuing to tighten the spring claw versus adding more springs? Attached are some pictures. Thanks.

[thegarehanman]

What are the guages of strings you're using?

[jmrentis]

*If* your gauge is reasonable then I would again look back to the claw and springs. I'd assume the springs are new as this is a new guitar. Start by loosening the strings completely and then take a block of wood and place it in the space between the bottom of bridge and the end of the cavity, get or make a block to fit the cavity when the bridge is just about flat to the body. The block of wood will stop the bridge from pulling up, I actually have one in one of my trems to stop it from working, lol, it was from a while ago and works perfectly. Now tune your guitar to pitch. The tension of the strings will squeeze the wooden block and keep it from falling out. Now tighten the claw until the block is no longer being squeezed and will just slide out, this means the springs are holding the bridge in place and your good to go, of course you can make any final adjustments then. This should solve your problem if you have a normal set of strings and your springs are in decent condition.

Basically, try to keep the bridge flat while getting doing the major tightening of the claw. Even if you just hold the bridge flat with your hand, but the block is much easier because you need to tune and then tighten the claw. Well anyway, I hope you figure it out. It sounds to me its the claw needing more tightening, I think its often just too much pressure on the springs to bring a bridge down once it is already way off the body, plus it isn't easy to turn the screws on the claw. Hopefully, this helps. Best of luck. J

Edited August 15, 2007 by jmrentis

[Mattia]

Also: if that's a 6-screw trem (can't tell), make sure the screws aren't tightened down so far it can't actually sit flat/level.

[WezV]

try the trem-claw first. if that doesnt sort it it is ok to add more springs but it really shouldnt need it unless you are using thicker strings thn 10's.

you dont mention what make the guitar is but if it is a cheaper one its sometimes worth changing the springs to something of a higher quality

[WezV]

its also worth working on you tuning technique

[steve00]

That block of wood idea sounds great. I'll try that. To answer some questions, it is a 6 hole vintage trem, and I'm using .10's for the strings. On a related note, exactly how tight should be 6 screws holding the bridge be? As someone noted about, if you tighten them all the way, it will pull up the other side of the bridge a bit. Right now I have them just shy of being completely tight. Thanks for all the replies.

[Maiden69]

On the only strat I have owned, I had the screws to were they touch the metal base with the base sitting flat on the body. Any more and it will make the base start to lift away from the guitar. Strings should be no issue unless you are using a very heavy set, like 60's. I used mine with 52's and had no problem.

loosen the strings and adjust the trem screws. from the look you will need to tighten the claw a bit. Once you do that, intonate the guitarso that the bridge is sitting were you like it to be. after messing a lot with mine I decided to convert it to a lowering action only, so I had it with the base flat on the body. But you can have a nice "floating" trem if you like.

After this all you have to do is play with the intonation and the claw. If at full intonation, the trem is too high, loosen the strings bring the claw in (tighten) and intonate again, if it is touching the body at intonation, then loosen the claw and re-intonate... Keep playing with this until you get to were you want to be.

[TheFatManCometh]

Instead of adding new springs, you may want to try arranging then in an "arrow formation", with the outer two springs moved in a space toward the center of the spring claw, but leaving them in their current spots on the trem block, this will increase tension on the trem block with maybe a minimal change to the position of the spring claw and no purchases neccessary.