Stratocaster Tremolo Switch Up

[Amadis4eva]

I have a fender stratocaster squier and i was re-assembling it after "reconstruction". towards the end of the assembly, i decided to add all 5 tremolo springs and then turned my guitar over to find that the two brass metal fasteners that hold the screws that hold the bridge down were pryed up!

now i have two holes in the body and now way to keep the bridge down. however, would it be safe to use a bridge from the affinity series as a replacement?:https:

as you can see there are multiple holes for screws in this bridge. this leaves me with some questions:

1. can i simply just drill holes in the body and insert the screws? or are there also metal inserts in the body?

2. the two outermost screw holes actually are almost directly over the cavities of said uprooted bridge restraints. how would i work around this obstacle?

[DarkAvenger]

I would start by doweling the original holes. You can find a dowel the right size at a hobby store, or if not they will have one a little bigger and you can sand it to the right size. Glue in the dowel with regular wood glue, hammer it in a bit, and a cut off the excess after it drys a day. I use a chisel and slowly and carefully cut the dowel by working the chisel in a circular pattern around the dowel(dont use a hammer or excess force). It is a bit slow, but if you keep it flat on the finish, you shouldn't cause damage. Once the holes are plugged, you can attach the new bridge. If you use wood screws, you'll be good.

[masterblastor]

Do you mean the actual fastners/posts or the anchors/bushings poped out? If it's just the bushings, why not just get bigger bushings or glue the old ones back in properly? If it's the posts, you can re-thread the bushings and put some decent posts in there.