Fender Vintage-Style Standard Series Stratocaster Tremolo Assemblies

Fast shipping. Great drop-in upgrade for Squier classic vibe strat.

I have a very inexpensive S type guitar I purchased as a project. When I disassembled it to repaint it, I noticed the trem block was very thin and unimpressive. I put in new electronics, did all the fretwork, and painted the body and it worked fairly well but with average sustain, and I was not surprised. The cheap trem (nobody should have a trem where you fear being cut by how thin the baseplate looks) had the wrong size saddles, and it was cheaper to buy this trem and get the saddles too.Upon receiving this I was amazed at how beefy it is, and by the quality of the part (and all the smaller parts that make it).I measured the recipient body before I ordered this and compared against Fender's published specs, and it looked like it would drop right in. When I got it, the holes lined up perfectly, but corners were (un)cut on my project guitar and I had to route a small bit of wood (about 4mm x 20mm of cap) because the guitar body would not fit a full sized bridge plate on the term arm side. After removing that small bit of wood this trem dropped in perfectly (as it did when I tested it in a Squier Strat body that is my other project).After buttoning the guitar back up, I was not surprised to find better sustain characteristics. As an experiment, I checked this guitar's sustain against a sample recorded with the old bridge and it was a clear upgrade.This bridge is also better than the one that came with my Squier project Strat (and it fits without modification), so I'll be getting another one.All in all, I've never been a "genuine Fender" kind of person, but I am impressed and delighted by the quality of the genuine Fender parts I've purchased to date, and it's why I will continue to buy these parts for all my project guitars that fit the "S" or "T" body shapes.

The Fender product number for this Fender Vintage-Style Standard Series Stratocaster Tremolo Assemblies (Bridge) is PN 0071014049. The Tremolo arm needed for this assembly needs to be Standard 10/32 threading tremolo arm according to the Fender web site where this bridge is posted in the parts section. Oddly Fender doesn't seem to post the tread size for tremolo arms and there's many different Fender Tremolo arms. Little frustrated with that. The only tremolo arm that posted a 10/32 tread size is Musiclily Pro UNF #10-32 4.8mm Thread-in Steel Tremolo Arm Whammy Bar Vibrato Arm for Strat Style Electric Guitar, Chrome with White Tip, and the Musiclily Bar fit perfect. . I install this Fender Tremolo bridge assembly into a Donnor DST-152R and all the screw holes line right up. The tremolo block is more than twice the thickness of the Donnor and deeper or taller. It fits perfectly in this Donnor Strat and the back cover also clears! Love the new bridge assembly sounds great, lots more sustain. Side note: I would have purchase a Fender Tremolo arm but there were too many and none of them posted the thread specs #10-32 so this is why I purchased the Musiclily tremolo arm.Update on the Tremolo arm. I have since discovered the Fender Pure Vintage 60s Stratocaster Tremolo Arm Kit, Eggshell is 10-32 threaded. https://www.amazon.com/review/review-your-purchases/edit?asin=B00LJY360C&channel=YAcc-wr-thankyou&ref_=ryp_hz_thnk_l_2&pinnedAsins=B0BG4Z3V8Y

If you are upgrading a cheaper foreign-made Strat (like a Mexican or, in particular, a Squier Strat), the tremolo weight is more than twice as heavy in this bridge, giving richer tone & longer sustain. Just be sure to use the whammy bar that comes with it since the bars differ in width (and in screw count, which might not be noticeable at first, but will wear on the system in time. Intonation & action settings are solid. If you're replacing the cheap tremolo on a Squier, note that this tremolo weight is longer than the Squier's & you won't be able to put the back plate on again (no grief since most pros keep them off for quicker string changes on stage or in studios). Use only three of the springs, placed left, right & center on the bar & claw. Note: for a true floating bridge that you can pull up as well as swoop, put a popsicle stick (say 0.08" thick) between the back end of the bridge & the body before adjusting intonation & action. Then with the strings at their playing tension, start loosening the screws on the claw from the back a quarter-turn at a time counter-clockwise until the popsicle stick slips out easily. The combined tension of the strings & the internal springs will hold the bridge in the proper floating position.I would also suggest replacing your nut at the same time if you have a plastic one. You can use bone, but the best is the self-lubricated Tusq material, which doesn't wear on the strings so much at the nut when you do bends & tremolo. While you have the strings off to do your installation, take advantage of it to clean & oil the fretboard & sand down the frets to evenness, using finer & finer sandpaper, finishing off with Meguier's non-compound polish for the smoothest bends. For Squiers, you can also get a $5.00 grit sponge from Home Depot to smooth off the edges of the frets at the sides of the fretboard, which are often not as finely finished as on an American Standard Strat. Rub up and back on the side edges of the fretboard at about a 45 degree angle to get a bit of a rounded edge to the fretboard too, which will make sliding up and down the neck easier. You want both the best tone & the best playability out of the guitar. Take a little time & you can make your guitar much better in both areas. If you want to go whole hog and have a Squier that's better than a $2,000 Fender, have a luthier install handwound pickups with Alnico 5 (or 3 for mellower) poles instead of the cheap ceramic magnets Squier uses. Don't forget to wire in new 250K pots. If you can't handle basic soldering, let a technician or luthier install the PUs & pots. You can even have it wired so the middle switch position enables both the bridge & neck PUs & use a push-pull blender pot to be able to blend in all three pickups for some very different sounds no stock Fender can produce.