Fender Stratocaster floating trem. Advantages, secrets & setup tips.

Set up your Fender Stratocaster the way it was designed... The way Leo Fender intended.... With a floating tremolo system.
In this video, I'll cover the many advantages of a floating trem over a decked/blocked trem, as well as a few setup tips that aren't usually mentioned.
Get your Fender Stratocaster playing as it should, like a dream!
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The Blogging Musician @ adamharkus.com

[@user-wl7rb5ri5m]

I gave up on having a floating trem with the vintage 6 screw trem. I replaced it with the Fender Professional Tremolo. It is vastly better. However it came with 5 normal width bent saddles and one vintage width bent saddle. Quality control Fender. That one wider saddle spread all of the others and wrecked the whole system. The high E string kept catching in the height adjustment screw. All of the others had tuning issues. I had a set of Callaham saddles and replaced that one vintage width saddle and all of the issues are gone. Plays like butter and stays in tune much better. Certainly it became useable. The 6 screw bridge is a deal breaker. On another guitar I have the Super Vee Bladerunner bridge with Highwood saddles and it is a leap forward. Drive bomb and it comes back in tune over and over. Still has that vintage sound. My $0.02

[@jakeah1175]

Really great content in this video - learned a few things and I’ve been messing about with Strats for quite a while - thanks! Good luck to your channel in 2023

[@TheBloggingMusician]

Thanks lot Jake More content coming soon.

[@jeffreyprice773]

There's a lot more to it than that.

[@newoization]

I totally agree with you. If you dont like the floating trem buy something else. Its not a true strat otherwise.

[@Ashibal]

an excellent video on this topic, thanks a lot

[@TheBloggingMusician]

Cheers. Thanks for watching :)

[@Brykk]

I like to float the bridge on my strat but i rarely use the whammy bar. I just like the strings action when the bridge is floated, over being decked. I also like to only run 2 springs on the tremolo claw. The tones on bends get really interesting.

[@TheBloggingMusician]

Thanks for watching. The strings action can be adjusted to the same when decked, but I get what you mean... floating = slinkiier feel

[@Brykk]

@@TheBloggingMusician exactly

[@bluwng]

2 springs is a winners recipe.

[@explorer8454]

For the two point bridge the pivot screws should be exactly the same distance from the guitar face. The bridge plate should be 3/32" above the guitar, front to back, and parallel to the guitar face. According to George Blanda this is how the bridge was designed to be set up.

[@malamute8257]

Do you have a source for this information? The Fender website is really unclear with its phrasing, and it makes it sound like you can adjust the angle to taste, but I think it's talking about the vintage style bridges. I keep getting in debates about if these are supposed to sit flat.

[@TheBloggingMusician]

It's definitely not designed to be decked (flat). Key reason for that is why have a trem if you can't get the full use out of it? Another to float is that the tension is looser so it plays and sounds as it was intended.

[@malamute8257]

@@TheBloggingMusician well it is still floating, not touching the body, just parallel to the body. Very usable, just doesn't have a lot of pull up. I don't think decked (totally flush with the body) is the same as the 3/32" this person is describing. All I'm saying is that if it's 3/32" at the posts, I think it's designed so it should be 3/32" on the back end as well

[@malamute8257]

@@TheBloggingMusician there are plenty of units, like the gotoh 510, that are designed to sit perfectly flat and you start messing with the zero point if you angle them to get more pull up

[@TheBloggingMusician]

Yeah I guess parallel and floating could work as you get that nicer vibrato on chords. I don't really care about too much up bend. Having said that the spring would be tighter so a little more string tension.

[@bluwng]

There is a guy on KZbin that sells a sustain block that locks in the strings , essentially same as a Floyd but in the block vs saddles. I think he goes by TremDoctor.

[@bluwng]

I love thin trem blocks because they let you dive down to hell. We have been brainwashed to think a big fat ass heavy block adds tone…..it does not unless you discovered some new law in physics. If thin blocks were so bad why does a $400 Vega Trem use them? Vega uses them for the same reason I mentioned.

[@Gem-Ex]

Good points

[@TheBloggingMusician]

Thanks for watching

[@fjborg6978]

I added roller saddles and string trees.

[@jankmita6541]

Thanks 🎸

[@TheBloggingMusician]

No worries!

[@Bikeadelic]

Lower your Pickups and enjoy a fuller more expansive sound!

[@roadtorockstar7848]

2:03 Thank you! My Tremeloarm is a bit loose, when I screw it in. Found your Vid! 8:50 why the Clas Config? Mine are Straigt? Should I claw them. All In on Floating. Why did Leo do a Floating Trem? I have 10s on it. Why 8s or 9s?

[@patrickgracia627]

Why is it so hard to take out the bar. There used to be a video some place showing how to fix the clip. Also why does fender use all those springs if it is not good?

[@stevep2430]

The only issue with a floating bridge I can see is, when you do a bend on a single string, the other strings go out of tune.

[@bluwng]

Go out of tune while you are playing or after? If it is during it only matters if you are playing more than one string while bending and realistically who in the world plays a,chord while simultaneously bending one string if it’s after there is an easy way of knocking it in tune and all the lube in the world isn’t the answer. Guitarist don’t understand basic physics that is why there is so many misconceptions.

[@user-ec6lb7hu8i]

That's why Clapton blocked all his trems

[@jeffreyprice773]

Set the trem springs straight, there's less tension on the centre spring and it could fall out under heavy trem action. What about setting the trem springs to counteract against the strings. Put a 1/8" spacer or less under the bridge between the body, tighten the claw to hold it there, tune the guitar then undo the claw until the spacer just falls out. What about neck relief at 7th fret, string gap at first fret, string action at 17th fret, setting bridge radius, pickup hight. ?

[@TheBloggingMusician]

That's a fair point about the springs being parallel. I think I'll adjust 😀

[@Nizodizo]

I own 3 Stratocasters and always float the bridge. Can not think of any other way to do it.

[@ottolofstrom3896]

I've tried pretty much everything on my Jet guitar but can't get it to stay in tune when using the bar. Any tips?

[@TheBloggingMusician]

Its a process of trial and error...Are the strings catching at the nut? Is it the tuners? The stringing metbed? The saddles?

[@nathancourtney2006]

My question is wouldn’t you need to change the angle of the neck to get a decent string hight action?

[@TheBloggingMusician]

That's one way of doing it. And I've done it on my Squier strat by add a shim. But on a £600 Player Strat I would have expected to have been able to set the action how I wanted with the stock saddles and without a shim. I think the Block steel are a better solution as I don't really want to be messing with the neck.

[@410142109]

Why didn`t you place your guitar on a table cloth or old towel to protect it from scratches?.

[@leogolive]

Not everybody babies their guitars. It’s a tool, that’s it.

[@jim3232]

Thank you for the video. I have a strange question. When I am not using the tremelo bar, I bend a note up, and if I simultaneously pick a note on the next string down, the note is flat because the tremolo system has bent in that direction, causing the note on the lower string to be flat. Is there a way to correct this?

[@TheBloggingMusician]

Hi Jim. Thanks for watching. Yes, you need to 'Deck' the trem by tightening the claw springs to the point where bending no longer pulls the bridge up. Its what many players do.

[@jim3232]

Thanks!

[@CitizenSoldier500]

the 2 outside slanted springs are creating more tension than the center spring. i don't get the logic of that

[@TheBloggingMusician]

So the reason is two-fold... I saw a vid of the Fender custom shop doing it, so I followed suit. The other reason is more logical. If the 2 outer springs don't come together in the middle it makes installing/removing them much more difficult as there is less space to work with.

[@lebii_m]

so its normal that u need to bend ur string more if u have a floating trem than flat trem cuz if tension?

[@TheBloggingMusician]

Yes you need to bend the string further but the tension is less. Just a a different feel

[@jeffrobodeenyehcmon5925]

Its perfect old school trem. Thats a Gilmour trem.

[@guadalupefreyre5900]

7:52

[@shawnhuff3920]

I don't disagree with you I think of you want a strat with a hard tail string thru buy one instrument instead of blocking the bridge I have a nashville telecaster three pickups the middle is a strat pickup and I have a fender player series plus top electric blue S.S.H. so I have the best of both

[@TheBloggingMusician]

Thanks for watching. I look at it another way. For live and no spare or if using drop D, tunings, decked. For everything else floated. The beauty of the Strat is you can do both.