Kurt: No. Anybody that plays guitar knows that only Jimi Hendrix was able to use the standard tremolo and still keep it in tune. Those things are totally worthless. I do have one on a Japanses Strat, but I don’t use it.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOB!
It is pretty hard to get a fucking strat trem to work.
It's not impossible for soft vibrato users like me - divebombing fair enough. I came across this which is pretty mental and want to try out but all Fender trems are about subtle surfy stuff anyway.
What's he doing there, in the bit where he's tuning the guitar? Is he tuning a string, divebombing, then retuning, then divebombing until it's steady, then moving to the next string?
Something like that I guess, slackening the strings seems to get it to return to the right "set" pressure or whatever term you'd use. It looks like it gets awesome results but the proof would be in the pudding and I'm dieing to try it out.
Last edited by George on Fri Aug 14, 2009 10:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
In fairness, I'm just more curious than anything else. The trem on my Jagmaster has always been rock solid. I can't put it out of tune, no matter how hard I try.
I don't think I'd say any vibrato system is particularly easy to set up. They all take a little bit of figuring out. and some people are just really not that mechanically inclined.
Of all the fender vibrato's the strat is the least subtle. I think you have to remember though, that all fender guitars were designed for heavier strings. The current setup I have on my strat with strings in the 11 - 12 range with wound G, perfectly balances with 5 springs (and the claw loosened so the springs just have a little tension). perfect. super subtle shimmery trem action.
who's this guy kurdtz ? ya'll fancied some buttsecks with him because you keep nagging about him ?
You're a little defensive, KURDTZ LUVVAR!!!
I like Strats, I think they're great guitars. They have a problem of looking generic and a bit gimpy though these days but that's the side effect of being the most popular guitar in the world I would have thought. I read somewhere that the strat was actually designed with 10-38 strings in mind as that was Fenders first and original string guage of the 150 string series (the companies first ever strings) - can anyone shed some light on this?
who's this guy kurdtz ? ya'll fancied some buttsecks with him because you keep nagging about him ?
You're a little defensive, KURDTZ LUVVAR!!!
I like Strats, I think they're great guitars. They have a problem of looking generic and a bit gimpy though these days but that's the side effect of being the most popular guitar in the world I would have thought. I read somewhere that the strat was actually designed with 10-38 strings in mind as that was Fenders first and original string guage - can anyone shed some light on this?
Sure let me point the flashlight into that outhouse.
really 10 - 38?? that seems ridiculously light. from what I've heard the only way you could get even an 11 string in those days was to use a banjo string.
I don't know if that's an old wives tale or to do with finding strings at a consumer level to be honest with you but I would have thought they could go lighter than an 11. There's no definitive string history on the internet so it can all be regarded as hearsay anyway - what I'm writing now as well. I'm going on an interview I read with Robert Quine who was saying Nickel 150s were the first strings Fender produced in the 50s and 60s and the 10-38 gauge was the first and only set of the 150s for a time, so to some extent they are matched to Strat and Teles. It's not completely implausible to suggest that. To this day 150s are regarded at least from a marketing POV as the "original" Fender strings, and the 10-38 guage as the "traditional" guage so maybe there's some weight behind it.
But like I said, I'm not sure about this - but I'm inclined to believe it somewhat.
GeorgeF wrote:But like I said, I'm not sure about this - but I'm inclined to believe it somewhat.
right. I'm just going on what I've read in interviews and such as well.
GeorgeF wrote:I'm going on an interview I read with Robert Quine who was saying Nickel 150s were the first strings Fender produced in the 50s and 60s and the 10-38 gauge was the first and only set of the 150s for a time, so to some extent they are matched to Strat and Teles. It's not completely implausible to suggest that. To this day 150s are regarded at least from a marketing POV as the "original" Fender strings, and the 10-38 guage as the "traditional" guage so maybe there's some weight behind it.
but fender didn't make strings in the 50s. they used Squier strings which they eventually bought in 1965. did squier originally make the 150s?
...man, but 10 - 38 is such an odd string set, it makes you think there must be some be some truth to it though. do they have a wound G? if not, that's a bit suspicious since the fender pickup pole stagger is clearly designed for a wound G.
I thought the 10-38s were designed to replicate what guys like James Burton got using a banjo string.
The "original" 50s string would be a set of flatwounds with a wound 3rd, probably gauged 12-50 or so. Roundwound electric strings weren't really available until the early 60s IIRC.
