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How many springs are on your trem? Took the back plate of my Vintage to have a look at how it was set up as it's the most stable and has the best feeling action of any S-type I've played... To find it only has 2 springs, which I was quite surprised at as I thought 3 was kind of the minimum.

5, because I use 11s and am heavy handed. Like using 3 in an arrow formation too, though.

i've blocked mine off as don't use the trem

Whenever I had strats, I used 5.

benecol wrote:Like using 3 in an arrow formation too, though.

This might be a bit of rubbish but I've read if you use 3 springs they should all be equally spaced and straight. Having the arrow formation means the 2 on the outside are stretched more than the one in the middle and therefore the 3 springs aren't under equal pressure. Probably makes little difference but just a thought.

DanHeron wrote:

benecol wrote:Like using 3 in an arrow formation too, though.

This might be a bit of rubbish but I've read if you use 3 springs they should all be equally spaced and straight. Having the arrow formation means the 2 on the outside are stretched more than the one in the middle and therefore the 3 springs aren't under equal pressure. Probably makes little difference but just a thought.

Why would equal pressure among the springs matter? The pressure is balanced against the pull of the strings and distributed symmetrically, so no one side is floppy, which is the important stuff.

Yeah I guess. I read that in extreme cases, maybe with heavy trem usage, the middle spring can come off the hooks because it's looser than the other 2. Not sure if that would really happen though.

I use 10s, the springs are set up hooks 2 & 4 to holes 1 & 6. The trem floats a little higher than I usually aim for but I'm loathe to tighten the claw screws in a bit for fear of fucking this setup up.

Three, all parallel.

I know not why, but it's got three of them on 10-46s, as purchased. More odd yet, six years on after buying it nearly blind at Ishibashi Shibuya (strummed chords for 60 seconds), it's the only guitar I've never had to make adjustments to, ever. I lucked out and I wish I knew why it had just three, but am simply glad that whatever bod at Fender Japan strung it up and gave it the bridge saddle/trem treatment apparently knew just what I needed.

My last Strat with a trem had 3. My current is a hard tail. Never cared for Strat trems.

3 if I want to use the trem, 5 if I don't.

The trem on my AV '57 is the best one I've ever used. Sets up easy and stays there, stays in tune, is nice to strings. On most other Strats I've set up its taken a bit more work for some reason, and I'm currently hard tailing my project Strat for this reason. I love to use Strat trems though.

I used two once when set to floating with 9 gauge strings, but mostly 3 in an arrow head.

I dont want to start Spring Sniffing trend but I found the quality varies considerably and that can dictate how many springs you use, amongst other things.

5 for hardtail for alt tuning

This Carl Verhoosen whatever guy claims that the claw needs to be slanted for proper string tension- makes zero sense to me.
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3, straight. With 10-46 strings.

Regardless of how many you use or in what arrangement, I always understood the crucial thing was to make sure that the springs are loaded when the guitar's sitting idle, as it were. IE that when not in use, there are gaps between the coils of the spring caused by it being ever so slightly extended by the tension.

2 with 9s

My strat has 3, can't remember if they're arrowed or straight. I do have the trem locked down though, so the claw is screwed right in for maximum tension.

Three, straight, with .011s and set to float. Quite functional with fairly stable tuning.
Technically not a Strat, I suppose, as it's a 2-post G&L Legacy, but should be basically the same.

I haz a hardtail so zero