the Mad Stratter

Anatomy of the Stratocaster Bridge & Tremolo

There are two distinct divisions of Stratocaster bridges: Hard-tail and soft-tail.

Concerning the hard-tail style, there are two different ways of achieving a hard-tail bridge. The first way is rarely seen on Stratocasters, with the only instance of it I know of is the Robert Cray Signature Strat, in which there is no tremolo unit at all. In this case, the bridge setup more closely resembles a Telecaster than a typical Strat, with no tremolo routing, and therefore no trem block, or trem cover. The only thing on the back of these Strats are 6 small holes for your string bullets.

More common is the Clapton-style hard tail bridge, which can be applied to any standard soft-tail Strat. Clapton’s Stratocasters have a standard tremolo unit installed, which is blocked off so that it doesn’t pivot or move at all. This style keeps the tremolo from functioning if you prefer not to use the whammy bar, while preserving the je ne sais quoi that the tremolo assembly adds to the Strat’s tone.

As for soft tail bridges, there are also two distinct types: locking and non-locking. Non-locking bridges are the standard for Stratocasters, although some are equipped with the Floyd Rose locking bridge. Locking bridges feature fine tuners on the bridge saddles, and commonly feature a locking nut at the headstock.

In order to check out the guts of your Stratocaster bridge assembly, you’ll need to remove the rear tremolo cover (that plastic plate which you feed your strings through when restringing your axe). Removing it is as simple as removing the six screws around the perimeter, although you will want to be careful when replacing it (if you replace it at all that is). Do not over tighten these screws when putting the cover back on, as you’ll chip the finish like the previous owner of my Mexican Strat did.

The whammy bar is what allows you to actually utilize the tremolo on your guitar. By screwing it into the hole on the bottom side of your bridge (top if it’s lefty-style), it provides the leverage needed to change the string tension, and therefore, pitch. Pressing the whammy bar toward the strings lowers the pitch, while pulling it away from the string raises the pitch.

Concerning Squier guitars, the bridge uses a different sized whammy bar, which is slightly larger than that for the Vintage style bridges found on Mexican and American Stratocasters. Therefore, your whammy bars will not be interchangeable, and I’d recommend moving up to a Vintage style bridge when doing your hot rodding on a Squier.

The ’saddles’ on your bridge set the string length and height. More on adjusting these later. Underneath the saddles are screws which connect the bridge to the tremolo block, the grey hunk of metal on the underside which you feed your strings through, and which your tremolo springs attach to.

Your bridge may be either a ‘2-point’ bridge or a ‘6-point’ bridge, the distinction being the number of screws which attach it to the body just in front of the saddles. While 6-point bridges have a screw under each string, the 2-point bridge has only one under each E string.

This whammy function of the tremolo is made possible by the springs in the rear tremolo cavity, balancing the tension supplied by the strings on the top side of the assembly.Most Stratocaster comes with 3 springs by default. These 3 springs can be arranged in either a trapeze pattern, or straight line pattern. I’ve found no functional differences between the two myself, though friends claim that the trapeze pattern provides more stability.

Using only 3 springs will free up your tremolo a bit, requiring less force to bend notes with the whammy bar. However, 3-sprint arrangements allow the bridge to move more freely when doing a traditional string bend, so that all non-bent notes will be slightly detuned by the action of the bend.

By using 5 springs, I reduce the detuning of my non-bent strings when I bend a note, with the trade off being a little more force required on the whammy bar.

When moving up to heavier strings (i.e. to achieve that SRV tone), you increase the tension on the top side of the tremolo setup. In order to balance this, you may need to either add more springs to the tremolo, or tighten the trem-claw screws.

The trem claw is the metal plate in the rear tremolo cavity which is attached to the top of the cavity by two screws, and holds all of the springs in your tremolo setup. Tightening these two top screws so that the claw is closer to the top of the body will place more tension on the bottom-side of your tremolo setup if you don’t want to add more springs (or are already using all 5).

The distribution of tension on tremolo setup determines if your bridge will ‘float’ or lay flush against the body. A floating bridge will give you the ability to bend notes up with the whammy bar, while keeping the bridge flush against the body will give you a greater downward range by sacrificing the ability to bend up.

Once again, sorry for the lack of pictures, but I can’t find the damned camera! I’ll get some up as soon as I can.

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