Highs and Tremo-lows
Lane Sparber
Five Areas You Need Focus On To Keep Your Traditional Fender Tremolo In Tune
Ahhh... the Fender Stratocaster tremolo. It’s loved. It’s hated. It’s almost ALWAYS frustrating. Without special attention and care, these monsters will always knock your guitar out of tune when used. In this blog post, I’d like to share some theory, tips, and tricks I’ve learned and developed after 30+ years at the workbench. My clients usually ask, “HOW DID YOU DO THAT!?” when their Fender Strats stay perfectly in tune after I’ve worked on them - even after intense whammy action. My intention here is to help all of you achieve similar results on your own.
In order to deal with the common issues these systems have, we will need to look at each point on the guitar that the strings touch (excluding frets and fingers, of course). There are 5 main areas to be concerned with, and I’ll discuss each in detail, starting at the headstock and moving down the guitar to the bridge itself.
TUNER OR LATER
The tuners are important, of course, but not as critical as most believe. Even so, a quality set of tuners on your guitar will help immensely. There should be as little play (or give) in the tuning machines as possible - both in the gears and the shaft itself. If you can wiggle the tuner’s shaft back and forth with no string on it, that’s a potentially huge problem. On a non-trem guitar, even cheap tuners can be made to work well, but on a Strat or similar guitar, you need something stable and solid.
As a side point, the true genius of the Strat headstock is that the strings have a DIRECT line to the tuners. They do not veer off to the sides behind the nut like Gibsons do. This greatly increases your chances of keeping the strings in tune, because the string only changes angle ONCE (going down towards the tuners) instead of twice at the same time (going down AND to the side).
A Typical Fender Stratocaster headstock. Note that the strings have a DIRECT path to the tuners, and only break over the nut at one angle: Downward toward the tuners.
A typical Gibson headstock. Note that the strings break over the nut in TWO directions at once: Down and outward towards the sides.
How you install the strings is also important. On a Strat with a tremolo, I try to get away with as FEW turns of string on the tuner’s shaft as I can get away with. The reason for this is that the turns of string on the post can actually bind against each other and prevent a true return to pitch. I tend to favor nice, symmetrical winds going top to bottom: 2-3 turns for wound strings, 3-5 turns for plain strings. Also, the more windings you install, the steeper the “break angle” at the nut. The break angle refers to how sharply the string bends downward toward the tuner from the nut. The sharper the angle, the more likely it is for the string to bind up and not return to pitch. You want a nice, shallow angle here with just enough downward force to keep the string securely in it’s nut slot. For this reason, I’ll sometimes wind the low “E” string (and sometimes even the “A” string) UPWARDS on the tuner’s post. This helps to create a shallow tremolo-friendly angle to the tuner on those strings.
A detail of a Fender Stratocaster headstock from the side. Note that the “E” and “A” strings are wound UPWARDS towards the top of the tuner. This lessens their downward angle to match the rest of the strings and facilitate better return to pitch after using the tremolo.
Before moving on, I’d like to offer a quick word of advice on locking tuners. These DO help. A LOT. However, they need to be used correctly, and I have rarely seen the strings installed the right way on them. The whole point of these tuners is to eliminate ALL of the string windings around the tuning post. Here’s how you correctly install the strings on these tuners:
Align the hole in the tuner’s shaft with the string’s nut slot so it’s in a straight line.
Thread the string through the hole.
Pull the string as tightly as you can.
Lock the tuner.
Tune to pitch.
Trim excess string at the tuner.
Once you do this, the string should be fully at pitch with only a half turn or so around the shaft. When I see a locking tuner with multiple winds of string around it, I always give the guitar’s owner a quick lesson on how to do this correctly, or they’re defeating the entire purpose of their locking tuners.
Align the tuner’s hole with the nut so that the string is as straight as possible. Pull it as tightly as you can the more tension the better. Then lock the tuner.
You should be at pitch in a half turn or so. Now trim the string and you’re done!
AW, NUTS!!!
Now we move on to the nut itself. This is where 90% or better of the tuning problems occur. The nut’s job is complex, and it has to be set up correctly for you to stay in tune when using the tremolo.
The first thing to consider is the material used to make the nut itself. Bone is excellent for most applications, but I tend not to favor it for tremolo work. Being organic, a bone nut has inconsistencies and anomalies in its density. There are softer and harder patches within the material, because that’s how bone grows. This unevenness can be extremely frustrating when you’re trying to get all of the strings to behave the same way during tremolo usage and setup. Thus, I always try to use synthetic materials when fabricating a nut for a tremolo equipped guitar. Not only do these synthetic materials have a uniform density across them, they’re usually much more slippery than bone to boot! I love and use Tusq, Graph-Tech and Micarta as materials here.
Next let’s move on to the nut slots themselves. On a tremolo equipped guitar, you do NOT want the nut gripping the string. At all. I always make sure the slots are a few thousands of an inch WIDER than the string itself. In addition, the bottom of the slot should not be perfectly round. If it’s flattened a little bit, it helps to ensure the string doesn’t stick during use. If you hear little “pings” when you tune your guitar, it means the slots are too narrow to begin with. A slightly wide slot with a flattened bottom minimizes the friction point, and that’s exactly what we want.
Another thing to pay attention to is the fact that on the wound strings, the windings themselves can “imprint” into the nut slots - especially in softer nut materials. These tiny micro-grooves are a problem, because they WILL catch on the strings when the tremolo is used. I always inspect the empty slots with my magnifying glasses. If I see any grooves, they get smoothed out GENTLY with my nut files or some “Mitchell’s Abrasive Cord (available at www.stewmac.com).”
It’s also a great idea to help things along at the nut with some lubricant (yes...I know how that sounds!!!🤣🤣🤣). I’ve seen all sorts of stuff used here, from pencil lead (graphite) to petroleum jelly (Vaseline). Whatever works for you, go with it. Keep in mind that the more dense or viscous the lubricant is, the more it will deaden and hamper your tone - that guitar with Vaseline at the nut sounded completely lifeless. My own favorite is a product called “Super Glide,” from the makers of the EXCELLENT “Super Vee” replacement tremolo systems. Look it up. It doesn’t kill tone, and it WORKS. Whichever lube you use, apply it CAREFULLY, as you don’t want any of it getting on the wood and/or the finish itself.
SADDLE UP!
Now we get to the saddles. Most of the same ideas from the section on the guitar’s nut also apply here. We want a nice, shallow, slightly wide groove in the saddle to better accommodate the string’s travel as the string slackens and returns to pitch. Also, as with the nut, the material is important. Cheaper saddles are almost always made of “pot metal,” which is way too soft for this application to begin with. The strings will start destroying them almost instantly. There are all sorts of options here, from Graph Tech offerings made out of their own proprietary material to saddles with built-in rollers for the strings. They all have pros and cons and all affect your tone a bit differently, so experimentation is key. Again, the over-arching concern here is to eliminate as much friction as we can at all contact points, so some time must be spent shaping and setting up the saddle slots.
BRIDGE PLATE SPECIAL
Here’s an area most techs overlook: the bridge plate under the saddles. The string makes contact here first, and any burrs or unevenness in this area can of course cause problems. I always inspect these holes and polish them to a mirror like shine when warranted.
The effect of the bridge plate can be minimized by “slotting” the holes in more extreme cases. This involves cutting a little notch into the bridge plate where the string makes contact. This dramatically lessens the break angle of the string and can really help keep things in tune.
Pi-VOT! Pi-VOT! Pi-VOT!
Finally, a few words need to be said about the actual pivot points on the bridge itself. Fender has primarily used two different designs when it comes to the way the fulcrum points were implemented: the classic six screw design and the later-style, two-post mounting method. Not surprisingly, the initial design is a lot more challenging to dial in, which was why it was changed later to the simpler setup.
A 1979 Fender Stratocaster bridge. Note the six fulcrum point screws above each saddle.
A modern two-point Stratocaster bridge. The two semi-circular areas of the bridge plate that contact the posts are ground to a thin “knife-edge” that makes minimal contact with the posts. This facilitates easy return to the “zero-point” after the tremolo is used. As this knife edge dulls over time, the tremolo will have a harder and harder time returning to true zero.
In Fender’s initial and most often used design, the six screws that mount the bridge to the body are the fulcrums, and each of their corresponding slots in the bridge plate have an (ideally VERY sharp) edge that rocks against them. With six different points to deal with, it can be very tricky to adjust them so that the bridge returns accurately to its “zero” point after each use of the tremolo. As these edges dull and wear out over time, the bridge gets less and less likely to stay in tune, as that zero point doesn’t really exist anymore. I always remove the bridge and inspect the slots to make sure they are in good enough condition to whammy with. If not, I usually advise installing a new bridge plate (if possible) or a new bridge entirely if the tremolo is to be used often or heavily. It’s a good idea to sparingly apply the lube of your choice here as well. In terms of adjustment, first I loosen all six screws to about 3/8” above the bridge plate. Then I press the tremolo bar all the way down and tighten each screw until I feel it contact the bridge itself; then I back out about 1/2 a turn. This ensures the bridge sits level during use and all six screws are utilized equally. Conversely, this is much less of a worry if you want the bridge to lie flat against the body instead of float. Then that becomes your zero point, and things are much more stable.
The same concepts apply to the two-point bridge. Just make sure the edges of the notches in the bridge are sharp, and that the corresponding grooves in the posts themselves are even and not pitted.
THE WIND-DOWN
Whew. This was a LOT of info to throw at you, and the chances are good that if your tremolo won’t stay in tune, it’s only one or two of the issues I’ve outlined above and not EVERYTHING. Most of the time it’s only one or two strings that won’t play nice and will go out of tune anyway (low “E” and “G” strings...I’m looking right at you, here), so those will be the only ones you’ll need to concentrate on. Nothing is perfect and no method is foolproof, but hopefully I’ve now given you a much deeper understanding of how these systems work and what happens “under the hood” when you use your whammy bar. I sincerely hope it helps you in your quest to make your guitar be all it can be!
Lane Sparber is an amp / guitar / bass / pedal tech who lives and works in Fresh Meadows, Queens, New York. He started repairing gear in his mid-teens, and he’s 46 now, so you do the math. When not causing mayhem in his workshop, he can be found desperately trying to hide his latest orchid purchases from the rest of his family. You can find him on Instagram at @amptech74 or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lane.sparber. Come say “Hello!”
