Who blocks off trems?

Do you disable trems?

  • Total voters
    45
merciful-evans

merciful-evans

Portsmouth uk
Joined
Mar 6, 2018
Messages
955
Location
Portsmouth UK
How many here block off their trem systems?
Do you half block to disable one way, such as stopping upward motion?

Do you block fully? Disabling forward & back movement by using 2 blocks in the trem cavity?

What materials do you use? Hard or soft woods? Aluminium? Or a sandwich of miscellaneous shims such as old creditcards? Or do you use some purpose made commercial product?
 
I do on some Strats that have the six screw bridge. I use a screwdriver, tighten the trem claw screws, adjust the mounting screws if necessary, til the bridge is firmly flush against the body, and doesn't move, even with the most extreme bends.

I wont do it to my PRS though. :eek:
 
shimmilou said:
I do on some Strats that have the six screw bridge. I use a screwdriver, tighten the trem claw screws, adjust the mounting screws if necessary, til the bridge is firmly flush against the body, and doesn't move, even with the most extreme bends.

I wont do it to my PRS though. :eek:
Click to expand...
Pretty much this. I am tempted to get a true block for my CE though. I never use the trem.
 
merciful-evans said:
What materials do you use? Hard or soft woods? Aluminium? Or a sandwich of miscellaneous shims such as old creditcards? Or do you use some purpose made commercial product?
Click to expand...

I blocked just the downward direction on my SE CU24. I found a video on Youtube where a guy used a cork from a wine bottle; I tried that and it worked just fine. I think the Tremol-No is a good option too if you want to easily enable/disable the block in either or both directions.

 
Mostly, I prefer to keep the bar removed, and use the heel of my hand for slight vibrato. It seemed strange at first, bouncing it one way only. But, now it seems natural, and I like the effect very much. Kind of a trade off, subtle vibrato but fantastic tuning stability.
 
LSchefman said:
I voted “certainly not.”

I would’ve voted “I like cheese,” but I’m supposed to avoid cholesterol.
Click to expand...

Food for thought... there is no cholesterol without Les. But, there could be no Les with too much cholesterol. So keep that stuff on the low!

I wish more PRS models came with a stoptail option. I get that it's a pain from a manufacturing perspective, because the neck angle is different, but I want.
 
I don’t love trems, but I don’t block them even on the guitars I don’t use them on.

Just in case someone is interested, I use the trem on the Westie and CU24 but not on most of the others that happened to have a trem when I bought them.
 
I leave them floating, and unblocked. I don't use a whole lot of trem, but tuning stability isn't an issue, so they stay that way. Many moons ago I had a Fender Clapton. That was blocked from the factory with a small piece of wood, just like Clapton's are.
 
I’m not a frequent trem user, either, but I like what they add to the tone, and when I need one, there it is, ready to go.

I also like the way it makes string bending just a tiny bit easier.
 
bodia said:
I leave them floating, and unblocked. I don't use a whole lot of trem, but tuning stability isn't an issue, so they stay that way. Many moons ago I had a Fender Clapton. That was blocked from the factory with a small piece of wood, just like Clapton's are.
Click to expand...

Interesting to note, from a discussion at the Fender site forums, Clapton didn't actually "block" his guitars, he just tightened the trem claw screws, and used five springs, securing the bridge to body (decked bridge, as opposed to blocked). In an interview, Clapton stated that there was something about the sound of this ["decked"] trem that he preferred over a hard tail sound. < (to me, this is the springs ringing, sort of a reverb effect)

I saw some pretty great pics of Claptons original Blackie, when Fender had it to do the Clapton "replicas" or "recreations", which clearly show the claw tightened down and no block of any kind, as there was no cavity cover.

No one at Fender seemed to know the reason that Fender started putting the blocks of wood in the Clapton Strats, especially when Clapton didn't actually use any blocks. You would think they could have gotten that detail right. :confused:
 
shimmilou said:
Interesting to note, from a discussion at the Fender site forums, Clapton didn't actually "block" his guitars, he just tightened the trem claw screws, and used five springs, securing the bridge to body (decked bridge, as opposed to blocked). In an interview, Clapton stated that there was something about the sound of this ["decked"] trem that he preferred over a hard tail sound. < (to me, this is the springs ringing, sort of a reverb effect)

I saw some pretty great pics of Claptons original Blackie, when Fender had it to do the Clapton "replicas" or "recreations", which clearly show the claw tightened down and no block of any kind, as there was no cavity cover.

No one at Fender seemed to know the reason that Fender started putting the blocks of wood in the Clapton Strats, especially when Clapton didn't actually use any blocks. You would think they could have gotten that detail right. :confused:
Click to expand...

Hmmm, I was unaware of that! Thanks for posting that tidbit. Also interesting to note that is how JM wanted the Silver Sky. Decked for more string contact to the body, resonance, and all that.
 
The thing is; there are so many wonderful guitars with trems. I have hardtailed all of mine.

In 2015 I decided I would never buy another guitar with a trem and went looking at alternatives. I ended up buying a SE Custom 24 in spite of that vow. It just had to come home with me. Its my first and only PRS, though I expect to get another next week, and yes, that one has a trem...
 
Oh yeah, that's cool bodia. I missed that part in the description before, thanks.
 
merciful, I really like the trem on my custom, it works very well. Mine is only a 22, so yours is bigger, lol. o_O
 
shimmilou said:
Interesting to note, from a discussion at the Fender site forums, Clapton didn't actually "block" his guitars, he just tightened the trem claw screws, and used five springs, securing the bridge to body (decked bridge, as opposed to blocked). In an interview, Clapton stated that there was something about the sound of this ["decked"] trem that he preferred over a hard tail sound. < (to me, this is the springs ringing, sort of a reverb effect)

I saw some pretty great pics of Claptons original Blackie, when Fender had it to do the Clapton "replicas" or "recreations", which clearly show the claw tightened down and no block of any kind, as there was no cavity cover.

No one at Fender seemed to know the reason that Fender started putting the blocks of wood in the Clapton Strats, especially when Clapton didn't actually use any blocks. You would think they could have gotten that detail right. :confused:
Click to expand...
Interesting. I always thought the 5 spring lockdown was an Eric Johnson thing, while Clapton had the block.
 
None of my current PRSi have a Trem, but the Trem models I did have never has tuning or stability issues.
I recently did a little project to make a SS with a Graphtec Ghost Floyd Rose.
The strings stay in tune with each other, but the return to zero point isn't consistent. Always need to pull up a little after a dive, or tap it a little to get it back. There's no way the knife edges are bad, so it must be a tension issue, but I can't find it.
I've ordered one of these and hopefully it'll arrive today.
16060.jpg


It wasn't listed in the poll, so I like cheese.
 
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