Orig Trem Blocks

[Old Dog New Trix]

Looked at a couple of vintage mid sixties Strats recently both were very clean and all original examples. One thing I noticed was that the string holes on the Trem blocks were a bit deeper than some, the blocks looked right other wise, and appeared to be old, the Tremolo arms were original too.All springs, saddles other bridge harware pretty clean and right too.
Have seen alot of older Strats but never paid attention to the string holes that much until the re-issue blocks came out.
Don't remember if all the string holes on all the blocks were EXACTLY the same or did they vary a bit? From 50'S to mid 60'S ?

[Top Jimi]

Originally posted by Old Dog New Trix

Don't remember if all the string holes on all the blocks were EXACTLY the same or did they vary a bit? From 50'S to mid 60'S ?

'54 and '55 tremelo blocks have much shallower holes in their trem blocks!! I think they deepened the holes in '56. I'm not sure about how consistent their hole depth was after '56.

[1/55strat]

On my strats I always drill out the holes to deepen them almost to the top plate-
This single change makes a HUGE difference in staying in tune when using the trem.
That extra length behind the bridge saddles does nothing positive, and provides slack to take up tension changes and mess up the pitch as the string loosens & stretches with tremolo moves.

With a floating bridge, deep block holes, well-stretches strings tied onto the tuners, a strat will play as if it had a floyd.

-Pete

[Tonebender]

Do you guys think that the shallow holes that callaham puts in his blocks make the strings feel tighter?

I'm thinking of getting rid of a callaham block and putting in an Allparts steel trem block to loosen up the feel of my strat...

[Electron]

Originally posted by Tonebender
Do you guys think that the shallow holes that callaham puts in his blocks make the strings feel tighter?

Impossible.

[Old Dog New Trix]

Seems like the Callaham has less depth than the original and the repro fender has more. I looked at 60'S originals and the depth is
in between a new Vintage Fender and a Callaham .All three ARE
different. Don't know what the All parts is like ?