FenderVintage-Style Standard Series Stratocaster Tremolo Assemblies

I have a 1995-96 MIM Stratocaster with a maple neck. This guitar has had an odd resonance in it since I bought it. I took the bridge apart and found it was really thin and lightweight underneath. Also the metal mass block was not tightly attached to the top metal plate.The metal mass block on my MIM was literally half or less the size of the one on this Fender vintage replacement bridge.This bridge installed easily, fit perfect and matched the original tremolo arm.This bridge really improved the tone of this guitar dramatically. Notes sustain better, they're more even from top to bottom, chords sound fuller and sustain better and the funky resonant tone this guitar had before is now gone.I also replaced the springs with noiseless springs from MusicLily here on Amazon. The springs are quieter now, no ring at all in the tone.This is a great upgrade if you're flying a MIM Stratocaster. I can't speak for all years or models but it worked a miracle for me and $30 was nothing in the grand scheme of things. Thanks to Fender for making this affordable. Thanks to Amazon for making it available.I've reworked three Stratocasters, a MIA, a MIJ and a MIM using parts from Amazon. Loving my Seymour Duncan pickups.Good music to all!

Guitarists looking for a lot of Strat-style guitar for not too much money have lots of choices today. Computer guided machinery enable companies to churn out at low cost enormous numbers guitars with consistent quality that'd be hard to have found on instruments several times the price even a few years ago. But in their quest to keep prices down corners are sometimes cut on hardware, and on a Strat-type guitar that often includes the use of a light-weight trem unit with cast pot-metal saddles. -- both things that can hurt the guitars tone and its ability to hold tuning.Fender's Mexican-made guitars are often a step up and their parts often interchange with those on less expensive Asian-made instruments (such as Fender's own Squier line).This vintage type trem is a perfect example. It is a drop in for the inferior units on the less expensive Squiers and ups their game significantly.I installed on one a low end, but amazingly fine playing, Affinity model, and could not be more pleased."Drop in" meant just that. Remove the strings, unscrew the old trem unit, screw in the new one. Yes, and do a full set-up for spring tension, saddle height and intonation.The Affinity has a shallower body than Fender and even other Squier models have. That means that the rear cover can not just be screwed back on as it will contact the trem's block and springs.Some owners just leave the cover off -- a common thing among pro players who sometimes need to make quick string replacements mid-set. Others find a way to deepen the cover to allow the trem to have unhindered movement. That is what I did -- using some adhesive backed plastic material meant for use on a bathtub surround (see attached pic). But either way that, and some upgraded Alnico 3 staggered pickups, turned a bargain-basement guitar in a first class player and looker.Highly recommended!

I have a very inexpensive S type guitar I purchased as a project. When I disassembled it to repaint it, I noticed the trem block was very thin and unimpressive. I put in new electronics, did all the fretwork, and painted the body and it worked fairly well but with average sustain, and I was not surprised. The cheap trem (nobody should have a trem where you fear being cut by how thin the baseplate looks) had the wrong size saddles, and it was cheaper to buy this trem and get the saddles too.Upon receiving this I was amazed at how beefy it is, and by the quality of the part (and all the smaller parts that make it).I measured the recipient body before I ordered this and compared against Fender's published specs, and it looked like it would drop right in. When I got it, the holes lined up perfectly, but corners were (un)cut on my project guitar and I had to route a small bit of wood (about 4mm x 20mm of cap) because the guitar body would not fit a full sized bridge plate on the term arm side. After removing that small bit of wood this trem dropped in perfectly (as it did when I tested it in a Squier Strat body that is my other project).After buttoning the guitar back up, I was not surprised to find better sustain characteristics. As an experiment, I checked this guitar's sustain against a sample recorded with the old bridge and it was a clear upgrade.This bridge is also better than the one that came with my Squier project Strat (and it fits without modification), so I'll be getting another one.All in all, I've never been a "genuine Fender" kind of person, but I am impressed and delighted by the quality of the genuine Fender parts I've purchased to date, and it's why I will continue to buy these parts for all my project guitars that fit the "S" or "T" body shapes.