Hanger bolts in lieu of a wood screws for trem claw?

[Neo Fender]

I’ve never seen this done and I’m sure I’m not the first to think of it but some time ago, I came up with the stellar idea of using a pair of hanger bolts and nuts (or better yet, elastic or nylon stop nuts)  to hold a trem claw in place:

It could be a solution for a problem that doesn’t really exist, since for most situations, you set the trem and forget it but at least this would eliminate wear or stripping out the holes in the body.

Then, I wondered if you pull UP on the trem enough, would this decrease the spring tension enough to allow the claw to wobble around on the screws and cause tuning issues (again, maybe another imagined problem).  So then, I thought about using a pair of nuts on the back side of the claw, along with a pair on the usual (front) side and use all four nuts to lock the claw in place.

However in spite of all this mental exercise, Schaller offers the most elegant solution: 

But I’ve read where at least one person installed a Sure Claw and one of the mounting screws protruded into the guitar’s pickup cavity.

Anyway, just thinking aloud.

 

[stratamania]

There's a thread somewhere in the Forum and I think JumbleJumble tried one. If it's an HH guitar it wouldn't be a problem.

I also heard of putting a nut and bolt solution through the body under the middle pickup to get around the screws going into the middle pickup cavity.

 

[line6man]

Personally, I'm going to stick with the "if it ain't broke" philosophy, because I see nothing wrong with the traditional method of mounting trem claws. It has worked just find for many decades, and most of the products that I see, along the lines of that Schaller thing, are simply solutions in search of a problem. It's a sales tactic rather than a practical product. YMMV, I suppose.

In any case, if you want to get fancy with something like that, there should be no worry about the claw going slack when pulling up the trem. There is still plenty of tension in the springs to keep the claw in place. Even if that should prove to be an issue, you could put some compression springs over the hangar bolts, to push the claw away from the spring cavity.

 

[TBurst Std]

I’ve never seen this done and I’m sure I’m not the first to think of it but some time ago, I came up with the stellar idea of using a pair of hanger bolts and nuts (or better yet, elastic or nylon stop nuts)  to hold a trem claw in place:

It could be a solution for a problem that doesn’t really exist, since for most situations, you set the trem and forget it but at least this would eliminate wear or stripping out the holes in the body.

Then, I wondered if you pull UP on the trem enough, would this decrease the spring tension enough to allow the claw to wobble around on the screws and cause tuning issues (again, maybe another imagined problem).  So then, I thought about using a pair of nuts on the back side of the claw, along with a pair on the usual (front) side and use all four nuts to lock the claw in place.

However in spite of all this mental exercise, Schaller offers the most elegant solution: 

But I’ve read where at least one person installed a Sure Claw and one of the mounting screws protruded into the guitar’s pickup cavity.

Anyway, just thinking aloud.

The part at pulling up on the trem to bring the springs to total rest - this is where you lose a spring so you can have a greater original tension.