New Strat hardware questions

[erogenousjones17]

Alright, so I've  got a Strat body and neck - sadly not Warmoths - and I'm shopping for hardware. This forum being the wealth of knowledge that it is, I'm turning to you, its members, for advice. Here goes.

For a bridge, I'm leaning towards the 6-hole vintage trem (http://www.warmoth.com/6-Hole-Vintage-C696.aspx). Is this a decent bridge? I'm not a shredder by any stretch of the imagination, so no divebombs or anything. I'm more concerned with tuning stability and sustain, which, as I know from years of playing a guitar with a cheapo trem, can suffer with a crummy bridge. Which leads me to my next question...

Tremsetter? I've never owned one, so I was wondering what the general opinion on them was. Good? Bad? Useful, or pointless? I'm not afraid of installing it, I mostly want to know if it's worth the money.

Finally, tuning machines. I've been looking at these (http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tuners/Guitar,_solid_peghead_tuners/1/Gotoh_Locking_Vintage_Oval_Knob_Tuners.html) and wondering if locking tuners are really worth the extra expense. Would they by themselves help with tuning stability?

What I've got is a surf green Strat body, an all-maple Mighty Mite neck (the dream is to upgrade to a nice flame maple W neck in the future), and a tortoise shell pickguard. I haven't really thought about pickups yet, but I know I'm going for a more surfy, vintagey sound.

All comments are more than welcome!

 

[Rouse]

For the bridge, make sure your body is routed for the 6 hole trem, if its American Standard or similar, it won't fit, you will have to get a 2-hole trem, warmoth sells those for $90.

As for the tremsetter, I have no idea.

Locking tuners do help with staying in tune, so if you can afford it, buy them, but i dont know much about the gotohs but the Schallers that warmoth sells are good plus they cost less (by like $5).

For your pickups, look into Lollar, they are some of the best Strat pickups in my opinion. If your into surf and such, the Blondes should be a good match.

Here's a sound clip of the Lollar Blondes, listen to the 1st 2mins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTCxa6fCNDo

 

[erogenousjones17]

The guitar in that clip sounds amazing! Lollars might be a little out of my budget for now, but oh, how we can dream...  :laughing7:

This might be a really stupid question, but how exactly can I check which bridge my body is routed for? Is there somewhere I can find diagrams with measurements?

 

[Rouse]

The guitar in that clip sounds amazing! Lollars might be a little out of my budget for now, but oh, how we can dream...  :laughing7:

This might be a really stupid question, but how exactly can I check which bridge my body is routed for? Is there somewhere I can find diagrams with measurements?

do you see my body on the left? See how it has 2 holes above the hole where the trem would be? That means its 2 hole, if it has 6 holes, its 6 hole trem, pretty self-explanatory.

 

[erogenousjones17]

Yes that is pretty simple. Except my body has no holes. Other than the rout for the trem itself of course. I guess it's universal then, eh?

 

[Rick]

(http://www.warmoth.com/6-Hole-Vintage-C696.aspx).  Is this a decent bridge? Yes.

Tremsetter? I've never used one, though I have used a tremol-no.  But that's a totally different thing.

Finally, tuning machines.  If you want locking tuners I'd recommend either sperzels or planet waves.  I like the planet waves because changing strings is a snap and I've never had tuning issues.

Surfy sound?  Can't help you there, I've always gone for a more blusey / rocky sound with texas specials.  But Bill Lawrence PUPs have a nice clear generic sound, so they might be good for a get along with everyone sound.

 

[erogenousjones17]

:icon_thumright: Ordered the bridge (and a neck plate) last night. Things are finally moving along!

"Surfy" probably isn't a very helpful way to describe what I'm looking for in terms of tone (but think Dick Dale or The Ventures and you're in the right ballpark). I guess I'm looking for something a little cleaner, with a little more twang and shimmer (but not too quacky or bright), but that still has a nice overdriven sound. I've already got my Jackson (SD Custom in the bridge) for high-gain stuff, and my LPS (dual Phat Cats) for my rock n' roll and punk sounds, so I want this Strat to be a little mellower.

EDIT: Right, tuning machines. So, the consensus seems to be NOT the gotohs. Any particular reason? I've long been a gotoh sympathizer...  :icon_biggrin:

 

[blue313]

Nah, Gotoh makes decent tuners actually.  I haven't tried their lockers but I've never had a problem with the original safety posts. Just give the strings a good stretch after restringing.

 

[tfarny]

Who's saying bad things about gotohs? I've currently got sets of planet waves, schaller, sperzel, and a couple gotohs and the gotohs are the best. Those tuners that you linked to are great, they're my favorite tuners ever. I had a thread recently about them too - not sure where it is.

 

[tfarny]

Oh, and I think that for trem bridges, consensus opinion is callaham makes the best. I have one of his hardtail bridges and it's very high quality.

 

[erogenousjones17]

Now that you mention it tfarny, I remember that thread. I think I even posted in that thread. Wow. Slow brain day I guess.

But I digress...

 

[Rick]

Yeah, no one's saying anything bad ... I think people are just expressing personal preference.

 

[erogenousjones17]

I didn't mean to imply that anyone was saying anything explicitly negative, just that people's personal preferences seemed to shy away from the gotohs. Confounded limitations of written language, with its lack of intonation, inflection, and inference. My bad.