Showcase Strat Bodies - Vintage Strat Flat Mount Hardtail Bridge Vs. Narrow?

[Scab Pickens]

Just wondering here, as I have been contemplating building a hardtail Strat for a long time now. From what I can gather, the "vintage" and "narrow" hardtail Strat bridge mounts are the same, other than the string holes being drilled a larger diameter on the "narrow". Why, then, does every Showcase Strat body have the "vintage" holes rather than the "narrow" holes which would allow for either spacing to be utilized? It wouldn't really be a problem for me to drill the holes bigger if I wanted to go "narrow", I guess. I'm just curious why they wouldn't all be drilled larger to make either spacing able to be used. I would think that the majority of players would prefer the more modern, narrower spacing. I'm not sure, myself. I might actually like the wider spacing. So, why go with the smaller holes for the Showcase bodies?

 

[Scab Pickens]

Also, as an unrelated side note ... Warmoth seems to claim that the mounting holes are the same on the "narrow" as the "American standard". Not true.

The "American standard" also seems to claim it works with the Hipshot hardtail bridge ... also not true. Warmoth, you might want to check your specs and modify a few things on the website to prevent customer confusion.

 

[Scab Pickens]

The only other thing I just thought about is whether the ferrule spacing on the back of the body is actually different depending on "vintage" vs. "narrow". If not, it really makes no sense to drill the smaller string-through holes. If the ferrule spacing is actually different depending on the string spacing, I guess it wouldn't be so easy to just enlarge the holes on the "vintage" spacing mount. Hmmm ...

 

[stratamania]

Showcase bodies, have the "vintage" holes as they can be adapted/fudged to "narrow" if really needed it cannot be adapted the other way round. Folks who really want "vintage" spec would not want wider holes and I would suppose Warmoth put in the showcase the options usually most likely to sell.


On the Narrow Spaced Strat flatmount - the below has what I think is a copy and paste error that was not edited when the new website went up.
@aarontunes I think the below wording in red with the strike-through needs deleting on the website.

• The mounting holes are identical to the Vintage-Style Strat®/American Standard Strat® flat mount bridge, but the string through holes are drilled larger.

American Standard and Hipshot routs.
If you compare them the routs are the same so that part is true
.
However, the American Standard Flatmount American Standard Flatmount, above the green Shop link, has a typo referencing Hipshot bridges when it is actually the American Standard bridge.

 

[Scab Pickens]

Showcase bodies, have the "vintage" holes as they can be adapted/fudged to "narrow" if really needed it cannot be adapted the other way round. Folks who really want "vintage" spec would not want wider holes and I would suppose Warmoth put in the showcase the options usually most likely to sell.

Makes sense. I have decided that I was way overthinking this. If the hole spacing is the same and the hole diameter is the only thing that has changed, of course the ferrule spacing would need to be the same. I will just enlarge the holes, if necessary. Thanks for the input.