Trem blocking, What good? Customer question.

[Deneb]

I've blocked quite a few trems in my day, using basically the instructions in the pinned up post.

A customer asked me something today that puzzled me, because I didn't have an answer.

What good is blocking the trem? My ONLY answer is, to prevent movement of the trem in the terms of raising pitch, or with another block, preventing all movement altogether.

His NEXT question was,

Will it affect my Floyd set up...To which I could only answer,

If it's set up correctly, the bridge STILL pulls up, so as your guitar is tuned to pitch, it goes back to parallel to the body position (as I set them up, yours may be different), and in my experience, when done properlly, the strings are in tune, and stretched, the same was as before.

Anything you trem blockers would add? I think I covered all my bases, BUT I am wrong sometimes, and figured you guys would know.

[xenophobe]

Re: Trem blocking, What good? Customer question.

Umm.... it provides tuning stability when breaking a string... only really important live. But it only takes maybe 10 seconds to grab another guitar and have it ready to go...

That and it provides stability when bending strings.

I've never blocked a trem, and I never will.

[Riffmeister]

Re: Trem blocking, What good? Customer question.


One other small note is, becasue the block will not allow the trem to be pulled up at all, you can adjust the springs tighter so that it will always be pulled back to zero 100 Percent of the time, if set up right to begin with.

Plus some people may argue this, but it does add some sustain and gives the tone a thicker sound versus using a floating Floyd.

[Deneb]

Re: Trem blocking, What good? Customer question.

Xeno, I also mentioned what you said, when you break a string, it doesn't pull to compensate. I didn't mention stability when bending though, I wouldn't think it would if the bridge pulls up when you bend, blocking the raised movement of the bridge wouldn't do anything to the stability of bending.

See, not just blocking floyds, but I've blocked standard Fender trems fulcrum trems for people before, which didn't make sense to me. Don't use the bar if you don't want to, and since it's not recessed, and it rests on the body... you get the idea.

I was just seeing if I there was something I've missed, because I've never seen the point in it, I know the reasons I know, but for me, it's not enough to block it.

[MountainDog]

Re: Trem blocking, What good? Customer question.

Xeno is right about adding stability when bending. The theory most applies when doing "double-stop" bending, or bending of 2 strings. On a floating floyd, that activity changes everything and the strings are no longer in pitch with each other.

As mentioned above, to block a floyd to allow double-stop bending and to allow for no issues when you break a string requires you to put enough spring tension so that the floyd remains tight against the stop while bending or if a string breaks. Basically the springs have to put a good amount of tension on the floyd, so the only way it moves from the block is when you put enough force into the whammy bar.

Personally, I like the 'looser' feel of a floating trem....the spring tension to hold the floyd in place when blocked makes the guitar feel just like a hard tail to me, and doens't feel 'as loose'.

[xenophobe]

Re: Trem blocking, What good? Customer question.

Yeah, the whole point of having a trem is that it's floating, and I'm used to that feel, and like it. I never have live tuning issues, but I credit that to my DTR-1 and my meticulous desire to always be properly intonated and in tune, though the Floyd certainly makes it an easy task. Hardtails are much more finicky live, after a hard bend, can sometimes go out of tune, and you can't just do a quick adjust... you need to let off slack and then tighten the tuning peg to pitch.