Home Remedies / Brass Tacks

There are always some final touches and tweaking to be done to a guitar when it comes home.  This one was no exception:

I've been using Dunlop strap locks for a decade plus.  The locking mechanism is solid and the look of the strap peg replacement on the guitar isn't intrusive (oh hey there, DiMarzio).  I just have one problem with them, though: the Dunlop set's provided screws are almost always shorter/smaller than whatever screws are installed in the guitar.  In the olden days I used to take a new guitar's original screws to an Ace Hardware store (southeast corner of Broadway and Rural, Tempe, Arizona) and ask a clerk there to grind the outside of the screw heads so that they would fit the Dunlop pegs.  Now I can perform the job at home with a Dremel tool:

"Nick, doesn't that ruin the structural/mechanical integrity of the screw?"  I'm glad you asked.  With 10+ years' experience, the answer is No.

The chrome screw is the one provided in every set of Dunlop strap locks.  I never use them.

Strap locks installed, and the new Couch Racer X strap is a happy camper.

Alright, so, there was an issue dating back to November that I haven't talked about yet.  When the guitar body came in (the same day I came home from the hospital from kidney stone problems) I went crazy-go-nuts and installed the Floyd Rose bridge right away so that I could put strings on the guitar and feel the string response.  This meant installing the claw plate with the two internal screws—the holes were drilled for them, after all.  Well, this caused issues for Michael Adams later on when he was working on my guitar, and I did receive a mild scolding from him about attempting to perform tasks that should be left for a tech to do.  (How could I know about this one?  Pre-drilled holes!)  Because I jacked the screw so far into the body, the only way he could back it out was to shave the Phillips head down to a flat head.  Part of the paint job got wrecked in the process, but at least it can be covered up by the rear trem cover.  Not his fault, and I'm not worried about it.

It isn't pretty, but it works, but it needs a swap.

I need the claw plate screws in good working order for tuning adjustments, so I knew that I wanted/needed a new one to replace the one that got ruined.  That meant ordering a new claw plate altogether.  Don't worry; it was only seven bucks.  But I got to revisit the issue of whether or not I would care to install a brass block on the Floyd Rose.

...Aaaaand I went for it.  In my Color Me Green! post I talked about my concern over adding a 37 mm height brass block; either the height, or width, or both, might be too much for the existing bridge cavity.  With the initial set of strings on the guitar, I pushed the whammy bar all the way until it touched the pickguard.  No issues there.  I judged that I should be able to install the brass block I wanted without any issues.

When I ordered the first brass block from floydrose.com, I decided also to order new coated (black) "noiseless" springs since I was intrigued by them.  They're supposed to cut down on the amount of vibration in the bridge/spring cavity.  I've given them some play and they don't feel any different from regular springs, but they do work.  They come three to a set, but I use four springs, so I ordered two sets.  This means that I have two noiseless springs left; I would only need to order one more set and I could replace the four springs in my Jackson Soloist.

The very last of the hardware pieces for the entire project!

Coated noiseless springs and the correct 37mm size brass tone block.

I forgot to take photos of the bridge in its dismantled state, but it was an easy enough fix by itself.  I kept the same claw plate since it was already connected to the ground wire but wound up replacing not one, but both Phillips screws.  The annoying part of it is that I had to spend time resetting the intonation, which, on a Floyd Rose bridge, isn't the simplest thing in guitardom to do.

Cleaned up and ready to get down to business.

The increased width of the brass block doesn't interfere with the interior of the cavity, i.e. it's not hitting the inside wall.

Here, the trem arm is pulled all the way down to the pickguard on the other side.  No problem.

So, what happened?

I put a fresh pack of Ernie Ball Cobalt Power Slinkys on the guitar, which I had wanted to do but refrained up until this point because they're pricey.  I tuned up the guitar, left it with the trem blocked overnight so the strings would stretch out, then set the intonation the next day.  The contraptions released, I played an open E chord and a couple of other notes whilst unplugged and it went something like this:

Typical Stratocaster: *ring*....  *plink plink*

Big Riff sans brass block: *RIIIIIIIING!*...  *BINK BINK!*

Big Riff with brass block: *KEEEERRRRRAAAAAAAAANGG!!!!!*  *KOHW!!!  KOHW!!!*

SERIOUSLY.  I don't know what the deal is, but it's like there's a full 33 percent increase in sustain and resonance!  The notes have an extra... metallic feel to them, but that metallic feel is warm and clear.  It's a perfect complement to the brightness and punch of the maple body.  Plugged in, the sound is clearer on distortion and extra chimey on open chords on a clean channel.  At the time of this writing, the guitar is in Drop D tuning.  It's simply a joy to slow down, hit that low D, and listen to it ring out, whether with high gain, or with low gain and a delay pedal, or even unplugged.  (And that's without turning the Sustainiac on, too.)

On a functional level, the guitar is finished.

But I'm not done with this blog just yet.

Until then, check out this tune from Tooth & Nail alumni Stavesacre.  Tonight I plugged in and jammed along to this, and Big Riff responded beautifully, especially during the long whole notes in the bridge.

Keep Waiting, I'll be right on time...