well hello friends and welcome to ask

1:26

Zack hope you're doing well today today

1:28

we're going to talk about at tremolos

1:31

and we're going to drill down on what I

1:34

think are really the only two options

1:36

most guys will give you three options on

1:38

a strat tremolo they say you know you

1:40

float it deck it or uh or block it I

1:45

really think there's only two options

1:47

basically whether you uh you float it

1:51

and then I'm going to give you some uh

1:54

some little pointers on uh you know

1:57

helping you stay in tune when you're

1:58

floating

2:00

and to me the only other real option is

2:03

to completely deck it and not use the

2:05

tremolo arm which I don't think you

2:07

really need toh go all in and have a

2:10

block of wood stuck in there but I'm

2:13

going to talk about why on those and

2:16

again I'm going to give you some

2:17

pointers we're also going to return

2:20

we're going to have the triumphant

2:22

return of the booknook segment which you

2:24

haven't done in a while so we're going

2:25

to talk about Adam Levy's uh string

2:28

theories book of course it was also with

2:31

Ethan Sherman helped along with

2:33

that and also I'm going to talk about an

2:36

album that was uh influential to me and

2:40

that's by uh Paul Johnson and the

2:43

Packards guitar Heaven probably haven't

2:45

heard of this one this is kind of a uh

2:47

rare album but some of you if you're

2:49

into surf music you might know who Paul

2:51

J Johnson is because of uh Mr Moto and

2:55

the bell airs so that's what we're

2:57

goingon to do

2:58

today first off

3:00

I need to thank my patreon supporters

3:02

because they're what keeps the show

3:04

going if you'd like to find out more

3:07

there are links in the description all

3:09

right let's dive in as always I'm going

3:13

to give a little bit of background but

3:14

I'm going to keep it short uh my first

3:17

Strat was a Japanese made Squire that

3:20

had a locking tremolo that had fine

3:24

tuners and it had a locking mechanism

3:28

behind the nut and had a terrible time

3:31

with that and I uh I had Bob Clawson of

3:35

clawson's Music blocket where he

3:38

actually did take a uh a block of wood

3:42

and put it back here in between the body

3:45

and the spring so on this side and then

3:49

he removed the uh the locking mechanism

3:53

that was here and you couldn't just deck

3:56

it because it was not designed to do so

3:59

it had just two pivot

4:01

Points and if you tried to pull it back

4:03

it would actually pull away from the

4:05

pivot so we had to block it so I had a

4:08

bunch of uh bad experiences with

4:10

stratocasters and trying to get the

4:12

tremolo and again we're going to call it

4:13

a tremolo even though it's a vbr we're

4:16

going to stick with uh Fender's uh

4:19

misnomer there I just had a bunch of

4:22

really bad luck and it wasn't until I

4:26

started getting some good insight from

4:29

other players and reading books like

4:33

some of Dan Erin's setup books like make

4:36

this electric guitar play great some

4:38

other things that I started

4:40

learning some tricks for getting things

4:44

to stay in tune and through all of my

4:48

experimentation with strats I came to

4:50

the conclusion that for me there's

4:52

really only two options and that's

4:55

either you take the arm off put it

4:59

against the body and tighten these

5:03

Springs enough to where when you bend

5:07

strings the other doesn't go out of tune

5:10

and the way you check for that is you

5:11

just have your tuner on and you bend

5:15

other strings while it like you know you

5:17

bend like the low E string while you are

5:20

checking the high E string and that'll

5:23

tell you

5:24

uh real quick uh what's going on and

5:28

basically you just keep tighten it down

5:30

and of course the advantage of doing

5:32

that is you can still do all of your you

5:35

know all your bends where you're bending

5:38

one string against another string uh any

5:42

type of steel guitar Bend or anything

5:44

like that all those things work and

5:47

that's certainly a viable way of doing

5:49

things that's the way Eric Clapton and

5:53

uh Mark knofler and even uh Nashville's

5:57

great strp player of the 19 1980s Reggie

6:00

young used a uh decked Strat on all

6:05

sorts of hits uh for Merl Haggard like I

6:08

think I'll just stay here and drink

6:10

George Straits the fireman and the chair

6:13

and even uh Rose in Paradise for wh and

6:16

Jennings that was all Reggie playing a

6:17

57 Strat and it was decked and he was

6:21

using you know light gauge strings

6:22

probably N9 or nine and a

6:24

halfs and uh yeah and there's nothing

6:29

wrong with that however you have this

6:33

great mechanism on here and if you use

6:35

it how it was designed which was it was

6:38

designed to float if you look at any of

6:41

the drawings the patent drawings or

6:44

anything you can see that Leo wanted it

6:48

to float so if you just go with it and

6:53

decide I'm going to make this a

6:55

different instrument I'm not going to

6:56

try to make this thing be a Telecaster

6:58

or or whatever else I think it's very

7:03

freeing and it makes you play

7:04

differently so with a floating tremolo

7:08

it's going to make me play differently I

7:10

can't play all the same stuff uh which

7:13

is a good thing it's good to be inspired

7:16

by that and to be challenged by that and

7:18

so I can't do those type of bends so

7:21

then I have to like Bend one string

7:23

release it and then hit the other string

7:25

otherwise it's going to be out of tune

7:27

now there are some little fun tricks

7:29

that you can do

7:30

like one thing I like to do is uh like

7:35

this kind of steel guitar inding lick

7:38

you know

7:39

[Music]

7:42

the it just went out of tune of course

7:44

as I bent that g string up everything

7:46

went flat so but what you can do if it's

7:50

floating and you got your old tremolo

7:52

arm nearby well you can do

7:56

[Music]

7:58

this and frankly it makes it sound more

8:00

like a steel guitar so there are you

8:03

know lots of fun things you can do with

8:05

that and uh and then again just having

8:08

the challenge

8:10

of you of it being floating and it

8:13

making you play differently now let's

8:14

get into some things that really help it

8:17

stay in

8:18

tune uh first off just overall to me

8:22

floating stays in tune better because

8:25

you have the strings working against the

8:29

Springs and so they tend to find a

8:31

better equilibrium say than the strings

8:35

fighting against the body and the

8:37

Springs pulling toward the body to me it

8:40

just doesn't have a good chance of

8:42

staying in tune if you're able to get

8:44

that to work good on you I think that's

8:47

fantastic the other thing uh when you're

8:51

when you're floating the

8:52

tremolo the friction points become oh so

8:56

amazingly important so the nut really

8:59

needs to be well cut and on top of that

9:02

you might need to use some type of lube

9:05

and that could be anything from pencil

9:08

lead that you just kind of grind up you

9:11

know you can just take your pencil and

9:13

hit it against a piece of paper you know

9:15

you can just keep across the paper a

9:17

bunch and you can end up with some

9:18

pencil lead that's you know ground up

9:21

and you can put it in there uh you can

9:23

also mix that up with some Vaseline and

9:25

you can put it in there and try not to

9:27

make a big old mess cser's also

9:28

manufactur that make all sorts of

9:31

different things some under the

9:32

wonderful name like nut sauce uh yeah so

9:35

you can put that in there I would be go

9:37

sparingly on it because you you don't

9:39

want to just have like a bunch of crud

9:42

that's all over the

9:43

place uh you also sometimes you'll need

9:46

to make sure that the string retainer

9:49

here does not have any Burrs on it and

9:52

it's not catching there and sometimes

9:54

I've had to uh have the string retainer

9:57

worked on and buffed and and sometimes

9:59

I've even put some uh some type of Lube

10:02

in there

10:03

also another thing that happens another

10:07

enemy of staying in tune with a floating

10:09

tremolo is break angle and so this has a

10:13

big old neck on it so this has quite a

10:15

bit of break angle and so what Nick

10:18

drussell showed me to do is the low E

10:23

and the low a are actually strung where

10:26

the windings go up instead of down and

10:29

what this does is it changes the brake

10:31

angle here and makes it less severe and

10:33

it helps these strings to stay in tune

10:36

better now he did another modification

10:40

but I just couldn't go with it and

10:41

that's where he put a spacer underneath

10:44

here and but it made it stick up a lot

10:47

higher and of course what that did was

10:50

it changed the brake angle here and made

10:52

it less severe well the problem was it

10:56

made it look like Cloud City now if

10:58

you're not familiar familar with Star

11:00

Wars this is what cloud city looks like

11:02

and so it looked like cloud city was

11:05

here on the on the headstock of my uh

11:08

old Strat so I decided against it even

11:11

though it was probably even though it

11:13

was the better way to go but uh yeah you

11:17

just end up really needing to make sure

11:19

that these slots are well cut and

11:22

everything is

11:24

clean another to me another major factor

11:28

in keeping a floating tremolo in

11:31

tune is string gauge I have tried over

11:36

and over and over again to use light

11:38

gauge strings and they just don't work

11:40

for me if you can get it to work

11:42

fantastic and show me what you've done

11:45

but the only way I can get the strings

11:47

and Springs to be working together well

11:50

is to use a minimum of a 10 gauge so 10

11:54

through 46 now I'm just going to tell

11:57

you right now that is not not my string

11:59

gauge of choice I like the step below

12:02

that I like the 9 and2 through uh 44 by

12:05

Daario that's my favorite set the nyxl

12:08

that's on all my telecasters that's what

12:10

I use all the time however on a strat uh

12:15

and I think this is a good thing because

12:16

this is something that also helps me you

12:18

know play a little different uh on a

12:20

little bit heavier strings and but it

12:24

just really helps them work together so

12:27

by having minimum tends and then by you

12:31

know having the five Springs I think

12:33

they they tend to come back to an

12:35

equilibrium a lot better and as much as

12:38

I would like for it to work with n and a

12:40

halfs or nines so that's a another

12:44

really really really important factor

12:48

and it's okay for it to make you play

12:52

differently that's that should be a

12:54

strength I shouldn't be trying to make

12:56

this guitar be just like a telecast

12:59

which you know I have a bunch of

13:00

telecasters so let this you know 50 strp

13:04

be what it is and yeah make it make you

13:07

play differently that's a good thing and

13:10

you know what if I really you know get

13:13

into a situation where I really need to

13:14

use this in the same way that IID use a

13:16

Telly well guess what I can come right

13:19

back here I can tighten these down you

13:22

know with a Philips head screwdriver and

13:24

you know of course retune it and all of

13:27

a sudden you know I can do all those

13:30

crazy you know double string bins and it

13:32

will stay in tune so those are kind of

13:36

my uh my my pointers on this and uh yeah

13:41

I think the uh yeah used 10s and I use

13:45

the

13:46

nyxl

13:47

darios uh and then uh use these raw

13:50

vintage Springs I think they make all

13:52

the difference in the world I don't have

13:55

an endorsement with the

13:57

Exotic uh

13:59

but I think the this is an inexpensive

14:01

change that really makes a big

14:03

difference in the feel of the tremolo it

14:06

really uh it just adds uh a smoothness

14:11

when you use the tremolo that's not

14:13

there with the really high tension

14:15

Springs and so these are real low

14:17

tension Springs which is why you have to

14:19

use five of them even with a set of

14:21

tens and uh I think it uh it also if you

14:26

think of this as a Reverb chamber which

14:28

kind of

14:30

[Music]

14:31

is more Springs are nice and so instead

14:34

of using three you get to use five and

14:37

uh these just so you know these Springs

14:40

I kind of aged them some with some

14:41

etching solution so that it would match

14:43

with the rest of the guitar so it

14:44

wouldn't be you know these crazy shiny

14:47

springs on the back but uh yeah they

14:49

don't come that way so yeah so I like to

14:54

use 10 use the raw vintage Springs float

14:58

it and I don't do a severe float I mean

15:01

if you uh if you look here you can see

15:04

that it's just barely above the body and

15:07

so of course if I popped a string it

15:10

would all go out of tune but I could

15:13

kind of get it back in and frankly I

15:15

would hopefully have another guitar with

15:16

me I'd switch to that and then I would

15:18

just rering the one string that broke

15:21

and I'd get it back up and going so

15:24

there are a lot of proponents of a much

15:26

more severe float

15:29

I am not uh I mean I don't think it's

15:31

wrong but I just I like having just a

15:34

slight float because I don't want to do

15:36

you know crazy up bends but I do want to

15:38

have some up action because to me it

15:42

doesn't really feel right unless it can

15:44

go both up and down in Pitch that's

15:46

another thing about where having the

15:48

tremolo where it has a nice kind of

15:50

dreamy sound to it I think you really

15:53

have to float it and I tried to

15:56

exemplify that in the opening tune that

15:58

I did did Little tune that I wrote just

16:01

to use some tremolo bar and get a little

16:04

uh a little surfy twangy and such so

16:09

yeah look at look at your brake angle

16:12

here see if maybe it would behoove you

16:14

to uh wind up instead of down especially

16:17

on these two low strings make sure you

16:19

don't have any friction points you know

16:21

that are you have problems here at the

16:24

either the string tree or the nut and of

16:26

course you could have Burrs here make

16:28

sure this is all smooth and uh yeah you

16:31

should be on the road to

16:34

happiness uh yeah let's uh I'm going to

16:38

do a quick kind of album thing before I

16:42

go into the uh into the booknook segment

16:46

uh I want to talk about Paul Johnson and

16:47

the Packards guitar Heaven I uh in a

16:52

nutshell I grew up in a pretty

16:54

conservative uh and you know religious

16:57

family and I wasn't really allowed to

16:59

listen to a lot of uh contemporary music

17:04

and so I was kind of uh uh in a position

17:07

of only being able to listen to uh

17:09

gospel music Christian music and then my

17:13

parents would let me listen to a little

17:14

bit of instrumental music so I could

17:16

listen to The Ventures or ched Atkins

17:19

and Les Paul some other things like that

17:22

and uh somehow in there I also got to

17:24

listen to early Beatles like pr66

17:27

Beatles when it was you know I want to

17:28

hold your hand and stuff like that and

17:32

in a number of conversations I've had

17:34

with some different players that I've

17:36

interviewed they've all said something

17:38

to the same point of what you hear when

17:41

you're 13 14 years old really have a

17:44

huge impact on what you think is good

17:47

guitar tone and I have to come back over

17:51

and over again that uh those early

17:54

Beetle records and the uh the ventures

17:58

are just a huge influence on me along

18:00

with those would be this album and uh

18:04

this was uh Paul Johnson who was a

18:06

member of the B airs and had a hit with

18:09

uh Mr Moto in

18:10

1962 later on made a instrumental album

18:14

for a gospel record label called

18:17

Frontline and so one one day when I was

18:20

in the gospel you know in the Christian

18:23

Bookstore in Corpus Christie Texas I

18:25

think it was called the love note uh I

18:28

saw this album and it just blew my mind

18:30

because here what what is this it says

18:32

guitar Heaven it has a big red Strater

18:35

on the front and on the back it had this

18:37

bald Bes speckled guy with a a 60s Strat

18:41

and he had a wide panel Tweed Fender and

18:43

here these other guys with Fender

18:45

guitars and drummer with a strange hat

18:48

on and uh and a note and a liner note by

18:52

Dan Fort who was at the time an editor

18:54

at Guitar Player

18:56

magazine I uh I picked it up and this

18:59

album was hugely influential in what

19:03

instrumentals should sound like and in

19:05

what guitars should sound like and this

19:07

is all old strats or Tokai and you know

19:11

Fender amps and it's uh it's great tones

19:13

and you can find this on Spotify or

19:15

apple music and it's a it's a fun listen

19:18

so highly recommend uh checking out Paul

19:21

Johnson and the Packards guitar heaven

19:25

now for our Book Nook segment which is

19:27

back after a hiatus

19:29

string theories by Adam Levy and Ethan

19:33

Sherman so this book is based

19:36

on the uh wonderful YouTube series that

19:40

Adam has called guitar tips and what

19:43

this is is a condensed little segments

19:48

to inspire you and to get you out of

19:51

your ruts so I highly recommend that you

19:53

pick this book up because this is

19:55

wonderful for helping you in that those

19:58

are are is cuz I'm really bad about it

20:00

where I will I will be good about

20:02

learning songs and things like that when

20:04

I have a gig and then I'll get into this

20:06

lazy thing where I play the same thing

20:08

over and over again when I pick up a

20:10

guitar and so what this book has is has

20:13

a bunch of little simple exercises and

20:15

none of them are you know going to make

20:17

you put your fingers into a pretzel or

20:20

anything like that they're just going to

20:22

challenge you in a way that makes you

20:24

think and it even talks about things

20:27

like

20:28

memorizing songs instead of being

20:30

dependent on uh on charts or uh you know

20:34

or not looking at the guitar just just a

20:37

lot of little exercises or playing a uh

20:41

you know one of the early little

20:43

segments talks about playing Blues where

20:45

you only play two notes at a time and

20:48

you only change those per bar and so

20:53

those you know really limit things and

20:55

make you really think about your choices

20:57

so highly recommend this book and I'll

21:00

put a link to uh Amazon or uh you know

21:05

where where you can pick this up I

21:06

highly recommend that you pick up string

21:08

string theories all right guys well I

21:11

hope you've enjoyed today's episode

21:14

talking about Strat tremolos and uh hope

21:18

you uh get it figured out get it all

21:21

balanced out and uh find

21:24

equilibrium all right guys we'll see you

21:26

next time bye-bye