Re-string Sunday

Re-string Sunday - Fender Highway 1 Showmaster HH. Not mine, belongs to a friend. I remember accompanying him to the Swee Lee showroom for a look-see which ended up in this purchase. He requested for a set of Elixir 10s.

I'm the type who does not just re-string, I will look into the guitar's well-being to make sure it's in optimum condition, if not fantastic, for the owner / player. This guitar, due to its age, is fighting a fresh set of strings which was traced to a tension issue. If you look at the springs here, notice that some of them (3 to be precise) are sagging; these are the older ones. I had to initially tighten the trem claw screws to balance the tension but the older springs simply couldn't keep up. The screws were driven excessively into the cavity & it ran out of room. So I added two fresh springs in there to keep things in check, these are the straight ones you see above, slightly shinier as well. There are other parts of this guitar that needed upgrading / replacement. Will deal with this during its next re-string episode.

Applause: Duncan's sealed pack

I recently bought Seymour Duncan's humbucker & would like to applaud the manufacturer for keeping the pickup height adjustment screws & springs in a sealed sachet. I've come across rusty units before & had to buy replacements so this is a thoughtful move by the manufacturer.

No whammy!

Just installed 2 more springs in my LTD M-53- I don't whammy, I don't intend to either.

Springs

If you have decided not to whammy, despite your guitar having a whammy-able bridge in there, the least you can do to ensure tuning stability is to add more springs at the rear cavity (as depicted). The idea here is to stop the bridge from being jerked up while you bend, which might affect tuning. I've decided not to whammy my Highway1 Strat hence the 5 springs you see here.

Smash it again (2)!

I've decided to not whammy with my Smash S2 Lite, so 2 more vibrato bridge springs were installed. Is this necessary? The 2 added springs prevent the bridge from jerking up during bends, if the bridge moves, the pitch would run.

I've also installed a set of graphite string saddles (this time it's the Graph Tech version) not because it's addressing a pertinent string breakage issue but rather a tone enhancement move (adding a little more brightness in the output) & the fact that these saddles do not feature protruding action adjustment screws which are murderous to the picking hand.