Fender Tremolo Arm Tension Springs (12)

Most Liked Negative Review

I would not buy this product again

I purchased a set of these springs because the 2019 American Professional Stratocaster that I bought recently uses the "pop-in" version of the tremolo arm—and at least on my guitar, this design seems to be seriously flawed, as it results in the tremolo arm swinging and flopping around completely freely; it has no tension at all. I find this "pop-in" design to be rather mystifying, because in comparison, the MIM Player Strat that I previously owned had the screw-in version of the tremolo arm, and its tension could be easily adjusted by simply screwing the arm in or out. I've talked to two guitar techs at two different Guitar Center stores in my area, and they both basically recommended the same fix—they suggested that, to create some tension for the tremolo arm, I should just wrap some Teflon thread-seal tape around the tip of the arm. I appreciate their efforts to help, but after paying $1,500 for an American Professional Stratocaster, that solution just seems rather strange to me, and quite honestly I'm a little baffled that Fender would expect its customers to resort to such types of "fixes" for part of the design of an otherwise high-quality guitar. So, I bought these springs, thinking that they would solve the problem by creating some tension on the arm. However, the springs are EXTREMELY stiff, and after dropping one in the hole, I could not push in the tremolo arm at all. And I used some fairly significant pressure in an attempt to push in the arm—but it simply would not go in. The spring would not compress at all, and I eventually gave up because I was worried that I was going to push too hard and end up breaking something. So, bottom line is, in my experience, I found these springs to be entirely useless for a 2019 American Professional Strat, and I returned them. I haven't tried the Teflon-tape approach yet, but I expect that will be the next step. (And I will note that, other than this issue with the tremolo arm, I love my American Pro Strat model.