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I have to agree with you Ian .....If it aint broke dont fix it. Fender largely got the strat design right first time round.The fact that the design is basically unchanged in sixty years ,still in production and still is the most popular and most copied design says it all. Admittedly the trem design is not perfect but probably 99.5 percent of guitarists never use it at all.There are some excellent trem mods out there for those of us that do use it.
There are scores of hand made and specialist guitars available out there but none appeal to the huge numbers of Strat and Tele players in the same way.

Well the basic shaped Tele could be greatly improved by contouring the body similar to the Strat, which indeed they have done but in a much more expensive version- £1600 approx.

What's wrong with the Strat trem design? If the guitar is set up properly it's perfect for the feel, the expression and overall playability.

Completely agree with Terry. Nowt wrong with my Strat trem, perfect for both vibrato and subtle expression.

As someone who makes a good living playing a Stratocaster, I have to agree with Terry and Noel regarding the tremolo system. I have ten different Strats and every one of them has a delightful trem action that stays in tune and is easy to use.
There's nothing wrong with it and I have quite a few guitars with the Bigsby system, Burns system, the Stetsbar and the PRS which all work fine in their own way. It's all about the 'set up'.

Re strat tremolo. The trem system is good and works well but the trem arm has faults:
1. It is usually too loose and free to fall when in the normal playing position.
2. Without readjusting the bridge settings and the tension springs it ends up being too high or too low as the strings age and require different tension.Similar problem when fitting different guage or type of strings.
3 The slackness of the arm into the trem block gives a clonky feel when the trem is used .Akin to driving a car with a loose gear linkage or worn steering joints . This problem is widespread amongst most trem systems.
Staytrem make a simple and elegant solution to this problem. Their trem arm fits directly onto the strat with no mods and the arm can be set to rotate as freely or as firmly as you prefer.Personally I like it to remain where I leave it. There is absolutely no freeplay in this trem arm in use and the trem block is under very direct control of your hand. It feels so much better and control is much more precise.4

There is another bonus in that the trem arm height is adjustable to suit your preferences.
I have been using these trem arms on my Strat and my Burns for a few years now and I would not change them

I have four Strats all with the standard trem and experience none of the problems raised above. As I said, previously, if the guitar is set up properly, the trem is perfect.

Tab wrote:I have four Strats all with the standard trem and experience none of the problems raised above. As I said, previously, if the guitar is set up properly, the trem is perfect.

Wrapping plumbers PTFE tape a couple of times around the thread of the arm stops it rattling or get a Wilkinson snap-in trem system. Personally I never used a trem very much, although I like some of the effects you can get- it's the reason I don't even own a Strat these days and prefer the much wider Tele range of sounds. IMHO the Tele sounds a lot more Fender- it took me some time to come to this conclusion having had about seven Strats and about four Teles- Strats never ever seemed to give me what I wanted sound wise even after trying all sorts of pickup configurations.

Tigerdaisy wrote:

Tab wrote:I have four Strats all with the standard trem and experience none of the problems raised above. As I said, previously, if the guitar is set up properly, the trem is perfect.

Wrapping plumbers PTFE tape a couple of times around the thread of the arm stops it rattling or get a Wilkinson snap-in trem system. Personally I never used a trem very much, although I like some of the effects you can get- it's the reason I don't even own a Strat these days and prefer the much wider Tele range of sounds. IMHO the Tele sounds a lot more Fender- it took me some time to come to this conclusion having had about seven Strats and about four Teles- Strats never ever seemed to give me what I wanted sound wise even after trying all sorts of pickup configurations.

It's worth modifying the Strat pickup selection wiring to also obtain the neck+bridge combination, like the middle position of the Tele switch, and to also modify the Strat so that you have a tone control which works on the bridge pickup as well as the neck and middle pickups. Then you have a setup which can emulate the Tele tone range but still has the middle pickup which standard Teles don't have....or you can add a middle pickup to a Tele and use a five position switch to extend the Tele range even more- by adding Strat type middle pickup sounds!

Tab wrote:I have four Strats all with the standard trem and experience none of the problems raised above. As I said, previously, if the guitar is set up properly, the trem is perfect.

Same here Terry.