Arghhh…any of you ever have this happen? I broke the whammy bar off and the threaded portion stayed deep inside the bridge on my Fender Strat – after spending close to 2-hours trying various methods to get it out, I finally broke down and bought a new bridge, whammy bar combination for just over $100 CDN.
Truth is I lived with it for almost 2-months, but not having my whammy bar was driving me a little nuts.
So finally today I replaced the entire bridge, restrung and re-tuned the Strat and she is back to normal.
Seriously though – there has to be a way of getting the threaded portion out.
I tried a screw extractor tool for a local hardware store where you drill a pilot whole into the piece that is stuck, then place the heavy-threaded extractor into the pilot hole and theoretically it was supposed to remove the stuck piece.
No such luck, all it did was further mess up the whole to the point it was unrepairable.
Oh well, there seems to be a fair number of others that have done the same thing, so at least I’m not alone!
Filed under Fender guitar by on Jun 12th, 2010. Comment. 
My guitar and gear
I was reading a column on an internet news site today talking about The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White in their new movie “It Might Get Loud” and really connected with the incredible joy these masters have (especially the long-time veterans Jimmy and The Edge) with their first guitar.
I still remember mine being a “Sonic” – sort of a take-off on an Ibanez that with dual humbuckers that had some good crunch, but really had some poor sustain.
My next guitar is shown above – and the one I still play the most today which is an American Standard Strat I picked up almost 10-years ago. Other than some adjustments, some wiring repair work (as well as an upcoming whammy bar replacement as you will notice it is missing in the picture…), this baby has done me very well.
Also in the picture is my Fender Twin and a few effects boxes including an Ibanez tube screamer (the green effects box on top of the amp) and a new Goudie FX Blue Daddy which acts as a combination – Fat Strat Tone accelerator and overdrive – “crunch” box where I can get the nastiest Stevie Ray Vaughan tone…or at least as close to it as I have come with various combinations of amplifiers and effects boxes.
What about you? Do you remember your first guitar? Which early guitar do you consider your “First Love?”
Filed under blues guitar, Fender guitar by on Oct 21st, 2009. Comment.
