Strat Bridge

i have the claw screws cranked down quite a bit, and my neck is as straight as an arrow. but the heel of my bridge still sits pretty high, about an eighth inch off the body. and i have the saddles high enough to get rid of most fret buzz. does all of this sound like a good set up? some of the forums were saying to have the bridge flush to the body but then you can't pull the trem arm up. on fender.com it says to have the heel about an eighth of an inch away... well anyone care to add two cents?

First off, the best setup is one that you are comfortable with. The setup depends on so many different variables. How do you play, lots of string bends? This tends to require a little relief in the neck but that also depends on the shape of the neck. The type of strings you use is also a factor. The fender style trem was AFAIK never intended to do string pull ups. This trem was designed to allow a player to add subtle trem in their playing. Of course rules were meant to be broken so you end up with Hendrix :D

Bottom line the setup of any guitar will always be a compromise. You get a lil by giving up a lil.

Again, If you are happy then it's the best setup

Just depends on what kind of style you like... You can set a strat up to be a floating trem but you lose tuning stability with the functionality of the trem... If you crank it down flush to the body like I do... you get a more consistant tone and the strings tend to last a tad longer. I never use the trem except to bury the tones.... so it works for me.

I use 5 springs too... by the way.

I took the tremelo arm of as soon as I bought my Strat - so as not to stretch the bridge springs -the action has remained brilliant and I've never had any tuning problems